The University of Alabama last week permanently suspended two student-run magazines, Alice Magazine and Nineteen Fifty-Six. UA officials cited federal anti-diversity, equity and inclusion regulations in their decision to suspend the publications. 

Alice Magazine, which has been published since 2015, is a fashion and wellness magazine geared towards women. Nineteen Fifty-Six, which has been published since 2020, describes itself as focused on “Black culture, Black excellence, and Black student experiences at The University of Alabama.” Both magazines received funding from the university.

UA’s Vice President of Student Life Steven Hood  informed the magazines’ editors of the publications’ immediate suspension last Monday, telling them that the magazines are in violation of a July memo from U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi. The memo outlines that DEI efforts at universities receiving federal funding could be considered discriminatory. Hood said that, since the magazine targets certain groups, they could be considered in violation of this memo.

UA is the only institution that has shuttered a student publication in response to the memo.

In lieu of the suspended magazines, the university’s Division of Student Life said they are looking to create and fund a new student-run magazine that will feature a “variety of voices and perspectives” to begin publication in the next academic year. 

UA students and alumni, as well as free speech groups, have raised concerns following the publications’ suspensions.

Leftist Collective at UA, a student organization that described itself as an “anti-capitalist, anti-racist and feminist” organization, delivered a petition supporting the reinstatement of the magazines to Hood and University of Alabama President Peter Mohler last week. The petition currently has more than 2,000 signatures.

The Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression’s Student Press Freedom Initiative also sent a letter to Hood and UA General Counsel John Daniel last week demanding for funding for the publications to be reinstated. The Student Press Law Center also posted a statement on X speaking out against the suspension, which claimed UA is engaging in viewpoint discrimination.

Some UA alumni are also speaking out against the publications’ cancellations. Eighty student media alumni signed an open letter published in campus’s student newspaper, The Crimson and White, condemning the university’s decision.

Meanwhile, some alumni are trying to provide funding for the magazines in lieu of university funding. UA alum Victor Luckerson, the president and co-founder of Masthead — a nonprofit offering mentorship to journalism and communications graduates, said the nonprofit is looking to provide funding for the magazines.

“There’s a lot of alumni who are really fired up about this and really want to make sure these students don’t get deprived of what they deserve,” Luckerson told AL.com. “So we’d be really excited to try to get these magazines printed for them in the spring, if that’s what the students want to do.” 

Alabama top stories in brief

First woman elected to Alabama Senate dies at 95

• Ann Bedsole, the first woman elected to the Alabama state Senate, died last week. Bedsole was 95.
• Bedsole served in the state Senate from 1983 to 1995. Prior to that, she was the first Republican woman to serve in the state House of Representatives, serving there from 1979 to 1983.
• Bedsole is also the founder of the Alabama School of Math and Science, a magnet high school in Mobile open to students from around the state. Bedsole created the legislation that established the school during the 1989 legislative session. 

Alabama inmates planning work strike

• A group of advocates for incarcerated Alabamians have announced plans for a statewide inmate work strike starting on Feb. 8, 2026. 
• Advocates from the Free Alabama Movement and Both Sides of the Wall said they plan for inmates across the state to stop doing their assigned prison jobs, which are critical in the day-to-day functions of a prison, in order to draw attention to the living conditions inside the state’s prisons.
• The groups are demanding changes in sentencing laws, parole board reform, expanding medical furloughs and the abolishment of forced prison labor as part of the strike.
• Organizers cited the recent HBO documentary “The Alabama Solution” as building momentum for the strike, saying they seek to keep attention on the conditions of Alabama’s prisons.

Fairhope Public Library receives donation covering revoked state funding

• The Fairhope Public Library, which had its state funding revoked by the Alabama Public Library Service in March, received a donation offsetting the lost funds last week.
• Read Freely Alabama and the EveryLibrary Institute together donated more than $42,000, offsetting the $22,000 in state funding that was revoked. APLS revoked Fairhope Public Library’s funding because the library had shelved books the board considered “sexually explicit” in its teen section.
• The donated funds were raised via a donation campaign the two organizations created after APLS revoked the library’s funding earlier this year.
• It is still unclear whether the library will receive state funding in 2026, as APLS has delayed voting on restoring the library’s funding multiple times this year.  

Hoover’s rejection of Islamic school raises freedom of religion questions

• The Hoover Planning and Zoning Commission rejected a request from the Islamic Academy of Alabama, which is currently located in Homewood, to rezone a commercial building in the city and convert it into a school. 
• The zoning meeting featured many speakers who objected to specifically having an Islamic school located in the city. Attendees at the meeting held signs that promoted conspiracy theories that claim there is a plan to convert the United States into a Islamic society.
• U.S. Sen. Tommy Tuberville, R-AL, also spoke out against the school on the far-right podcast Infowars, saying, “In the future, in a year, I’ll be the governor, and I’ll be damned if we’re going to do that in the state of Alabama.”
• The school, which currently has 260 students, was seeking to relocate to Hoover in order to have a larger campus.
• “Unfortunately, many objections raised were unrelated to zoning criteria and instead reflected harmful stereotypes and conspiracy theories about Muslims and Islamic institutions,” school administrator Stacy Abdein told AL.com.

Mobile to New Orleans Amtrak service surpasses ridership expectations

• Amtrak’s Mardi Gras Service running from Mobile to New Orleans has surpassed 46,000 riders since it began operation in August, outpacing ridership expectations.
• The line has averaged more than 420 customers per day.
• The route was expected to draw 71,000 riders in its first year of operation, but is now on pace to double that estimate.
• Ridership is expected to increase as Mardi Gras season begins in January, with parades in New Orleans rolling starting Jan. 6 and Mobile parades starting later in the month.

Announcements

• We are now publishing a weekly podcast to go with each edition of the Alabama Roundup. The podcast will feature the same stories as the Roundup, and will be slightly adapted for listening. You can listen to the podcast on Spotify here.

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