The other day walking home from class, I overheard a couple of conversations from people that were walking in front of me. I couldn't help but notice that neither of them had southern accents! Thinking more about this, I realized that the majority of my class was out of state also. This had me thinking, “Is the southern accent at the University of Alabama becoming extinct?”

Last year, 60% of the incoming freshmen at Alabama were out of state. What is causing this school to grow and recruit so many out of staters? The athletic programs have increased the value of recruiting out of state teammates and providing athletic scholarships. Also, the academic scholarship programs have had an effective influence on the out of state students. The University has provided a recruitment representative to every state in the U.S. Out of state tuition is expensive, but with the help of scholarships, the decision to choose Alabama is more probable. The more the scholarships, the more students Alabama gains from out of state.

Every year, the University breaks the record for the largest sorority recruitment. The expansion of Greek houses and the renovation of buildings on campus are just a few signs that our campus is growing rapidly. Not only are they growing rapidly, but also they are continuing to expand the culture with out of state students. This is a wonderful movement for our university, but is it causing our southern charm to decrease? It seems that a true “Alabama” southern accent is hard to come by. 

The fact that the accent is decreasing makes it more valuable. Hearing the different northern or even neighborly states’ accents is interesting and very different from an Alabamian’s accent. The southern culture is quite appealing.  If I remember correctly, the friends I made at my own BamaBound said they wanted to attend a large, southern university. 

Alabama is the home of 15 National Champions and one of the finest SEC schools a student could choose to commit to. With the beautiful campus and the new construction of housing, who would not want to attend this school? The bright, out of state students coming in with scholarships is a great aspect of our school and may even better the state.  A lot of these out of state students are lured here through academic scholarships which naturally means that they are intelligent. The result of these students coming to the University, assuming a lot of them stay in Alabama, may be that the state becomes more intelligent as a whole in the long run. Thus, we may see the state itself is getting a benefit from these out of state students. Though the accent is fading at the University, it could mean a positive, transformation in our state.