OCOB Mag Spring 07-2b - Cal Poly College of Business

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Philanthropy benefits business State funding for public education provides basic instruction and classrooms. Preparing bright students to work in California businesses and to compete successfully in a global economy requires a larger investment. What, then, distinguishes an Orfalea College of Business that challenges and engages students to be the best? It is primarily the quality of the faculty. Alumni remember how faculty like Owen Servatius, Gene O’Connor, Nelson “Smitty” Smith, and Ken Riener influenced their lives. Today, faculty dedication to teaching is primary, but faculty excellence is also measured by academic research, service to the department and professional recognition. This level of professional excellence takes more than what basic state-funded salaries provide. What can/are we doing to enhance our faculty and to assist in their recruitment, retention and achievement? Private funding makes a huge difference. Providing summer support augments a nine-month state salary and enables faculty to do research, travel to professional conferences and supervise summer student interns. Providing a stipend up-front to new faculty members assists them with the high cost of housing in San Luis Obispo County. Businessfunded faculty research and internships assist faculty in attaining new knowledge and professional skills, which enhance their teaching. Individual and corporate giving to the Dean’s Fund, Faculty Development Fund and Departmental Discretionary Funds is the kind of investment that enhances faculty excellence in teaching and research that attracts the brightest students and develops the best graduates that companies want to hire. COVER STORY Lee Doble (left, Finance ’68) with retired professor Gene O’Connor Investment in faculty gives the Orfalea College of Business a competitive edge. It is one reason why student admission to the College has become so selective and why the College is considered a peer institution to the Haas School of Business undergraduate program at UC Berkeley and the Marshall School of Business at USC. Gifts such as the Richard and Julie Hood Professorship in Marketing and the Bank of America Professorship in Community Development assist in faculty recruitment, retention and recognition. What also is needed are Faculty Fellowship Endowments at $500,000 and Term Faculty Fellowships at $100,000 for summer research support and professional development. Gifts to support new programs like the master’s degree in Accounting/Tax and the new real estate program in Economics will fund curriculum development, program management, and interaction with the very companies who will benefit from hiring the programs’ students. Gifts to scholarships, which are highlighted in this magazine issue, support WWW.COB.CALPOLY.EDU ❚ 14 business students who need a helping hand. More than 50 percent of the students at Cal Poly require some financial assistance to attend college. Offering scholarships to outstanding incoming freshmen helps to attract the very brightest minds and assist them for the four years of their business study. Among accounting firms, the Orfalea College of Business is a “National Premier School” and a “Prime Source Campus” for recruiting students into the accounting profession. In other professions, the Orfalea College is considered a “Tier One” college for new employee recruitment. Philanthropic investments in the Orfalea College’s faculty, students and programs are yielding excellent results and placing the Cal Poly Orfalea College of Business among the best business schools in the West. For more information about making a gift, please contact me at 805.756.2951 or pmcclure@ calpoly.edu. – Pamela McClure • director of advancement
Industrial Technology Society places in NAIT Competition Cal Poly’s student division of the Industrial Technology Society teamed with the Robotics Club to compete in the National Association of Industrial Technologists (NAIT) Student Robotics competition in Cleveland, OH. The team took second place overall, and out of 14 contestants placed second in design. The team was funded by the Instructional Related Activities fund at Cal Poly. The goal of the competition was to build a remote-control robot that would pick up a 1.5-inch diameter, 8-inch-long piece of EMT pipe and navigate through a 200-foot course. To complete the course, the robot had to push the pipe through a 2-inch hole in plywood 6 inches off the ground while avoiding obstacles such as textbooks, chairs and STUDENT NEWS Students’ response enthusiastic for Professional Development Speaker Series The Business Student Council of the Orfalea College of Business has initiated a Professional Development Speaker Series in 2006-07 to resounding success. The council’s executive committee asked students how they would like the Business Council to move forward in representing their interests. Business students said they wanted as much face time as possible with business professionals. The Business Council asked the clubs in the College to partner with them. The first group to respond was Alpha Kappa Psi, co-sponsoring Dan Harbeke as the first guest in the Professional Development Speaker Series. The Roboteers Dan Harbeke Tim O’Brien Harbeke, 24 (http://www.danharbeke. com), wrote a book, “Get In! How to Market Yourself and Become Successful at a Young Age.” He has been a counselor at National Leadership Camps and has also served as an international guide to the first-ever International Student Representa- cups. This was the first time that a team from Cal Poly has competed in the games. The students are already gearing up for this year! Faculty advisor for the group is Professor Manocher Djassemi. ORFALEA BUSINESS ❚ COLLEGE & ALUMNI MAGAZINE ❚ 15 tive Conference in Sydney, Australia. Students appreciated his high-energy presentation and enthusiasm, and swarmed around him afterward to ask questions. The importance of personal branding was the topic of the next presentation in February by Tim O’Brien (http://www.the personalbranding group.comTimsBio.asp). The CEO of The Personal Branding Group spoke to a standing-room-only crowd eager to learn more about how professionals create a personal brand to better position themselves in the workplace. If you would like to be considered as a speaker in the Professional Development Speaker Series, please contact Leslie McKinley at lmckinle@calpoly.edu. The team (from left): Jason Maggard (ME), Tyson Messori (ME), Adam Stephens (MS Science in Industrial and Technical Studies), Shasta Palmer (IT), Dave Dougherty (IT), and Tejas Bafna (IT).
Page 1 and 2: Retired IT Professor Nelson “Smit
Page 3 and 4: Randy Bernard In the second year of
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Page 7 and 8: Taxing work VITA program serves com
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Page 13: Bill Bruckart, Dave Fretwell, Lynn
Page 17 and 18: Outstanding! Cal Poly’s Delta Sig
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OCOB Mag Spring 07-2b - Cal Poly College of Business

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