University of Alabama
The University of Alabama began a new era this spring when the University of Alabama System board of trustees tapped Peter Mohler, Ph.D., as UA’s 30th president.
Mohler, the former acting president at Ohio State University, assumed the role at UA on July 21.
Mohler’s presidency began just a month after UA announced that it had exceeded its $1.8 billion Rising Tide 2.0 capital campaign goal under the leadership of UA’s 29th president, Stuart Bell. While Bell was president, the university reached its original campaign goal of $1.5 billion back in February 2024, So, two weeks later, UA debuted Rising Tide 2.0 with a new goal of $1.8 billion.
The campaign aims to raise funds for scholarships, faculty support and campus facilities.
By June 2025, UA exceeded the $1.8 billion goal. UA reported gifts from more than 182,000 donors, more than 106,000 of whom were first-time donors. The gifts paid for more than 1,170 new endowed scholarships, produced nearly 70 new endowed faculty support funds and supported the construction of more than 500,000 square feet of campus facilities.
During Rising Tide 2.0, UA alumnus J. Frank Barefield Jr. made a $35 million gift commitment to UA to name UA’s College of Arts & Sciences. The College is now the Barefield College of Arts & Sciences.
The 10-year campaign will end in September 2026.
In January 2024, UA opened the Catherine and Pettus Randall Welcome Center. The 15,000-square-foot welcome center houses undergraduate admissions and features a lounge area, a theater and admissions offices. The Welcome Center is part of a 118,000-square-foot renovation at UA’s Bryce Main property, which includes the Smith Family Center for the Performing Arts that is set for completion by late 2026.
Besides exceeding fundraising goals, UA also broke its enrollment record in the fall of 2024 with 40,846 students and its enrollment record for in-state freshmen with 3,434 students.
The university’s 2023-2024 data shows that UA awarded 9,106 degrees, including 6,605 undergraduate degrees, 1,992 master’s degrees, 56 educational specialist degrees, 300 doctoral degrees and 153 juris doctor degrees during that period.
UA also has enjoyed gains in research funding. In fact, UA marked 10 years of continuous growth in funding in fiscal year 2024. This has included gains in overall funding, new awards and the number of proposals submitted. UA reports taking in $269.9 million in sponsored awards, an all-time high in external funding.
UA also is expanding and building new spaces for learning and research. For example, construction is underway on UA’s new $96 million High Performance Computing and Data Center. The 40,000-square-foot data center will contain the fastest computing system in Alabama, the university says, and will hold some $25 million of computing power and provide cloud storage for prospective research partners.
UA offers a hospitality management program and last May, UA reopened the historic University Club as a working laboratory for students in the program to gain hands-on experience in hospitality, operations and event planning and to complete internships.
In 2024, UA announced it would launch the Alabama Center for the Advancement of Artificial Intelligence with support from a $2 million gift from the former chairman of the Department of Computer Science, Marvin Griffin, Ph.D. UA will house the Center in the College of Engineering for research, classes and outreach activities associated with AI.
In July 2025, the UA Capstone College of Nursing and DCH Health System teamed up to launch the Supportive Care Clinic at the Lewis and Faye Manderson Cancer Center.
The academic-practice clinic provides specialized medical care and educates patients, caregivers, students, medical professionals and the community on how to care for patients with serious illnesses and enhance quality of life.
Also, the College of Nursing, the Office of Teaching Innovation and Digital Education and DCH Health System partnered this year to promote workforce development and provide an RN-to-BSN online degree for DCH employees so they can advance their careers while working.
The partnership also will give DCH employees access to and support from other UA nursing programs through UA Online and the Capstone College of Nursing.
The Wall Street Journal included UA on its 2024 Best Colleges in the United States list, and the Princeton Review listed UA among the Best Value Colleges in the Country. U.S. News & World Report’s 2024 Best Law Schools list ranked the UA School of Law No. 14 among public universities and U.S. News & World Report’s Best Business Graduate Schools ranked the UA Manderson MBA Program at No. 29 among offerings by public institutions for 2024-2025.
So far, 69 UA students have been named Goldwater Scholars, and UA has produced 17 Rhodes Scholars and 16 Truman Scholars. The Fulbright Program selected 15 UA students for various awards for the 2025-2026 academic year. Moreover, UA was recognized as a Top Producing Institution of Fulbright U.S. Students for the eighth time in 10 years.
Shelton State Community College
Shelton State Community College is a two-year institution in Tuscaloosa with 7,000 students, including 3,000 who are attending classes full-time. The school is one of the state’s largest community colleges and one of six HCBU community colleges in Alabama.
During the 2022-2023 academic year, Shelton State awarded more than 1,000 degrees and certificates.
On Nov. 8, 2023, the Alabama Community College System Board of Trustees tapped Jonathan Koh as the new president of Shelton State. Koh previously worked at the college as the director of grants and governmental relations and as the dean of Workforce and Economic Development.
In 2024, Shelton State debuted a new grant called HERO PATH=s (Hope, Empowerment, Resources, Opportunities Practice, Attitude, Training, and Health=
Success). The grant will make it possible for Shelton State to offer mental health care, support and resources to veterans and their families throughout West Alabama.
In July 2024, Shelton State debuted its new Quality Engineering program. The program gives students the knowledge and skills needed to work in manufacturing. They also are taught critical thinking skills, how to use data to make decisions regarding manufacturing processes and how to use various tools and techniques to achieve expected outcomes.
This May, the Shelton State’s Women’s Golf Team won the 2025 National Junior College Athletic Association Division II National Championship tournament. It was the school’s first national championship win in women’s golf. The team won by 34 strokes.
Stillman College
Named after a 19th century Presbyterian pastor, the Rev. Charles Allen Stillman, Stillman College today is a private, historically Black, liberal arts institution located on 105 acres in Tuscaloosa. The college’s president is Yolanda Page, Ph.D.
The Stillman College 2023-2024 Year-in-Review report says the college’s impact on the local economy is estimated at $39.5 million and 420 jobs.
Stillman’s fall 2024 statistics show that the campus at the time served 731 students, including 641 on full-time schedules.
Stillman’s School of Education received full accreditation from the Council for Accreditation of Educator Preparation. The accreditation status became effective in the fall of 2024 and will remain through the fall of 2030.
Last December, Stillman College announced a transformative $2 million gift to its endowment from Dr. Charles M. Stillman, the great-grandson of the college’s founder.
This fall, Stillman is launching a bachelor of science in sport management program through its School of Education’s Department of Kinesiology in partnership with the School of Business.
The new program includes an introduction to sport management, facilities and equipment; policy analysis and compliance; and personal branding and name, image and likeness. The program is for students pursuing careers in coaching, athletics administration or sports business.
Meanwhile, Stillman College’s Cybersecurity Clinic got a boost when Google made a $1 million contribution in memory of the late Kevin Lamar Harris, Ph.D., who died last October at the age of 50. Harris worked as executive director of the college’s HBCU Cybersecurity Clinic. Google made the gift to strengthen Stillman’s cybersecurity programs, including resources supporting cybersecurity initiatives at Stillman and a merit-based scholarship for students participating in cybersecurity clinics at the college.
This fall, the I Dream Big Charter School and Stillman College have teamed up to open the first HBCU-Charter School partnership in Alabama. The I Dream Big Charter School is tuition free, accepts students in grades 6-8 and plans to add a grade level every year.
The school’s stated mission is to give students the skills and mindset needed to pursue early access to college and workforce opportunities, including dual enrollment courses, short rotations through Stillman College degree programs, courses in cybersecurity and Amazon’s AWS Cloud, as well as tutoring and mentoring supports.
This article appears in the September 2025 issue of Business Alabama.
