Open for Business

Hey all, Asaf here! This is my first blog post EVER so bear with me as I develop my ‘blogging etiquette’!

Speaking of which, with the opening of the beautiful new building a few ‘building etiquette’ questions have arisen. First and foremost it is clear that the new white pieces of plastic claiming to be chairs need governing. At first glance, it is impossible to tell how to sit on them! For those not familiar with what I am referring to, in both the first and second floor lounges mixed in with the more conventional chairs and couches there are futuristic looking white half egg chairs with a mini extension (for another person or your feet… who knows?). I admittedly have not even made an attempt to sit on one. I just don’t think I can pull it off. I have, however, seen many successful ‘white chair’ sitters. This collection of people are able to comfortably read for hours at a time while still utilizing the extension for either their backpacks or legs. The jury is still out on this new technology but I do think, at least aesthetically, they are a great addition to the already inviting lounges.

Secondly, one of the great new sustainable features creates another etiquette question. To save energy, the lights in all rooms have sensors to automatically turn off when there is no movement in the room. Conversely, when someone walks into a room, sensors automatically turn the lights back on. There is, however, a slight delay in the lights turning on resulting in you standing in darkness for a couple seconds. This is where the etiquette comes in- should you casually walk into the room and wait for the sensors to recognize you? Or should you storm into the room, hands flailing and waving trying to get its attention at the risk of somebody outside in the hallway seeing you with no idea what you’re doing.

Well, that’s all for now. I think writing this has finally given me the motivation to try out a white chair. I’ll keep you guys posted!

Asaf

Hi all, like Asaf this is my first time as a blogger. My name is Jeff Bush and I am a Sophomore Business Administration major concentrating in Finance. Outside of my course work I enjoy participating in extra-curricular activities such as the Core Trading Consultants, Financial Management Association, Business Sustainability Ambassadors and working at the Fitness Center. The Core Trading Consultants won me over from first semester freshman year and has helped me academically as well as understanding of future career paths.

The new Trading Room is on the first floor of the B-School and is visible through the large glass windows. The room has 45 dual-screen workstations and contains many of the same software and technology that is used on Wall Street The Core Trading Consultants is an organization that runs and staffs the Trading Room in the Business School.

In all there are over 70 student members who are broken up into fourteen different industry groups. Those groups track and manage the performance of companies within their industry The CTC's held there first general body meeting recently with standing room only.

More to come soon. Until then, take care.

Sherry here. It’s Monday, February 18^th and it is 49 degrees out. For those of you not acclimated with Ithaca weather THIS IS NOT NORMAL!! Considering last week the temperature was hovering right around 0 degrees. Unfortunately, this is not going to last, but it sure is a great way to start an extremely long week.

We are now starting the 5^th week of classes. This means tests, and for me it means lots of tests. I have four tests this week. I have never had this happen before but I tried out a different schedule this semester. This is what I get… All my classes only meet two days a week for an hour and fifteen minutes. Tests are bound to pop up within close proximity of each other. Unfortunately, they are all in the same week. It will be a long week, but on the bright side- at least most of my tests are done until the next round.

As always, this past week was a whirl-wind of activity. I am president of Sigma Iota Epsilon and we had our membership meeting of the semester on Friday. It went really well. We had Kristin Libritz from Career Services do a mini resume workshop about the ten myths of a resume. We surveyed the membership to see their reaction to some events we had in mind for the semester, and we broke up into committee meetings--overall, a successful meeting. Being the leader of a huge organization like SIE is extremely challenging sometimes. The membership so large that planning events becomes challenging because our members have many different priorities. It has been a struggle throughout the year to find innovative ways for members to participate.

Another thing that happened last week was the School of Business had a reception for all business students, faculty, and staff welcoming them to the new building. It was very nice. The only thing I didn’t like was that there was an area marked off for the cash bar. I am not against drinking, but its difficult to interact with faculty when they are all in the bar area enjoying a drink and I am not even allowed to look over there. I found that difficult.

Well, it looks like it’s time to get back to studying. Wish me luck and hopefully I’ll make it through the week to let you know how everything turned out.

<3 Sherry

It’s Sherry. I haven't blogged in almost a week and so much has happened. Classes are now into full swing with papers and project due dates growing closer. Student organizations are drawing closer to their first planned events and life is good.

Last Saturday I gave my first School of Business tour. It went amazing!! There were about 12-15 people and they were all extremely positive and encouraging. I did the tour with my friend Jon. We had so many question and comments during the tour and afterwards one parent even commented that we had done better than the entire campus tour! I was ecstatic that it went so well. Now let’s hope that the numbers for tours keep up. I have heard it through the grapevine that not many people are coming to tours. February break is coming up for high schools though, so we will probably see the numbers fluctuate with their vacations.

School is going alright. I have a goal of getting over a 3.7 this semester. This may seem high, but I want to challenge myself. I find when I set goals for myself, I rise to meet them. Updates to come on how my strategy for tricking myself is coming.

Last night (Wednesday 2.6) a couple exciting things happened. One I had two membership meetings: one for Business Sustainability Ambassadors and one for Women in Business Network. These are both relatively new organizations within the school and have such potential for success. The premise behind Women in Business Network is to gather women business students together to talk about the issues we face in the business world. Business is a man’s world, or at least that is what the stigma is. Times are changing and women, now more than ever, are taking on roles of CEO, CFO, etc. and showing that gender doesn't matter when it comes to success. WIBN is working to get women alum to come to a luncheon in April and other events to educate and empower us women students. Sounds like a great time to me!

Business Sustainability Ambassadors (BSA) meeting went well also. We are trying to expand ourselves beyond the scope of the new Business School building. Our latest project involves helping local businesses become greener. We are working with Marian Brown, a sustainability guru on campus, to develop plans on how to accomplish this. I am really anxious to see when this project will take us.

So that was the first exciting thing that happened last night. The other was that the Duke men’s basketball team beat North Carolina. Now if you are anytime of college basketball fan you will know that this is the biggest rivalry anywhere. I happen to be a huge Duke fan and couldn't contain myself when we were victorious last night. Thought I would add that in for the sports fans!

Have a great next couple of days!
<3 Sherry