Business
	New Products Showcase & Learning Center This year's marketing seniors not only visited the New Products Showcase & Learning Center in downtown Ithaca -- they actively worked to bring the collection onto the Internet. The center is a one-of-a-kind archive of over 65,000 consumer products collected by director Robert McMath and archivist Jean McMath over the past 35 years. The collection serves as a repository of consumer product history available in the form of a learning laboratory. The assistant director, Ed Rogers, recently appeared on an Oprah Winfrey Show, adding another to the center's long list of nationally televised programs. As part of the newly revised course, Marketing Strategy students developed prototypical Web sites. Actual Internet sites now link the New Products Showcase and the marketing department in the School of Business. Marketing managers, product developers, business historians, students at other universities, or simply Web surfers will find the center "technologically partnered" with Ithaca College. Check the sites out at http://www.showlearn.com/ or www.ithaca.edu/bloem/water/. Junior marketing major Leslie Jeter had a Dana internship at the center this summer. To familiarize visitors and prospective students with this unique partnership, the dean's display case on the fourth floor of Smiddy Hall has been redesigned by marketing majors Jayne Lindholm '00 and Adam Curpier '98. Its rotating themes will derive from a changing assortment of actual products on loan from the center. Student Awards The School of Business is pleased to announce the following awards made to graduating seniors: Dean's Award -- John Willenborg and Steven Crino; Institute of Internal Auditors Award -- Heather Helms and Andrew Ward; Institute of Management Accountants Manuscript Award -- Christine Fitch; ICAMA Klein Award -- Thomas McDaries; Price Waterhouse Award -- Christine Fitch and Greg Naviloff. President's Academic Symposium The School of Business participated in the President's Academic Symposium on March 18. Business presentations were made by three students and their faculty sponsors. Holly Dale '98 and Professor Joseph Cheng discussed "Does the Market Consider Earnings More Important than Cash Flow?" Professor Hormoz Movassaghi and Bianca Benoliel '97 presented "Exporting Strategies of the Award-Winning Small- and Medium-Sized U.S. Companies: An Exploratory Survey," and Steven Crino '97 and Professor Abraham Mulugetta were on hand to discuss "Exchange Rates and Single-Country Closed-End Funds." Recognition Banquet On April 17 the School of Business feted its outstanding students at a recognition banquet. Nearly 130 students, parents, faculty, staff, administrators, and special guests attended the celebration, held at the Triphammer Lodge. The evening began with a social hour, followed by dinner. Guest speaker Thomas Grape '80 addressed the group on business ethics and the benefits of promoting oneself. Afterwards new members were inducted into Delta Mu Delta, the business honor society. Following the induction ceremony, interim dean William Scoones recognized other active students: dean's list honorees, members of the Dean's Student Advisory Council, and annual scholarship recipients. Kudos to Professor Patricia Libby for organizing the evening. Faculty News Associate professor of management Marlene Barken presented a paper, "Developing a Legal Studies Program," at the North Atlantic Regional Business Law Association annual meeting. The group met in Boston in April. This summer associate professor of management Eileen P. Kelly presented a paper, "Mandatory Arbitration of Employment Disputes in Non-Union Settings: Legal and Ethical Considerations," at the national conference of the Society for Business Ethics. Three business professors have been awarded grants through the Instructional Development Fund. Finance and international business professors Raquib Zaman and Hormoz Movassaghi received funding related to the development of their course Central European Business and Culture. They traveled to Slovakia and Hungary in mid-June. Professor Alka Bramhandkar was awarded monies to support her project, "Brazil: The Emerging Giant." In June she attended a two-week faculty development seminar in São Paulo, Brazil, organized by the Council on International Educational Exchange. In May Zaman traveled to Porto, Portugal, to present his paper "The Problems and Prospects of Integration of Central Asian Transition Economies into the Global Economy." He also served as track chair at the seventh international conference of the International Trade & Finance Association. Professors Gwen Seaquist and Joseph Cheng participated in the College's summer program for high school sophomores. Seaquist offered the course Courts and Torts, while Cheng's Introduction to Financial Markets made use of the trading room. The new program brings together high school students and College faculty for a two-week adventure on campus. Accounting professor Warren Schlesinger directed the program this summer. Zaman and associate professor of marketing Fahri Unsal contributed a chapter entitled "Determinants of Foreign Direct Investment Outflows of Selected OECD Countries" to The Global Structure of Financial Markets, edited by Dilip Ghosh and Edgar Ortiz. Trading Room Activities The Center for Trading and Analysis of Financial Instruments has been granted fee waivers from the following foreign exchanges: London International Financial Futures & Options Exchange, Bourse de Paris, MATIF (France Future Exchange), Deutsche Börse, London Stock Exchange, and London Metal Exchange. These services will enhance the capability of the trading room and create unprecedented opportunities for students and faculty to gain a deeper understanding of the linkage and activities of international financial markets. Included among the many activi-ties of the 1996-97 academic year were three featured speakers: Dilip K. Ghosh, editor of the International Journal of Finance and professor of finance at Suffolk University; Robert Ryan, former faculty member and chief financial officer of Carlisle Industries in Syracuse; and Christopher O'Donnell '93, a portfolio manager at Fleet Bank in the Buffalo area. The Investment Club once again sponsored a successful "Investment Challenge," a game that allows students to invest $100,000 of play money in the financial markets by using the trading room. This spring the winners were: first place, Mark Bradburn '97-the Christopher O'Donnell award; second place, Steven Crino '97-the Elliot Skriloff award; and third place, Guillermo Iladoy '98-the Chubb Insurance award. The club wishes to continue the tradition of honoring Ithaca alumni. Nominations can be sent to faculty adviser Abraham Mulugetta at the School of Business, mulugett@ithaca.edu. The activities of the trading room continued at a steady pace throughout the summer. Five alumni workshops and/or demonstrations were given in late May and early June. Workshops were also given to high school guidance counselors, as well as to a group of Rotarians from Bombay, India. Mulugetta and finance major Damien Dovi '99 kept the trading room available daily to students taking summer courses and to professors wishing to obtain class workshops ranging from law to accounting.