Huskies mean business in Beanpot . . .
When it comes to the Beanpot, Northeastern is all business.
While their hockey counterparts suffered through another frustrating tournament this year, a team of undergraduate students in the College of Business Administration last month won the annual business school Beanpot competition, defeating five other Boston-area schools.
N.U.'s team of Ron Cochran, Matt McLaughlin, Rudy Morando, Kelly Neill, and Sean Novok bested business students from Boston University, Boston College, Bentley College, Babson College, and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in an all-day competition at BU.
"We're showing the best in Boston that we're clearly the best," said faculty adviser Raymond Kinnunen, associate professor of general management. "We can go on to compete with anybody in the country. We are committed to excellence and winning."
Following the traditional format, each school sent two teams of five students to review a case study and, acting as consultants, prepared a three-page business analysis. A team of twelve judges narrowed the field to four finalists, who were then given ninety minutes to prepare a ten-minute presentation. Northeastern's winning entry was on the Wall Street Journal's 1996 decision to offer interactive Web services to compete with Internet news providers.
N.U.'s championship was the school's third in four years. The university's second team of Andoni Aguirre, Tarek El-Sherif, Paula Marques, Jamie Scranton, and James Renahan finished runner-up.
. . . While hockey teams take it on the chin
For the second time in as many years, the men's and women's ice hockey teams came up short in their respective Beanpot touraments.
The men, coached by Bruce Crowder, finished last in the four-team field, losing the opener to Boston College, 6-0, before falling to Harvard, 3-1, in the consolation game.
The frustrations continued with back-to-back losses against Merrimack the following week, dropping the Huskies out of the national rankings and, perhaps more important, out of the coveted first tier in Hockey East.
The women's team, meanwhile, finished runner-up to Harvard for the second straight Beanpot, losing a heartbreaker in overtime, 4-3, in the championship game. They had advanced to the finals with a 7-0 drubbing of Boston College.
The lady Huskies, coached by Heather Linstad, fell to seventh in the national rankings but were still in contention for the Eastern College Athletic Conference title.
The women last claimed the Beanpot championship in 1998. The men haven't brought home a title since 1988.
Campus Footnotes
The College of Engineering has secured more than $450,000 in federal grant money to educate doctoral students in manufacturing engineering and information systems. Awarded by the U.S. Department of Education's Graduate Assistance in Areas of National Need Program (GAANN), the three-year, $457,000 grant will be augmented with a $391,000 contribution from Northeastern. Officials said the combined $848,000 will fund a five-year GAANN program that will allow eight doctoral fellows to do interdisciplinary research in manufacturing engineering and information systems.
The Faculty Senate has unanimously approved a new bachelor of science degree in architecture. Previously offered as a concentration within the art and architecture program, the new degree more accurately reflects the extent of students' professional preparation, according to faculty in the architecture program. The university eventually hopes to offer a B. Arch. degree, which is a professional degree in architecture.
Continuing a course of carefully targeted growth established at the beginning of his presidency, President Freeland last month proposed a $333.6 million budget for next fiscal year that again features increased funding for student aid, information technology, and faculty and staff merit and equity raises. The draft budget, which represents a 4.6 percent increase over the current $318.8 million budget, also includes an average 4.4 percent hike in tuition.
The N.U. homepage <www.neu.edu> has a new look for the new century. The page, which made its debut last month, includes several new features aimed at making it more functional, informative, and attractive, according to its designers in University Web Services. It also seeks to give voice to Northeastern's aspiration to excel as a national research university that is student-centered, practice-oriented, and urban.
The few, the proud, the Merchants
They're bright, energetic, and committed to reinvigorating lower Roxbury's economy. They are the first seven graduates of Northeastern's Merchant Academy-an intense, yearlong program designed to create new businesses that will help rekindle the neighborhood.
Funded in part by the university's Community Outreach Partnership Center, BankBoston, and student tuition, the Merchant Academy program requires students to complete four in-depth business courses, write business plans, and acquire bank loans to help establish their businesses. Joseph Warren, special assistant to the director of government relations and community affairs, said the true aim of the program is to revive the community's entrepreneurial spirit.
Because African-American entrepreneurial enterprises began to close in the 1950s and 1960s, Warren said many black business owners sought opportunities in public-funded, nonprofit organizations. As a result, the ratio between African-Americans working in the public sector today far exceeds those operating private businesses. Warren argued that a healthier ratio needs to exist between black private entrepreneurs and those working in the public sector.
This year's Merchant Academy graduates are: Gloretta Baynes, Steven Davis, Beth Deare, Valerie Gregory, Dillon King, Susan Thompson, and Elizabeth Williams.
Take a BOW!
Carole Shea, associate dean of academic affairs in Bouvé College, and Anne Bateman, associate professor of nursing, were among the contributors to the book Advanced Practice Nursing in Psychiatric and Mental Health Care, which was recently named "Book of the Year" by the American Journal of Nursing.
Peter Giunta, BB'79, served as defensive coordinator for the NFL champion Saint Louis Rams, who defeated the Tennessee Titans 23-16 in Super Bowl XXXIV January 30 in Atlanta.
Wesley Marple Jr., professor of finance, has been named the College of Business Administration's first Donald J. Harding Professor of Finance. He will develop information about international asset management and develop case studies in the investment banking area.
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