Established in 1963, the University of South Alabama (USA) is a public research university based in the city of Mobile. As well as being host to the oldest organised carnival celebrations in the nation, students in this historic Gulf Coast city may appreciate its subtropical climate or extensive shipbuilding industry.
Undergraduate academic study is divided into seven colleges at USA; Allied Health, Arts & Sciences, Business, Education, Engineering, Medicine, Nursing, and Computing, as well as the School of Pharmacy in collaboration with Auburn University. USA Study abroad offers over 800 programmes in 60 countries. Partner institutions include Aarhus University in Denmark, Kansai Gaidai University in Japan, and Universität Passau in Germany.
Tropical storms are a seasonal occurrence in the Gulf Coast area, and the Centre for Hurricane Intensity and Landfall Investigation at USA is a network of 26 automated weather stations, dedicated towards improving forecasts of wind and flooding conditions through numerical weather modelling and meteorological observations.
Theatre programmes are taught at the Laidlaw Performing Arts Centre, and some previous productions are a musical adaptation of the film Heathers, and classic farce A Flea In Her Ear.
Athletics teams are known as the Jaguars, and compete in the NCAA Division I. There are a total of thirteen sports programmes, including basketball, golf, and tennis for both men and women. American football games are played at Ladd–Peebles Stadium, which can host 33,000 for home games, and be extended to a 50,000 seater arena for concerts.
Alumni of the university include animator Dan Povenmire, congressman Sonny Callahan, sculptor Tina Allen, and child prodigy Michael Kearney, who received a degree in anthropology from USA at the age of ten.
