BAREFIELD COLLEGE OF ARTS AND SCIENCES
The Rising Tide 2.0 Capital Campaign has transformed the J. Frank Barefield Jr. College of
Arts & Sciences and strengthened its ability to serve students, faculty, and communities
across Alabama and beyond. Through the extraordinary generosity of our donors, the College
has expanded opportunities for student success, advanced innovative teaching and
research, enhanced creative activity and invested in the people and programs that define
academic excellence.
LETTER FROM THE DEAN
I am thrilled to report that The Rising Tide 2.0 Capital Campaign has made a significant impact on
the J. Frank Barefield Jr. College of Arts & Sciences. Since the campaign began in 2016, we have
experienced transformative growth in teaching, research and service. Many of our faculty have been
recognized as distinguished teachers, our students are learning to apply new technologies in the
humanities, and the College has gained four Shelby Professors who continue to educate the next
generation of researchers, scientists and world changers. Research and creative activities have
thrived, leading to innovative solutions that improve forestry management, prevent injury while
driving, and earn faculty prestigious national and international awards.
Between 2016 and 2026, we raised more than $178 million, and our donors established 115 new
endowed scholarships for students and 23 new endowed faculty funds. We received the largest
academic naming gift in the University’s history, establishing the J. Frank Barefield Jr. College of
Arts & Sciences, and secured UA’s largest academic capital project gift for the Smith Family Center
for the Performing Arts.
This would not have been possible without the generosity of our donors. This campaign's impact is
more than just the sum of its gifts to the College. It has offered a glimpse of what can happen when
a community comes together around a shared mission and a belief in the value of a liberal arts
education. This campaign has meant more to us than support for faculty, opportunities for students,
and a greater ability to serve our mission – it has offered a renewed sense of purpose and
strengthened our belief in the work we do every day.
If you have not visited our college in the past year or spent time in one of our classrooms, please do!
You will sense enthusiasm and momentum across our campus and within our departments. The
College is better positioned for the future and more motivated than ever to make a difference in the
world and throughout the state of Alabama.
As we close this historic Campaign, we celebrate the donors who have believed in the mission of the
J. Frank Barefield Jr. College of Arts & Sciences and the power and promise of the arts and sciences.
Your support has strengthened the foundation of the Barefield College of Arts & Sciences more
than we ever knew was possible.
Roll Tide!
Lisa Pawloski, PhD
Interim Dean
J. Frank Barefield Jr. College of Arts & Sciences
THE MOMENTUM WE BUILT
$179.2M
TOTAL RAISED
119
NEW ENDOWED SCHOLARSHIPS
23
NEW FACULTY SUPPORT
ENDOWMENTS
THE IMPACT OF RISING TOGETHER
Barefield Gift Names UA’s College of Arts & Sciences
In June 2025, University of Alabama alumnus J. Frank Barefield Jr. committed $35 million to The
University of Alabama to name the College of Arts & Sciences.
The J. Frank Barefield Jr. College of Arts & Sciences enrolls over 9,000 students across 80 majors, minors, concentrations and graduate programs. During The Rising Tide 2.0 Campaign, the Barefield College of Arts & Sciences became the second named college on campus following Barefield's record setting gift.
Barefield’s gift provides the College with a fully discretionary endowment that allows its leadership to
“act quickly, think boldly and lead purposefully” with initiatives such as:
• Launching innovative research the moment opportunity strikes
• Retaining top scholars with competitive support
• Intervening when students face unexpected hardships
• Investing in bold, high-impact initiatives across Alabama and beyond
“With this support, the College is poised to elevate its excellence in teaching, innovation, research and creative endeavors, reinforcing its commitment to meaningful impact and academic distinction,” said Dr. Joseph P. Messina, former dean of the Barefield College of Arts and Sciences. “Mr. Barefield’s beliefin our work affirms our mission. We are profoundly grateful for this support and look forward to the remarkable progress it will inspire in the years to come.”
Each year, the Barefield College of Arts and Sciences provides nearly half of all credit hours for UA’s
students. Barefield students excel as artists, scientists, political leaders, scholars and performers.
About J. Frank Barefield Jr.
Barefield holds a bachelor’s degree in finance from UA, an MBA from UAB, is a Certified Public
Accountant and Chartered Financial Analyst. He is an owner and the president of Abbey Residential,
LLC, a multifamily real estate firm headquartered in Birmingham. His partner in Abbey Residential is Dr. Marnix E. Heersink, for whom the UAB Heersink School of Medicine is named. Barefield said his
motivation to make the gift was to help UA students “dream big, because anyone can achieve their
goals.”
“I am very appreciative of the education I received from The University of Alabama as it has been the
foundation of whatever success I have achieved,” Barefield said. “My goal with this gift is to assist the University in its ability to attract and retain the top educators and students from around the world. I am humbled and honored that the College of Arts and Sciences will forever bear my name.”
Upon earning his degree at UA, Barefield was commissioned in the United States Air Force, serving four years before he was honorably discharged at the rank of captain. Barefield was also the silver medalist in the 1974 world powerlifting championships.
Barefield then transitioned to banking and finance in the Birmingham area, serving as vice president andsenior investment officer at Southern National Bank and manager at Arthur Young & Company, an international public accounting firm. Currently, Barefield co-owns and manages a property portfolio through Abbey Residential, LLC in excess of $2.5 billion in assets.
Barefield and his wife, Barbi Breimann, reside in Vestavia Hills.
In addition to his support of UA, Barefield serves as board chair of Crime Stoppers of Metro Alabama and has supported other law enforcement initiatives in the area, including a gift to name the Hoover Police Department’s training facility. He also made a sizable gift commitment of $10 million to UA’s sister institution, the University of Alabama at Birmingham, to name its department of criminal justice and its entrepreneurship program.
He said he’s proud to extend his philanthropy to his alma mater and “can’t wait to see its impact on one of the top educational institutions in the world.”
“It’s a difficult thing to wrap your head around, that a school the size of The University of Alabama, and my name would somehow be associated with it,” he said.
UA Sets the Stage with Industry-Leading
Performing Arts Center
The Smith Family Center for the Performing Arts will usher in a new era of creativity, collaboration and innovation at The University of Alabama.
The cutting-edge facility will meet the performance, design and production needs of a theatre and dance department that has more than doubled its enrollment over the last 20-plus years.
In 2022, Clay Smith, a graduate of the Culverhouse College of Business at UA, along with his wife,
Cameron, a graduate of the College of Communication and Information Sciences, and his mother,
Linda, made a $20 million gift toward the project in memory of his father, Mark Smith, cofounder of the global telecommunications company ADTRAN.
The Smith Family Center broke ground in October 2023 and will open in Spring 2027. It is housed on the renovated Bryce Campus and is connected to the Catherine and Pettus Randall Welcome Center, the new front door to the University that opened in February 2024.
Clay said the creativity Mark derived from being a musician “defined and balanced” his father personally and as an engineer and businessman. The Smith Family Center pays homage to his father and four generations of arts influences in their family.
“A lot of philanthropic lessons were taught through my father, who cared deeply about medicine,
education and the arts,” Clay said in October 2023. “But for all our experiences as a family, the magnet has always been the arts. We’re honored to help provide those same joys and opportunities to the University and its future artists and performers.”
The Smith Family Center will centralize student performance spaces for dance, theatre and opera
through these venues:
• The Robert and Laura Abernathy Theatre, proscenium-style with seating for 350
• The Eliza P. Culverhouse Dance Theatre, with seating for 450
• The Massey Family Theatre, a black box-style venue with flexible seating for up to 275
• The Opera Theatre with seating for 200
These state-of-the-art equipped performance spaces will allow UA students to perform in productions with multifaceted scenery, lighting and effects comparable to major regional theatres and Broadway.
The performance spaces will replace the Marian Gallaway Theatre, Bryant-Jordan Hall and The Dance Theatre as primary student performance venues on campus. The Smith Family Center will feature a variety of upgrades, including:
• Larger stage openings and off-stage spaces
• Deeper stages for ballet performances
• Orchestral pits
• Elevated audience experience
• Adjustable acoustics
• Engineered floors
“We knew, just looking at the Bryce property and the University’s plans for it, that we had to be involved collectively as a family,” Clay said. “It’s a venue that will foster artistic expression for students and facilitate the skills they need to launch careers in the performing arts.