Two Auburn University College of Human Sciences researchers have received a $2.73 million R01 grant from the National Institute on Minority Health and Health Disparities to test a program meant to help children and parents sleep better, the university announced Sept. 24. Dr. Brian Gillis, assistant professor of marriage and family therapy, and Dr. Ben Hinnant, professor in the Department of Human Development and Family Science, will run "Good Nights Sleep Program: A Randomized Clinical… Read More
Category: Opelika Schools
Auburn Cracks the U.S. News Top 100 at No. 100; Nursing Jumps 13 Spots
Auburn University rose two places to No. 100 nationally and three places to No. 46 among public universities in the 2027 U.S. News & World Report Best Colleges rankings released Tuesday, staying Alabama's highest-ranked university. The biggest program gain came in nursing, where the undergraduate program climbed 13 spots to No. 27 nationally and No. 19 among publics. Undergraduate engineering rose five places to No. 52 overall (No. 30 among publics, fourth among the SEC's… Read More
Auburn Reports Record 35,733 Students, a 94% Retention Rate and an 84% Six-Year Graduation Rate
Auburn University set enrollment and student-success records this fall, reporting 35,733 total students — 29,693 of them undergraduates — in figures released Monday. The class arrived out of an admissions cycle that drew more than 67,000 undergraduate applications. Auburn enrolled 6,485 first-time freshmen, up 6% from fall 2025, and 3,286 of those freshmen qualified for Alabama resident tuition, up 1.5%. Counting the whole student body, 59% of undergraduates and more than 38% of graduate and… Read More
Opelika High Theatre Society opens its season with ‘Come From Away,’ Sept. 25-Oct. 4
Six performances of the Tony-winning true story of Gander, Newfoundland, open Sept. 25 at the Opelika Center for the Performing Arts. Tickets $15 adults, $10 students. Read More
Union-Backed Faculty Win the First Seats on Auburn’s New Advisory Council
AUBURN — The first results are in from elections for Auburn University's Presidential Academic Advisory Council, the body the Board of Trustees created in June to replace the dissolved University Senate — and candidates endorsed by the campus AAUP chapter took five of the seats. The Auburn Plainsman reported 793 votes cast in the first round, seating faculty members from 12 colleges and the university library. The union said its endorsed winners include Justin Benefield… Read More
Auburn Removes LGBTQ Student Resource Pages From University Website
AUBURN — Auburn University has removed a section of its career-services website that collected job-search resources aimed at LGBTQ students, 1819 News reported Wednesday, a day after the outlet published a story about the pages. According to the report, the deletion covered the "affinity/identity groups" subsection under the site's "Who We Serve" tab, which had linked to outside guides on topics including career advancement for transgender and non-binary workers. The change follows a broader reshaping… Read More
Southern Union Offers a Free Beginner AI Workshop in Opelika Sept. 22
OPELIKA — Southern Union State Community College will host a free, beginner-friendly artificial intelligence workshop on the Opelika campus Sept. 22, open to anyone. The Introduction to Artificial Intelligence Workshop runs from 6 to 7:30 p.m. in room 203 of the Gary Fuller Business & Technology Center. Attendees will learn what AI is, how it already shows up in everyday life, and how it can be used at work and in learning, with hands-on time… Read More
Lee County Schools Adopt $160 Million Budget Built Around a $27 Million Reserve
LEE COUNTY — The Lee County Board of Education has approved a $160 million budget for the fiscal year that starts next month, sticking with a decade-old practice of budgeting a surplus to protect the district's cash cushion. Chief School Financial Officer Ken Roberts told the board on Sept. 8 that reserves remain the district's primary measure of financial health. The budget projects reserves equal to 2.65 months of operating expense — roughly $27 million,… Read More
Auburn Engineer Turns Laser Mapping on a Question ALDOT Keeps Asking: Can Pedestrians See the Car Coming?
AUBURN — An Auburn University engineering professor is building a tool that measures how much of the road a pedestrian can actually see before stepping off the curb — and where trees, parked cars and roadway geometry take that view away. Huaguo Zhou, the Elton Z. and Lois G. Huff Professor of Transportation in civil and environmental engineering, has a new Alabama Department of Transportation project focused on pedestrian crossing sight distance at unsignalized intersections… Read More
More Than 100 Rally at Auburn Over the Board’s Decision to Dissolve the Faculty Senate
AUBURN — More than 100 faculty members and community supporters gathered on campus Friday, Sept. 11, in a visibility rally protesting the Auburn University Board of Trustees' decision to dissolve the university's faculty senate, with speakers describing what several called a "climate of fear" among instructors. The board voted in June, with little advance notice to faculty, to disband the senate and replace it with a Presidential Academic Advisory Council. Unlike the senate, the new… Read More
Auburn Trustees Meet Today on FY2027 Budget, Tuition and the Shift to the New Faculty Council
The Auburn University Board of Trustees meets today, its first full meeting since June 5, with an agenda that begins at 8:30 a.m. and runs through committee sessions before the full board convenes. On the docket: the fiscal year 2027 budget, tuition and fees, housing rental rates and Tiger Dining rates for the 2027-28 academic year, plus real estate items including authority to purchase an existing building and land. The meeting also lands in the… Read More
