May 2007

Dear Friends,

As the academic year draws to a close, I am pleased to report that progress continues to be made across the College’s strategic initiatives. I would like to update you on some significant progress in a few areas.

Academics

The School of Public Affairs has significantly enhanced its capacity in nonprofit management with the hire of two new professors in the area (Nicole Marwell, Ph.D. University of Chicago and John Casey, Ph.D. University of Barcelona) and movement towards the formal establishment of the Center for Nonprofit Strategy and Management. With new funding from the Clark Foundation, the Center has sponsored a particularly vigorous series of public events, including lectures by New York Community Trust CEO Laurie Slutsky and Nonprofit Coordinating Committee CEO Michael Clark. New surveys with nonprofit umbrella groups have tied together research and service activities in this area, provided faculty with new publication opportunities and improved the strategic information base for the sector. The School has also strengthened its efforts in municipal government through a series of high-profile public seminars with speakers on campus this year including Mario Cuomo, Christine Quinn, Anthony Weiner, Martha Stark, Peter Vallone, Alfonse D'Amato, Herman Badillo, Ed Rollins, Peter Salins, Steven Camorata, Richard Rothstein, Dominic Carter, David Seifman, Rita Nissan, and many others.

The School is also making an effort to internationalize its curriculum through relationships with universities in China and France. The Dean and Public Affairs faculty will be traveling to Jiaotong University in Shanghai this June for the first of several co-sponsored conferences and SPA faculty will teach at the University of Paris' Creteil campus in October.

In the Zicklin School of Business, we recently obtained approval from both the University and the New York State Education Department to establish an MBA program in real estate, complementing the BBA degree in Real Estate established just last year.  Plans for an MS in Real Estate are nearing readiness for submission to CUNY and the State Education Department for approval

U.S. News & World Report released their rankings for “America’s Best Graduate Schools 2008,” and confirmed that Baruch College is among the nation’s best.  Baruch’s Zicklin School of Business Part-Time graduate business programs were ranked 21st and our Full-Time MBA program advanced to 67th among universities across the country. Both were the highest ranked public programs in New York State. This was the 10th time in the last 11 years that our Part-Time MBA program has ranked in the top 25.

This weekend eight Baruch College undergraduates, representing the Portfolio Management Club, will attend the annual shareholders’ meeting of Berkshire Hathaway at the invitation of legendary value investor and company CEO Warren Buffet.  The students sent research reports they had produced to Buffet along with a request for him to spend time with the group; in response they received this unique invitation, including a personal meeting with Mr. Buffet.  The trip is being supported by the President’s Office, the Starr Career Development Center, the Zicklin School of Business, and a generous donation from Bill Abrams, a member of the Baruch College Fund Board of Trustees.

The Baruch College team competing in the American Advertising Federation’s annual National Student Advertising Competition has won the regional district competition, a first for Baruch.  Dubbed CHAOS! Advertising, and comprised of 14 Baruch marketing students, the team was given a case study and had to research the product and its competition, identify problem areas and devise a completely integrated communications campaign, which was then pitched to a panel of judges.  The team will now go on to compete in the AAF National Conference in June in Louisville, Kentucky.

A number of very successful conferences have occurred on campus this term.  Most recently, the Robert Zicklin Center for Corporate Integrity held its sixth annual Financial Reporting Conference, a forum for interaction between business and accounting executives and policy setters from the U. S. Securities and Exchange Commission and the Financial Accounting Standards Board took place on Thursday, May 3.  Just two days earlier, University Distinguished Professor Robert Schwartz (Finance) organized a conference entitled “Technology and Regulation: How Are They Driving Our Markets?” that drew together buy side and sell side practicioners as well as regulators and scholars to discuss issues related to transformation in equity markets as a result of technological advances and regulatory initiatives.

After five years of outstanding leadership, Myrna Chase has announced her intention to retire from the deanship of the Weissman School of Arts and Sciences. Myrna joined Baruch College as a European intellectual historian in 1971.  She has been honored as Fulbright and Mellon Scholar, founded the Feit Interdisciplinary Humanities Seminar, chaired the Weissman Curriculum Committee for many years, and was instrumental in the creation of the Baruch Honors program. She quickly became known as a campus leader and over time served as Chair of the History Department, campus facilitator for the College’s last full Middle States accreditation review, and eventually, in 2000 – 2001, as interim provost and senior vice president for academic affairs.  In these roles she earned a reputation as a tireless advocate for students and faculty alike and has lways played a major part in strengthening the College. Myrna is also one of only two faculty members who have won all three Presidential Excellence Awards for scholarship, teaching, and service.

During her tenure as Dean, the Weissman School has grown by leaps and bounds: the number of undergraduate majors has substantially increased to nearly 2,600 students, the number of students graduating with a BA degree has nearly doubled, the graduate programs have grown in both size and reputation, and the introduction and expansion of Learning Communities for freshmen has dramatically enhanced the undergraduate experience for this current generation of students.

A search to identify a successor for Dean Chase is already well underway and finalists will be on campus for full-day interviews beginning next week.  I am grateful to Professors Clarence Taylor (History) and Nancy Aries (Public Affairs) for chairing the search committee and working so quickly to bring high caliber candidates to the College.

Weissman MS in Financial Engineering student Konstantinos (Gus) Tsahas, won the second-place prize of $50,000 in the hotly contested 2007 Interactive Brokers Collegiate Trading Olympiad.  Another Weissman MS in Financial Engineering student Andy Nguyen placed in the top 20 and took home a $1,000 prize.  The contest requires participants to develop algorithmic computer trading models to buy and sell U.S. stocks, options, futures, currencies, and bonds.

We are thrilled that the National Science Foundation has awarded Assistant Professor Charles Scherbaum and Associate Professor Kristin Sommer a three-year grant for their project “Basic and Applied Dimensions of Scientific Psychology: Research Experience for Undergraduates at Baruch College.”  The funding, almost $90,000 per year, will create a program of direct and concentrated research training with a stipend for one academic year to promising undergraduate students. The program targets individuals from underrepresented groups including ethnic minorities, students with disabilities, students from low income families, and first generation college students.

Building a Strong Financial Foundation

Our new Vice President for Administration and Finance has come on board and hit the ground running. Johanna D'Aleo joins Baruch from SUNY New Paltz where she served as the Vice president for Administration and Finance since 1997. She holds a BS in Administration and Accounting from SUNY New Paltz and a MS in Educational Administration. At New Paltz, Ms. D'Aleo was responsible for strategic development and overall management of all administrative and financial aspects of the college including payroll, purchasing, accounting services, accounts payable, student accounts, facilities, technology, telecommunications, auxiliary enterprises, human resources and conferences services.  In her new position, Johanna is responsible for all of the finance and administrative aspects of the College as well as supporting the Baruch College Fund and she will be the representative of Baruch College on the CUNY Enterprise Resource Project. We are delighted to welcome her.

Thanks to the efforts of our Office of College Advancement, our fundraising activities have been very successful this term.  In January we began the “quiet” phase of a new capital campaign we expect to raise $150 million in support of the College.  It was our goal to raise the first $30 million by June 30 of this year. I am delighted to report that we have received verbal commitments from a number of our most generous donors that suggest we will in fact surpass that goal.

Embracing a Culture of Service and Accountability

Over the past year, our Office of Human Resources has, under the leadership of Liz Robinson, made great strides toward offering the type of staff development services that will truly change the culture of the College. I’m pleased to share with you just one example. Late last semester, Leah Schanke joined the College’s HR office in the role of training specialist, the first such dedicated hire in the organization.  Since arriving, she has conducted in-house trainings on a variety of topics. She has launched a series of training workshops for supervisory staff and managers on conducting effective performance evaluations, giving constructive feedback, and goal-setting for employees.  While such training is widespread in corporations, it is new to Baruch College, and we are confident that it will have a significant impact in enhancing productivity, accountability, and quality of life issues at the College.

Increasing Visibility

Nancy Aries, executive director of academic programs and Professor in the School of Public Affairs, has been named an American Council on Education (ACE) Fellow for academic year 2007-2008. She is among 39 Fellows chosen in the national competition.  Each Fellow will be matched with a president or another senior administrator to learn about the higher ranks of academe.  We believe Professor Aires to be the first ACE Fellow from the Baruch College faculty.

Bridgett M. Davis, Professor of English at Baruch College, was honored by the New York Association of Black Journalists with its Excellence in Education Award.  Her debut novel, Shifting Through Neutral, published in 2004, was chosen as an “Original Voices” selection by Border Books; she is now completing another novel, Lagos, set in 1980s Nigeria.

Baruch’s “Guide to Financial Statements,” a web tutorial developed by the Baruch Computing and Technology Center (BCTC) and the Zicklin School of Business’ Stan Ross Department of Accountancy, with technical assistance from Kognito Solutions LLC, has received an award from the Multimedia Educational Resource for Learning and Online Teaching (MERLOT).   MERLOT’s Editorial Board for Business selected Baruch’s “Guide to Financial Statements” as the winner of its 2007 Classic Award.

Rwandan President Paul Kagame visited the College yesterday and was a surprise guest lecturer in Professor Murray Rubenstein’s capstone history course as part of an mtvU – an MTV-owned campus-only cable station --  program entitled “Stand-In.”  The show tapes prominent public figures as they “stand in” for college professors.  President Kagame spent time with the class discussing the crisis in Darfur and the role of African Union troops in struggling to quell the violence.

NY 1 television gave substantial coverage in late March to the College’s Volunteer Income Tax Program (VITA).  More than 450 Baruch students prepare taxes, free of charge, for New Yorkers who need assistance with their IRS filings.  Now in its 16th year, the tax program has helped thousands of New Yorkers, many of them elderly or immigrants with limited English language skills, complete the filing process.

Heather Reagan (SPA ’07) received a coveted Presidential Management Fellowship, an intensely competitive management development program sponsored by the U.S. federal government’s Office of Personnel Management.  Heather will serve a two year appointment with the Food and Drug Administration’s Office of Regulatory Affairs, in keeping with her interests in health policy.

Finally, we were thrilled to learn just two weeks ago that for the first time a Baruch College student has been awarded a Fulbright Fellowship – and then doubly excited to learn that a second student had also been named a Fulbright Fellow for the upcoming year.  Joselyn Muhleisen is a senior from Brooklyn who will earn her BS in the School of Public Affairs next month. Joselyn will study European Union International Relations and Diplomacy at the College of Europe in Bruges after completing her internship this summer at the US Mission to the European Union.  Christopher Bell, originally from upstate New York, will receive his MPA degree this May.  Christopher will use his fellowship to study local, state, and federal taxing authority in Ukraine next year.

Sincerely,

Kathleen Waldron