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At the turn of the twentieth century, the presidents of Harvard University, Columbia University, and the University of Chicago issued declarations bolstering institutional resistance to attempts by external agencies to influence a faculty member's stance on issues of the day. The American Association of University Professors (AAUP) emerged some fifteen years later out of the climate of those times, and one of the AAUP's first official documents, the "1915 Declaration of Principles on Academic Freedom and Academic Tenure," addressed the same concern. This article discusses the recent donations from the charitable arm of BB&T, one of the nation's largest banks, which have raised the issue of external influence anew, sparking concerns about academic integrity and the role of the faculty in decisions about accepting gifts that come with curricular or other strings attached. At the center of the concerns about these donations is the requirement that objectivist Ayn Rand's novels be taught in special courses extolling capitalism and self-interest. In belated response, a handful of universities across the country, including several in the Southeast, where BB&T was founded, have tightened institutional policies governing the acceptance of gifts. These new policies are certainly a step in the right direction: the BB&T gifts raise questions of both substance and procedure. Faculty members at several universities did not even know of the gifts or that BB&T's donations had curricular implications until after the agreements were signed. Determining the exact stipulations involved in agreements between donors and university foundations is difficult, because the agreements are not considered public documents and are typically kept private. Larger gift amounts range from several hundred thousand dollars to a million dollars or more, doled out over five to ten years, and often contain a provision for matching funds. Stipulations range from the seemingly benign--funding for faculty and student research and support for a speaker series on capitalism, leadership retreats, and the establishment of Ayn Rand reading rooms--to the sharply contentious.

In this article, the author shares his teaching experience at Sadat Academy--a four-year business college located in Cairo, Egypt--where he taught business ethics and organizational behavior to 240 students. He also describes his students' behavior and how he was warmly welcomed by the people despite the fact the he is an American.

This article describes an experiment that compared different methods of teaching undergraduates the fundamentals of negotiation analysis. Using student subjects, we compared three conditions: reading, lecture-only, and lecture accompanied by student use of a computerized negotiation support system (NSS). The authors examined two facets of learning: comprehension and attitude about the learning experience. Comprehension was measured with quiz scores and attitude was measured by responses on a questionnaire. Results show that comprehension was significantly better in the lecture and lecture/NSS conditions than in the reading condition (no difference in comprehension between lecture and lecture/NSS). Attitude measures show students had a more positive attitude toward the material and about the learning experience in the lecture/NSS condition than the lecture-only; in turn, the attitude of lecture-only subjects was better than the reading-only group.

The purpose of this study was to assess the perceived effectiveness of the CourseInfo instructional technology package implemented at a regional Midwestern university. An online survey was administered, with 971 students and 44 faculty responding. Results indicate attitudes of both faculty and students were positive--both believed that the web, and specifically Blackboard's CourseInfo, were beneficial educational tools. They felt confident in their ability to utilize both CourseInfo and the Web and considered themselves computer literate. Faculty, significantly more than students, believed both teacher-student and student-student communication was facilitated. Students, much more than faculty felt that CourseInfo had improved student learning. (Contains 6 tables.)

Although students may aim for an oral presentation that is clearly organized, well supported, and effectively delivered, teachers recognize that the primary goal of a presentation is communication; that is, the message received should be as close as possible to the message sent. Tools of message transmission, such as PowerPoint, are just a means to that end. When teaching the oral presentation in a business communication course, the instructor is concerned that the speaker has a coherent message, is able to formulate and support it, can organize and effectively deliver it, and can inspire listeners to attend to it. The use of a selected video clip from contemporary popular films can illustrate all of these points to students. In this article, the author describes an exercise in which he used the film, "Other People's Money," to show well-scripted and masterfully delivered speeches to his students. (Contains 1 note.)

Considering the vast amount of money, time, and energy being invested in Web-based teaching programs like Blackboard's CourseInfo (CourseInfo) across the country, a relevant question is: how are faculty using this resource? The purpose of the present study is a preliminary assessment of faculty usage of the CourseInfo instructional technology package implemented at a regional midwestern university. Two-hundred thirteen CourseInfo Websites were reviewed from which 181 were determined to be active. This represented 97 faculty users, approximately one-fourth of the university faculty. Results indicate those who did use it tended to be fairly heavy users, in that they tended to use more than one feature and to post several items under each feature used. After identifying CourseInfo users, an online survey was sent to the 97 faculty identified (44 responded). Responses indicate faculty were confident in their ability to use CourseInfo and they believed the software was very useful., INTRODUCTION There is no question the Internet can be a valuable educational resource. As the U.S. Congress' Web-Based Education Commission project director extols: 'In the course of our work, we [...]

This research found that positive corporate reputation ratings will lead to higher price earning ratios. This finding suggest that companies that work to improve their reputation will reap the benefits of a 'reputation stock price premium' that will, in turn, help to achieve the goal of maximizing shareholder wealth., INTRODUCTION The price earnings ratio has long been used as an investment analyst's tool to assess earnings growth potential and investment risks. Studies by Beaver and Morse (1978) and Zarowin [...]

The premise of this study is that a good reputation serves as an intangible asset which can help protect the organization in times of corporate crises. Using data from the stock market crashes in 1987, 1989, and 1996, we examined whether companies with better reputations, as measured by Fortune's annual ratings of America's largest corporations, suffered less severe declines in market value. Variables in the model include reputation rating, Standard and Poor's stock grade, industry group, and change in stock price. Results show that when the market takes a sudden, unexpected downturn, the stock prices of companies with better reputations drop less than those of companies not favored with such positive standing. This suggests good corporate reputations do provide a reservoir of goodwill which buffers companies from market decline in times of economic turmoil, emphasizing the importance of reputation management., INTRODUCTION Like individuals, organizations are identified in part by the value of their good name. There is growing recognition in the business community that managerial considerations of reputation are no [...]

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