WCU College of Business Bi-Weekly Newsletter January 13, 2006

Highlights from Dean Leroy Kauffman

Ø The semester is off to a roaring start. It really was good to see the halls filled with life again as faculty and students returned for Spring Semester 2006. It appears we have gotten through the first week with only minor hitches in the process.

Ø The College of Business, with cooperation from the International Programs and Services Office and the Small Business Center (SBC) at ABTech Enka campus, will be hosting Zhiqiang “Frank” Liang as a Scholar-in-Residence this spring semester. This connection was originally made when Russ Yelton (MBA, 2002), Director of the SBC, participated in a tour of business incubators in China last fall. Frank is affiliated with Fudan University and is working with Russ this semester studying the business incubator process on the ABTech Enka campus. He will also be working with Professor Bruce Berger in several of his classes. Watch for more information later.

Ø Every semester the College of Business is proud to recognize our students who qualify for the Deans List. Students who have a cumulative GPA greater than 3.50 qualify for the Deans List. Fall semester, the Deans List for the College of Business has 184 students. Students receive a certificate noting their achievement and they are included on a list which is posted on the wall outside the Deans Office in Forsyth for the next semester.

Celebrating student achievements

1. North Carolina CPA Foundation and the Minority Issues Committee have announced that WCU Accounting major Tara Carrington of Waynesville has been selected as the Outstanding Minority Student.  As the first place winner, Tara will be recognized at the NCACPA banquet held at the Grandover Resort in Greensboro in May and her award-winning essay will be published in the February issue of the Interim Report, the quarterly publication of the NCACPA.  Tara will also receive a $2,000 scholarship from the NCACPA.  Congratulations Tara!

2. Business Law senior Heather Weaver will be working with the Guardian Ad Litem Program this semester. She has been awarded a grant for her work from NC ACTS. NC-ACTS! is an AmeriCorps program of North Carolina Campus Compact (NCCC) that began with a grant from the Corporation for National & Community Service (CNCS). Based on the principles of fostering civic engagement on campuses, encouraging collaborative relationships between campuses and their communities, and allying with the national service movement, the program engages individual students on NCCC Member campuses in direct service to the community while connecting them to a larger state service network.

3. The next Business and Law Society is scheduled for January 26 at 5pm in the auditorium. New members are always welcomed! Thanks to the College of Business from the Business and Law Society. Your donations of food, money and gifts made this a great holiday for a family in need and added food to the table of those without.

A look at recent activities and accomplishments of the College of Business faculty

1. Jayne Zanglein and Susan Stabile's book, “ERISA Litigation” 2nd Edition, was published by the Bureau of National Affairs last month. The 1400 page treatise is a resource for judges, practicing attorneys, and employee benefit experts on employee benefits law. Jayne is an instructor of Business Law in the College of Business and her co-author, Susan Stabile, is a professor of law at St. John's University School of Law.

2. Vittal Anantatmula’s article (co-authored with B. Han), “Knowledge Management from Employees’ Perspective in IT organizations” was recently published in IEEE Computer Society.

3. Drs. Steve Jarrell and Paul Jacques connected with the community on New Year’s Eve at Blue Ridge Food Ventures (BRFV) in Asheville to prepare meals for Jackson County’s own Community Table, a resource that is directed at serving the needs of the poor in the area.  Blue Ridge Food Ventures, an initiative of AdvantageWest North Carolina and the N.C. Department of Agriculture, is a shared-use value-added food processing center located in Asheville serving food entrepreneurs throughout the region. It provide services to those wishing to start or grow small businesses in the food industry, to local farmers who wish to add value to their products through processing, and to caterers and bakers needing a permitted kitchen to prepare foods for their clients. Steam kettles, convection ovens, juice pasteurizers, and bottling and labeling machines are available for use by clients in the almost 3,000 sq. feet of food processing areas.

4. Jim Taylor presented a paper (co-authored with D. Brown and D. Reynolds), “Multi-factor menu analysis using data envelopment analysis,” at the Graduate Education and Graduate Research Conference in Hospitality and Tourism, in Seattle, Washington, January 5-7, 2006.

5. Mary Anne Nixon's article "Women and the Web: an Update 2005" has been published in Women In Technology.

6. Lorrie Willey’s article, “Changing, Walking and Waiting,” will appear in January’s issue of the Western Carolina Business Journal.

Involving our students in the real world

1. Dr. Jacques has redesigned MGT400 (Organization Theory) to accommodate a service learning agreement with Mountain Micro Enterprises. Mountain Micro Enterprises is a resource serving the needs of small businesses in NC. Student teams from MGT400 will undertake responsibilities that are designed to enhance the learning experience of students in the course as well as encompassing more broad dimensions of responsibilities that utilize the student’s knowledge base from within the Management major in a way that also affords the student with growth and networking opportunities. Each student has committed 30 hours over the semester to be actively involved in the service learning component of the course.

2. Sandy Grunwell took her Lodging and Resort Management class to the Grove Park Inn and Spa in November for a presentation and tour of the facility.  One of the tour guides was Drew Godfrey, a 2004 WCU HT alum. Drew manages the Club Floor at the Grove Park.  Sandy will also be taking club management students to the World Conference on Club Management in Hawaii at the end of February.

3. Mr. Steve Woody, who has over 40 years of business experience and is a former Chair of Western’s Board of Trustees, will help Terry Kinnear set the stage for the senior Seminar in Management class on January 18.

4. In 2005, the Small Business and Technology Development Center (SBTDC) Counseled 540 individual clients from the 14 westernmost counties of North Carolina and spent over 8,000 hours counseling in sessions or in work for clients.  More than 650 individuals attended SBTDC events in 2005 including:  training sessions, management education services, teleconferences, and co-sponsored events with other local service providers.  SBTDC assisted clients to create 94 new jobs and retain more than 240 existing jobs Helped in capital formation of over 27 million dollars.  SBTDC also facilitated the state’s Disaster Recovery Program, helping 110 WNC businesses who suffered damage from the hurricanes of 2004 to obtain low-interest recovery loans.

Keeping in touch with our alums

Ø David Harwell continues to work for Wachovia Bank in Winston-Salem, NC since he graduated from WCU in May 2000 with a BSBA in Computer Information Systems. He was promoted to Sr. Systems Administrator in Wachovia's Information Technology division last May. In December 2005 he finished his MBA with a concentration in Information Systems from High Point University in High Point, NC. Their family has grown as well, Craig (4yrs) and Ellie (20mos).

Ø The first ever LSAT practice test is scheduled for January 21, 2006. Lorrie Willey, who developed the testing program, will proctor the practice test under conditions similar to the actual test. Several students have signed up but spaces are still available. Interested students need to sign up on or before January 17, 2006 by emailing Willey at dwilley@email.wcu.edu.