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(06/25/13 10:06pm)
Sprouting up in Auburn Art is a hand-carved replica of a Toomer's oak, driven all the way from California.
When the final removal of the iconic oaks took place in April, Cliff Hare, owner of Auburn Art, didn't want the Toomer's area to remain tree-less for the upcoming football season.
"I didn't want the trees to come down and people come to town and not have anything to see and have a somber football season," Hare said. "I started putting everything in the works so I could try to get it in before football season."
Though the replica took approximately five months to construct, Hare has been conceptualizing the sculpture for about a year.
"I started chit chatting with him (Bob Jones, artist behind the replica) about some designs and ideas and started sending him pictures of the trees and things like that and over a few months we came up with a design plan."
The sculpture is made from a steel frame, layered with mesh and sculpting material - but to the outsider it could be mistaken for the oak that stood at Toomer's corner.
"Hearing the legacy of the school and the trees' significance to the school, we just wanted it to be as accurate as we could in shape and color and get the features right," Jones said as he pointed out a scar on the trunk that one of the trees once bore.
Hare said that the replica turned out almost exactly as he had imagined it. Above all, the sculpture serves as a means to preserve the legacy behind the oaks.
"The new generations (of Auburn fans) won't be able to do anything except see pictures of what the trees were like," Hare said. "This will give them a chance to see it and touch it and stand under it and let their parents tell them what it was all about."
(06/25/13 4:48am)
Two grandsons of Auburn City Council member, Arthur Dowdell, were arrested Tuesday, June 18, in connection to first degree rape charges.
Drekian Dowdell, 21, is a resident of Box Springs, Ga., and Jywan Marionate Tyrell Moss, 18, is a resident of Auburn, according to police arrest reports.
The alleged incident reportedly took place in the home of the councilman while he was out of town.
According to the Auburn-Opelika news, Dowdell believes his grandsons are innocent, and the alleged event was consensual.
The alleged victim is a 15-year-old juvenile, according to an offense report filed June 13.
"I will tell you that they're innocent until proven guilty," Dowdell said. "I think they have been overcharged and I think the evidence will show that this is not a first-degree rape case."
Dowdell also said he thought the Auburn Police Department handled the case properly.
"I think the police department did their job," Dowdell said. "I talked to the police department while I was out of town and I think they handled the kids with dignity."
Bonds for Drekian Dowdell and Moss have been posted at $100,000.
(06/19/13 5:25pm)
Auburn recently lost a family member with the death of Sam Lowther, alumnus and senior analyst in Auburn's Office of Institutional Research and Assessment June 11. Lowther died suddenly while on vacation with his family in Florida.
Sam is survived by his wife, two stepsons and their three children.
"He was exactly where he wanted to be when it happened," said Janis Lowther, Sam's wife. "We were with my son, his wife and his little son who's 5. (Sam) had played with him all morning in the water."
A 1974 graduate and a full-time employee of Auburn since 1978, Sam spent the majority of his adult life serving the University.
"He loved Auburn through and through. He loved his job," Janis said. "I'd been trying to get him to retire because he'd been there for 33 years, but he would say, 'As long as they're good to me, I like my work, and I'd rather just stay for a while.'
"I think he will be missed over there because he did love it, and he did his best and wasn't ready to leave," Janis said.
According to the Office of Institutional Research and Assessment, Sam was a trusted source of factual information about Auburn and its operating environment.
"I remember when I first met him people telling me if I ever needed to know anything to ask Sam Lowther," Janis said. "And I learned over the years that they were right."
Sam's achievements don't end with him being a wealth of knowledge within his profession. He was a founding member of the Alabama Association for Institutional Research and was elected by his peers as president of both this association and the Southern Association for Institutional Research.
For more than 15 years, Sam served each of these organizations and in 2000 was awarded ALAIR's Joseph T. Sutton Leadership Award for his years of service to the profession, according to the Office of Institutional Research and Assessment.
Aside from his services to Auburn within the University, Sam was a devoted Tigers baseball fan.
"He loved Auburn baseball," Janis said. "He always had season tickets and sat at a certain spot."
The funeral for Sam was held Saturday, June 15 where loved ones filled the church to remember him.
"Our sanctuary is huge, and it was packed. But if you would have told him it was going to be that way he wouldn't have believed it," Janis said. "He's so humble. He thought he was just another person over there. He never thought he was better than anybody else or knew something that somebody else knew.
As a husband, stepfather and grandfather, Tigers fan and loyal staff member at the University, Sam's memory will live through the legacy he left at Auburn and within his family.
"He'll always live with me," Janis said.
(06/05/13 10:38pm)
The Gnu Music Festival will be returning June 8 with more to offer than before, and with a different purpose at hand. Featuring two stages, more than 10 local bands, DJs, artists, food vendors and more, this year's Gnu Music Festival serves as a fundraiser to help outfit the new potential Opelika location of The Gnu's Room.
(05/31/13 5:00pm)
Inspiration hit author Brian Anderson for a young adult fantasy novel series, The Godling Chronicles, when his then 7-year-old son approached him with a story idea.
(05/30/13 5:40pm)
I recently had the opportunity to see Jim James of My Morning Jacket promoting his solo album. The show was phenomenal, and the audience remained captivated throughout its entirety. James switched from guitar to saxophone, dancing around the stage as his mane of hair billowed in the wind.
(05/24/13 5:18pm)
Despite being a self-proclaimed Alabama fan, guitarist Samuel Williams of The Weeks said exceptions can be made for Bo Jackson.
(05/11/13 2:43am)
The Aviation Management Advisory Board met on May 10 during which Bill Hardgrave, dean of the College of Business, recommended the Aviation Management Program's flight program be outsourced to a private flight school. He also suggested the flight degree program be sunsetted.
"The private flight school will be affiliated with Auburn, but will be open to the community. This option should provide an opportunity for more people to pursue their dream of flying," Hardgrave said.
The outsourcing of the flight program and sunsetting of the flight degree means that students will not be able to receive training as professional pilots through Auburn University.
"It will be in partnership with the University. It won't be a four year Auburn degree," said Mike Clardy, Director of University Communication Services.
When asked by a member of the board the primary reason for the decision, Hardgrave said the pro-flight degree was no longer viable.
"The overall reason is when we look at the program as a stand alone program, it has been in a state of decline for a number of years," Hardgrave said. "This year, we will graduate six people from that program."
Allen Thames, AMAB vice chair, refuted the reasoning that Hardgrave gave for recommending to terminate the flight program.
"The fact that we only graduated six students in one particular graduation is actually fiddling with facts. If we looked at a two year average with three graduations a year, then we could probably accept some numbers based on that analysis," Thames said.
The board meeting was held open to students currently enrolled in the program, parents, professors, alumni and more. Hardgrave's visit to the board was unscheduled and the news delivered was unexpected, according to AMAB vice chair, Allen Thames.
"We're of course all in shock," Thames said. "We did not expect this sort of bombshell without any advanced warning whatsoever."
The suggestion to terminate the flight program means more for the University and Aviation management students than just the loss of training, however.
"[The program] won't be accredited with an outsourcing program. You could come to Auburn and fly on a contract, but you wouldn't have the same reputation we have now because it's contracted and not affiliated with an aviation program," said Jason Mohrman, a United Airlines captain.
"If we lose all of this, students will transfer and not come here to fly at all because we would lose our accreditation and all of our industry connections," Mohrman also said
Mohrman is leading the alumni efforts to rectify the aviation management program, along with Lee Mills, Fed Ex Express First Officer.
The University has recently entered into a gateway program for graduating pilots with jetBlue Airlines.
"It is a program for the aviation students to reach a major airline, in this example jetBlue, as quickly as possible. It also gives students access to a personal mentor from the day they're accepted into the program," said Jose Caballero, a jetBlue captain.
Without the flight school, Auburn students will be ineligible for the gateway program.
"The gateway program is a professional pilot program," Caballero said. "If there's no flight degree, there's no program."
The suggestion to sunset the flight program must be decided upon by the University Senate.
Advocates for the flight program plan to continue to appeal for their cause.
"We're going to continue to be positive and state the importance of our program," Mills said. "Then we're going to take the fight to where ever we need to take the fight to."