Students at the 鶹 will have an opportunity to interact with representatives from Germany and German companies as part of Germany on Campus, which will be Oct. 14 from 9 a.m. until noon in the banquet halls of the Guillot University Center. The event is made possible by the German Embassy in Washington, D.C.
The College of Education and Human Sciences at the 鶹 has recently been awarded a $20,000 grant by the Alabama State Department of Education Alabama Reading Initiative Program Improvement Grant. The award is offered to support initiatives that improve quality, relevance, and effectiveness, ultimately preparing students for literacy success.
The 鶹’s Anderson College of Nursing and Health Professions has been recognized as an Apple Distinguished School for the 2025-2028 program term.
Meteorologist, author, and podcaster James Spann will be the main event at the 鶹 College of Arts, Sciences, and Engineering Sunseri Speaker Series on Saturday at 1 p.m. in Norton Auditorium.
The 鶹 and the City of Florence celebrated the award of a $145,585 grant from the Alabama Department of Environmental Management (ADEM) during an event today at Bank Independent Stadium. The funding will enhance recycling efforts in both athletic and community settings by providing new recycling receptacles at UNA’s 10,000-seat Bank Independent Stadium and surrounding athletic fields, as well as supporting the purchase of a new enclosed event recycling trailer and pickup truck for the City of Florence.
The 鶹’s Occupational Therapy Assistant (OTA) Baccalaureate Program has been officially granted candidacy status by the Accreditation Council for Occupational Therapy Education (ACOTE). This approval allows UNA to admit its first cohort of OTA students in January 2026 and marks a significant step toward addressing workforce needs in North Alabama and beyond.
The latest rankings from U.S. News & World Report are out, and the 鶹 is among the south’s best regional institutions in a variety of categories, including Top Public Schools, Best Colleges for Veterans, and Best Value Schools.
The 鶹 and the City of Florence have been awarded a $762,000 Transportation Alternatives Program (TAP) grant by Governor Kay Ivey’s office. The grant is administered by the Alabama Department of Transportation (ALDOT), and executed locally in partnership with the Northwest Alabama Council of Local Governments (NACOLG).
The 鶹 has earned the Gold Well Workplace Award by the Wellness Alliance, an honor that recognizes UNA as one of the nation’s healthiest workplaces.
Dr. John Parnell, a Professor of Management and Eminent Scholar of Business in the Sanders College of Business and Technology, was named by the U.S. Department of State and the Fulbright Foreign Scholarship Board as a Fulbright Specialist Program recipient. He completed a project for Emanuel University of Oradea (UEO) in Romania that aimed to exchange knowledge and establish partnerships benefiting participants, institutions, and communities both in the U.S. and overseas through a variety of educational and training activities within education.
The 鶹 has announced its list of Homecoming Award winners for this year’s celebration, which is set to take place Oct. 17-18. The winners will be formally recognized at the annual Homecoming 鶹 and Friends Celebration scheduled for Oct. 17 in the banquet halls of the Guillot University Center.
With the Fall 2025 semester just one week in, officials at the 鶹 are already seeing indicators of how final enrollment will look – and the preliminary numbers are positive. With additional reports being shared daily, the University has already exceeded the 10,000 mark and is on track to exceed last year’s record.
The Special Committee on Live Lions at the 鶹 has shared its findings with President Ken Kitts, and he has accepted the recommendations shared as part of the committee’s year-long process.
The Big Deal, the largest of the Mane Month events at the 鶹, is set for Aug. 21, from 6-8 p.m. at the North Court and Irvine street intersections in downtown Florence. This year’s event will feature games, entertainment, food, vendors, and many other activities to connect students with the Shoals and UNA communities.
The 鶹, along with representatives from Birmingham-based program management firm HPM, announced today the topping out of Bank Independent Stadium at UNA, and event that signifies the placement of the final structural beam.
Dr. Martin Hebel, music composition and theory faculty at the 鶹, has been selected as a 2025 Honored Artist of The American Prize. Inducted on July 4 of this year, the national honor is highly selective and recognizes Dr. Hebel’s sustained excellence in the field of music composition and outstanding artistry as a repeated laureate of the American Prize.
Summer commencement at the 鶹 will take place Friday, Aug. 1, with two ceremonies at 5 p.m. and 7:30 p.m. in North Auditorium. Dr. Chris S. DaSambiagio-Moore, an Assistant Professor and Program Coordinator of Clinical Mental Health Counseling in the Department of Counselor Education at UNA will serve as the commencement speaker.
The 鶹 has opened a location in Huntsville at the Bridge Street Town Center. The large facility is designed to accommodate UNA events as well as to provide office space for recruiting, and groups can take advantage of the classroom space that’s on site.
The 鶹 has achieved yet another milestone – this time in the number of students graduating from the institution. According to data compiled by the Alabama Commission on Higher Education, UNA has experienced one of the most dramatic increases in the number of graduates among all universities in the state. UNA’s total number of graduates soared from 1,269 in 2015 to 2,227 in 2024, which indicates a 75 percent increase during that 10-year period.
James Wiegmann, a Foreign Languages major at the 鶹, has been named a U.S. Student Fulbright recipient from the U.S. Department of State and the Fulbright Foreign Scholarship Board. Wiegmann is UNA’s 15th recipient since 2017.