re: Saban Catholic Student Center almost complete

That was Alabama's mission for years, and they had realistically maxed out enrollment at around 20,000 students. And let's face it, the Alabama education system is pretty crappy so they weren't getting that many exceptional students. Alabama wanted to bolster its national image as a better school, and to do that they had to target more out of state kids. They get more tuition $$, the bolstered image opens up more research $$ and endowments.

It's now at around 32,000 students, and truthfully the city of Tuscaloosa just doesn't have the infrastructure to support that many students. The tornado didn't help initially, but it has been sort of a blessing in disguise as recovery money has flooded the city which has been used to improve the infrastructure, though it's still a work in progress.