 The BuffBusiness eNewsletter No. 2 December 2008
Please feel free to stop by and see us in our temporary digs over in the Old Fine Arts Building. We recognize that all of us have been affected by the remodel of the Classroom center, and that our classrooms are scattered all over campus. The result is that we don't get to see you much outside of class. Wander over and say hello sometime!
In this issue of the Buff Business Newsletter you will read about:
If you'd like to correspond with us, feel free to email us.
WTAMU-COB Scores Highly on EBI
For the 2007-2008, the West Texas A&M University (WT) College of Business seniors and graduate students participated in the Educational Benchmarking Inc. (EBI) survey. The EBI survey is a common benchmark employed for program assessment and as a preliminary step toward pursuing national ranking in outlets like The Princeton Review. As part of the EBI process, six programs are selected for comparison purposes. The select six grouping for the WT College of Business is University of Nevada at Reno, University of North Alabama, Texas A&M at Corpus Christi, Wichita State University, Colorado State University at Pueblo, and Texas Tech University.
Out of sixteen comprehensive factors, WT scored above or at the mean average in eleven of the sixteen comprehensive categories, including a number one or two ranking in six categories. Areas of strength include the following:
Ranked #1: Size of enrollments for required courses in the business major.
The results also reveal areas of focus for the future, which include the following:
Ranked #5: Facilities and computing resources.
In the fall semester of 2009, the College of Business will participate in the EBI survey for a second time. Our program expectation is to augment our areas of strengths and improve areas of weakness. The return to the renovated Classroom Center in 2009 dramatically improves facilities and computing resources, which should turn a weakness into strength. In addition, the business faculty is dedicated to improving learning critical thinking, communication, and other learning skill development. Overall, we are very pleased with our initial EBI survey results and look forward to continuing an effort to achieve national recognition for the business program and West Texas A&M University.
Duman Calls It A Career
Duman holds the Ph.D. from the University of Southern California, as well as an M.A. from the University of Delaware and a B.S. from George Washington University. He has very broad interests when it comes to research. "My interests are very wide, varied and eclectic," he said. His published papers have dealt with everything from the soft drink industry to the economic development of Chile. "I have enjoyed international travel, and to me this is an opportunity to broaden myself as a scholar and to bring these experiences to the classroom."
"I'm looking forward to moving out to the Las Vegas NV area, and continuing to be active in the role of consultant. I've been taking golf lessons, and hope to one day play a respectable round. My hope is to retain my contacts with current and former students as well as my colleagues, all of whom have enhanced my career and my personal growth."
"I've never been one to be inactive," Duman said, indicating that retirement for him is just a change of address.
BuffBusiness Blog
Here's your chance to be a real blog star: submit your very own (well-written, of course) blog and you can see your masterpiece online. Our BuffBusiness.com blog has been viewed by folks in 25 countries. Google indexes the blog every time something new is posted, so you and your literary prowess will be documented by the search engine behemoth.
Just remember the College of Business when you win your Pulitzer, OK?
Please submit your blog (which can be about anything within the realms of business and economics) by emailing it here. We can accept straight text or Word docs. No PDFs, please. Also be sure to include your full name, major, class standing and phone number (in the event we need to reach you).
It’s Not Your Mother/Father’s Summer School!
Want a different summer school experience? This summer students at WTAMU will have an opportunity to complete six intensive hours of class work in Nizhny Novgorod, Russia, the fourth largest city in Russia. A course in Russian Business Perspectives will be taught by Nizhny Novgorod faculty while Dr. LaVelle Mills will teach a course in Culture Shock! Russia: A Survival Guide to Understanding Current Business Practices. The focus of both courses will be on cultural issues prevalent in Russian society and how these issues impact the ways companies in Russia approach management and marketing of products and services. Students will leave for Russia on June 4, 2009 and return on June 18.
The impact of early American mass manufacturing practices is seen in the local Gorky Automobile Plant Museum. Their early cars looked a lot like Model A’s and Model T’s. Maybe that’s because Henry Ford traveled to Nizhny Novgorod to teach their workers the basics of his approach to mass manufacturing! IKEA has recently opened a store in the Nizhny Novgorod area and is a good source of current marketing practices in Russia.
Despite the myths and history of wars and turmoil, people in Nizhny Novgorod have been able to forge strong partnerships with countries and companies worldwide as they continue to move into a market-based economy. If you’re interested in learning more about this study abroad opportunity and want to complete six hours credit in a unique and fascinating setting, contact Dr. LaVelle Mills (806.651.3866 or e-mail) or Lynsee Womble (806.651.2500 or e-mail).
Section 90 Classes
The College of Business is blazing a new trail for WT with 10 courses to be taught via ITV this coming Spring semester. These courses will be taught in either our Amarillo Center location, or in the HELC on the Canyon campus. Students will be able to choose at will which location to attend, and may vary it from one class meeting to the next. Professors theoretically may switch among the locations, but will likely select one or the other.
Through the marvels of interactive television, though, the Professor will in fact be in two places at once. Students will either share the classroom with the Professor, or view him or her on the big screen. Interaction across the locations will facilitated in real time via cameras and microphones so that instruction can occur simultaneously.
Courses slated for Spring 2009 ITV delivery include the following:
COB Students In The News
Our students are popular...and popping up all over the local media. Among them:
On The Go With SIFE
On a busy fall agenda, the Students in Free Enterprise (SIFE) team:
New Faculty in Fall 2009
The COB has been busy interviewing and hiring already for the Fall 2009 semester. Here's who you can look for next August:
Financial Crisis Seminar
Juba, Ware, Owens and Anwar spoke to the audience on "today's financial crisis, the U.S. Treasury Department's $700 billion plus bailout, and other market interventions in Western Europe, Asia, and Latin America". These issues and activities have been extensively covered by the media and will continue to be hot topics in the coming months. The seminar was held in the JBK VIP Room, WTAMU Campus. The Seminar was planned and moderated by Dr. Syed Tariq Anwar, and was free and open to WT students, faculty, and the business community. According to Anwar, the ongoing financial crisis and its global issues are not without controversy and will continue to attract pro- and anti-globalization circles.
Amarillo Globe-News coverage of the seminar can be found here.
Quick Links
The COB now has some easy-to-use URLs for quick access to relevant web pages. No longer do you need to drill down through several pages to find what you are looking for. Now you can go directly:
Thanks for reading this far. On behalf of the College of Business, Happy Holidays! If you have any suggestions, please feel free to drop me a line.
R. Nicholas Gerlich (The views expressed herein are those of the individual author, and do not necessarily represent the views of West Texas A&M University, its faculty and staff, or its students. Feel free to distribute this as you wish.) |
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Welcome to the second edition of the BuffBusiness eNewsletter. Our first issue last month was received quite well, and we hope you like what we are doing. Our goal is to keep you "in the loop" with all the many happenings in the College of Business.
After 39.5 years on the faculty in the College of Business at WTAMU, Dr. Barry Duman, Professor of Economics, is retiring as of this December. He has served as a Department Head the last 34 of those years, most recently in the Department of Management, Marketing & General Business.
Mornings will be centered on classroom discussions with afternoon and evening excursions to a variety of companies to reinforce the classroom content. For example, a discussion about marketing practices could be followed by a trip to local malls. A discussion about management styles and practices could be followed by a trip to the Central Bank of Russia. During WWII the Central Bank of Russia was forced to hire women because of the shortage of men available to work. They placed the women on an upper level balcony so they could watch men working on the first floor and observe correct work practices! Today the Rector of the Nizhny Novgorod Commercial Institute is an example of one of Russia’s many successful businesswomen.
The Department of Management, Marketing and General Business held a special international business seminar on the topic of "Financial Crisis and the Changing Global Business" from 11:30 am to 12:45 pm on Monday, October 27, 2008. Speakers for the seminar were Robert A. Juba, Vice President, Merrill Lynch, Amarillo, Pat Ware, Assistant Vice President, Amarillo National Bank, Jim Owens, Department Head of Accounting, Economics and Finance and Professor of Finance, WTAMU, and Syed Tariq Anwar, Professor of Marketing & International Business, WTAMU. The four speakers spoke to the audience on the topic of today's financial crisis its multi-faceted issues and impact on global business.