Search Warrant Executed on JMU Student Paper

This is going to be very interesting to see how this story turns out. I thought it was relevant to my blog because I write for the newspaper (The Rotunda) here at Longwood University. As a writer I could easily see something like what happened at James Madison University (JMU), with the confiscation occurring at virtually any school. The most interesting part of this is to figure out where the line between school "sponsored" paper and freedom of the press is. This case will be a good one to follow to see how it turns out. If I can I will publish updates, but this week is the last week of classes and final exams are next week so updates may take a while. The link for the story is below.

http://www.whsv.com/home/headlines/91051559.html

Original article published: Posted: 2:52 PM Apr 16, 2010

College of Business & Economics 4/14/10

College of Business & Economics Honors Seniors with Banquet & Executive-in-Residence

Issue date: 4/14/10 Section: News

By John R. Ivey

Rotunda Reporter

On Thurs., April 8, the College of Business and Economics (CBE) honored its 2010 graduates with an invitation-only banquet and special Executive-in-Residence speaker. The event took place in the Lee Grand dining room at Dorrill Dining Hall, with a catered meal from Aramark.

John D. Wiggins was the fifth and final Executive-in-Residence speaker for the 2009-2010 school year. A 2002 Longwood graduate, he currently works as operations manager for Stock Building Supply, LLC, Smoot Lumber Division in Alexandria, Va. He spoke about his experiences as a manager, hoping it could benefit the senior class, who will soon be going out into the business world. One of the biggest parts of his lecture was about how "leadership requires flexibility," often requiring a manager to perform a variety of tasks, not just giving directions. He also talked about the importance of developing relationships with employees and fellow managers in the business world and how they will often help provide future opportunities. In addition he talked about how leaders are flexible, meaning always evaluating opportunities as they come along. He ended by telling the seniors to remember to "give credit to others and accept credit humbly."

After the Executive-in-Residence, the college gave a variety of academic and leadership awards. The first awards were presented to faculty. The Outstanding Teacher Award was presented to Professor of Accounting Dr. Robert Cochran. The Outstanding Academic Advisor Award was presented to Department Chair of Management, Marketing, Retailing and Information Systems Dr. Cheryl Adkins.

Next, the graduating Beta Gamma Sigma (BGS) members were recognized. BGS is the CBE's honors fraternity.

Senior Honor Certificates were awarded to seniors who meet the GPA requirement to graduate with honors, which is between 3.35 and 4.0.

In addition, 28 students earned the Major Field Test/Senior Economics Exam Recognition. This recognizes seniors who score in the 90th percentile of above on the Major Field Test in Business or who score 85 percent or higher on the Senior Economics Exam.

The Virginia Society of CPA (VSCPA) Award was given to Matthew Faulds. This award recognizes a top graduating accounting senior at each of Virginia's institutions of higher learning with an undergraduate accounting program.

The Awards for Academic Excellence were also presented, which are given out by CBE concentration. The winners were as follows: Kyle Turner, accounting; Laura Espinault, economics; David Smiy, finance; Trevor Thompson, real estate; Becky Fernandes, management; and Kelly McAnally, marketing.

In addition, the Outstanding Internship Awards were given for most outstanding internships in each of the CBE's concentrations. The winners were as follows: Bret Lewis, accounting; Jordan Franklin, computer information management systems; Laura Espinault, economics; Samantha Jones, finance; Anthony Wilson, management; Kelly McAnally, marketing; Laura Barrett, real estate; and Brandy Sink, retailing. These seniors completed their internships with companies or corporations, including the CJW Medical Center in Richmond, Booz Allen Hamilton, Peacebuilding and Development Institute of American University, Wal-Mart, and the Nationwide PGA Tour, among others.

The Sharon Gingras Academic Excellence Award in economics was also presented. The award included a certificate and a monetary award. The recipient of the award was Jason Caylor.

The Delta Sigma Pi Key Award was awarded to the senior with the highest GPA in the CBE. The recipient of the award was David Smiy.

The Wall Street Journal Award was presented to the senior that exhibited exceptional leadership. The recipient was Bret Lewis.

The Owens&Minor Outstanding Senior in the College of Business & Economics was presented to the student with the most outstanding achievements. The recipient was David Smiy.

The final award for the evening was for the SNVC Award for Outstanding Citizen Leadership. The honor had 10 nominees; the recipient was Melissa Clark.

In closing, Dean Dr. Paul Barrett wished the graduating seniors good luck as they go on in their future and "Don't just sit there, sell something."

http://media.www.therotundaonline.com/media/storage/paper1354/news/2010/04/14/News/College.Of.Business.Economics.Honors.Seniors.With.Banquet.ExecutiveInResidence-3905034-page2.shtml

Ben Folds on Chatroulette

I hope to post a review of Ben Folds music soon.

To read more about him follow the links below.

http://www.benfolds.com/

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ben_Folds

Executive-in-Residence 3/18/10 – D. Allan Walker

Longwood Alum Speaks at Executive-in-Residence Series

Date: 3/18/10

By John Ivey

D. Allan Walker who graduated Longwood University in 1985 was the speaker, on Thursday March 18, for The College of Business & Economics Executive-in-Residence series, a program bringing business leaders to students to share their experiences and insight into the business world. Walker is currently the chief marketing officer of Virginia Asset Management, an independent financial and benefit planning firm. He has worked for companies like Blue Cross Blue Shield and Rogers Benefit Group. The topic of Walkers presentation was “Leadership: Resisting Temptations Stay the Course."

After giving an overview of how he has come to where he is in his career Walker moved into the primary focus of the lecture, leadership which he defined as the capacity to rally men and women around a common purpose. To outline this Walker stated 21 key points, however he mainly focused on only four of these points, which he called the four C’s. The four C’s are Confidence, Commitment, Cooperation, and Creativity. He then proceeded to describe each of the four C’s individually explaining how each key in becoming a good leader.

For the first C, confidence, Walker described it as showing self-discipline, competence, discernment and a positive attitude. Self-discipline he explained is achieved by planning; this is one of the most important aspects of a leader. Competence he described as the ability to build knowledge. In addition, competence encompasses the ability to motivate others and doing more than what is asked every time, this was summed up when he said, “quality is never an accident.” Discernment he portrayed as the ability to get to the root of problems. Positive attitude he expressed as quite simply bringing a positive attitude to the job, to improve on this he suggested “dinning on positive things”, such as working out and looking at past successes.

Next Walker moved onto commitment, which he described as exhibiting true commitment, focus and relationships. True commitment he explained what attracts and inspires people to take action, which is essential when it comes to a leader. Focus, the ability to stay on topic he explained is essential for a good leader. Also, he explained how we should use our focus which is 70% on strength, 25% on new growth, and only 5% on our weakness. He explained that we should mainly focus on and develop our strength and not as much on our weakness to help develop our best qualities. Relationships he describes as the ability to get along with people, summing it up with “it’s what you put into people (as a leader), rather than what you can get out of them.”

Then Walker quickly moved thorough Cooperation, focusing on teach ability, which he described as a leaders ability to learn, grow, and gain knowledge every day.

Subsequently, he talked about the last C, which is Creativity which he described as passion. He described passion as a person’s enthusiasm and energy a person brings to a job. Passion he explained comes from a deep love of what you enjoy doing. This type of person has the ability to “make things happen.”

In his closing Walker focused on the need for young leaders to “move!”, “seek a mentor!”, and most important “make a difference!” These things he explained are essential to becoming a leader in addition to the four C’s. He ended with the statements “there are always new leadership opportunities avail themselves”, meaning there are new opportunities around every corner and “there is a balance between a professional life and a personal one”, meaning life is not all about business, so live your life to the fullest.

Over all I really enjoyed this speaker he gave one of the best Executive-in-Residence presentations that I have seen in my more than two years of covering Executive-in-Residence speakers. He exhibited every one of the key points he spoke about and presented his material in a way that regardless of your learning style, audile, visual or otherwise; you learned exactly what he was talking about. One of the things that set this speaker apart from the rest was his explanations of how to implement his ideas which made understanding him much easier for everyone who attended. I find a relation to management here though leaning how all levels of management should operate because by applying these ideas any company will greatly improve.

Rotunda Article 3/31/10

March Board of Visitors Meeting

John Ivey - Rotunda Reporter

On Fri., March 26 and Sat., March 27, the Longwood University Board of Visitors (BOV) met in Lancaster Hall to discuss a range of topics from changes to the Student Handbook, the university’s financial situation, athletics and many other important topics to students.

The BOV is comprised of business professionals, Longwood alumni, faculty and staff representatives, President Patricia Cormier, and President of the Student Government Association (SGA) Cameron Patterson. They listen to updates from many campus departments and vote on policies that can impact virtually every aspect of student life, from policy on smoking, to tuition cost and everything in between.

The BOV’s Friday session began with reports from Rector Helen Warriner-Burke and Longwood President Patricia Cormier, then moved into the business portion of the meeting.

Among the items discussed and voted on was an approval for funds from the Auxiliary Reserve Budget. The request was for $140,000 to repair the Longwood Bed and Breakfast storm gutters. Also included in the request was $255,000 to make repairs to the infrastructure of the Longwood House, which is where the university president resides. The total of these repairs will be $395,000, the action was approved.

During the Comprehensive Campaign Report it was announced that the recently created nursing program has received multiple grants to help fund the program. The program received three large grants: $151,000 from the Claude Moore Charitable Foundation, $200,000 from the Virginia Tobacco & Indemnification & Community Revitalization Commission’s Reserve Fund, and $150,000 from the Richmond Memorial Health Foundation. These grants add up to more than $500,000.

In the revisions to the Student Handbook, the first policy change request was for guidelines regarding scavenger hunts on campus. The rational for the guidelines was “some scavenger hunts recently disrupted university business and residence hall communities.” This is a big change because prior to this scavenger hunts were unregulated. Guidelines for scavenger hunts include: participants should be “learning about their organization, field of study, or the University”, “not exceed two hours in length”, and “participants should not work alone.” Requirements for scavenger hunts will now include: mandatory registration of the scavenger hunt with the Student Union Office, must be conducted between the hours of 7:30 a.m. and 10 p.m. Sunday through Thursday or between 10 a.m. and midnight on Friday and Saturday. Further requirements specify that the boundaries for scavenger hunts is limited to main campus only and that going off campus or to university managed communities is not permitted and travel via a vehicle is not permitted. This action was approved.

In addition, the Community Standards Committee, in conjunction with the Office of Fraternity and Sorority Life recommended that the Greek Judicial Board and Student Arbitration Board be removed from the Student Handbook. The reasoning behind the change was that “the number of Greek organization incidents has significantly dropped” in the past six years. Also, “Greek involvement and membership on the Honor and Judicial Boards increased.” This means that all cases formerly handled by the Greek Judicial Board and Student Arbitration Board will now be handled by the Judicial and Honor Systems. This action was approved.

Further revisions to the Student Handbook included a revision of the alcohol policy in fraternity chapter rooms. The changes affect events hosted in chapter rooms. These events must be hosted as “Bring Your Own Beverage (BYOB)” and “there are no more than four alcoholic beverages per attendee of legal drinking age.” The policy further states that the number of attendees present is limited to one guest per fraternity chapter member. Also “one alcoholic beverage is defined as a 12 oz. beer, a 4 oz. glass of wine, or 1 oz. of hard liquor.” The rationale for the policy change “is intended as a limitation on the amount of alcohol available per person, not as a guideline…” This action was approved.

During the Report on Student Housing the current student statistical data was presented. The statistics showed that the total number of students living in university housing is over 2800, which represents more than 60 percent of total student enrolment. The total headcount for spring 2010 is just over 4500, less than a one percent increase from last year.

The Report on Athletics Academic Progress Rate included data for the academic years 2005 to 2009. The report showed that nine out of 14 teams reached the maximum number of points possible by NCAA benchmarks in a single year with 1000. Women’s golf is the only team to reach 1000 points over multiple years. However, men’s basketball was the only team to not meet the NCAA benchmark, which is 925 points, falling short by five points in a single year.

The final information item discussed was an Update on Intercollegiate Athletics. Director of Athletics Troy Austin gave an oral update on the universities athletics, including the recent move by the athletic department into the newly renovated Tabb Hall. In addition, Austin hinted at the fact that Longwood University is pursuing membership in the Big South NCAA conference.

The next BOV meeting will be held in June.

Rotunda Article 3/24/10

Sustainability Conference Keynote Speaker: Jerry Greenfield of Ben & Jerry's Ice Cream

The Rotunda Issue date: 3/24/10 Section: Features

By John Ivey

Rotunda Reporter

Jerry Greenfield, co-founder of Ben & Jerry's Ice Cream, helped kick off Longwood University's much anticipated three-day Sustainability Conference on Thurs., March 18. The sustainability conference was a three-day series of events for students and staff from both Longwood and schools from around the state. The conference theme focused on economic development, environmental stewardship and social justice.

Greenfield was the keynote speaker of the conference, where he lectured in Blackwell Hall. He spoke about business sustainability, social responsibility and his radical business philosophy that has made Ben and Jerry's Ice Cream the multi-million dollar company that it is today. In addition, attendees were treated to free Ben & Jerry's ice cream in Dorrill Dining Hall after the lecture.

Greenfield began by giving an overview of how Ben & Jerry's Ice Cream got its start.
He talked about how he and Ben Cohen became friends and how they eventually came to want to make ice cream for a living. Greenfield explained that the pair attended a $5 Penn State correspondence course in ice cream making, and shortly thereafter opened their homemade ice cream shop in Burlington, VT in May 1978. Though there were challenges of operating an ice cream shop in the cold Northeast, eventually Ben & Jerry's Ice Cream began selling their ice cream in containers like most of us recognize today.

Throughout the lecture Greenfield focused on the business spirit and sense of social responsibility that have made Ben & Jerry's business plan famous. This unique view of business had always been a cornerstone of the company, Greenfield explained, and brought about some unique solutions to business challenges. Greenfield used the example of selling the first stock of Ben & Jerry's to the average person in Vermont, rather than just wealthy investors. This was an unheard of idea at the time, but Ben and Jerry wanted to make it so that when the company grew, the community could reap the rewards. Public offerings started at $126 so that many people could join in.

Greenfield continued on to discuss how the role business plays in everyone's daily lives has changed over time. At one point, religious organizations led society, then it was government and now "business is the most powerful force." He was referencing how both religion and government have a vested self-interest in the social welfare, however, business in most interested in self-interest. Greenfield also mentioned where business has its power, influencing "politics, media, and how consumers are treated." He continued on to discuss how most businesses act in self-interest, and how even business schools teach "profit is everything to business."

Greenfield then changed direction and began talking about the "spiritual aspect of business." This was, in essence, returning to traditional values of doing what is right and working by the principle of "the good that you do comes back to you." He continued talking about how most business leaders are good caring people who are active in their community, not purely greedy like some may think.

One question Greenfield proposed to the audience was, "Why isn't business addressing social problems?" The answer to this question is that businesses do not address social need, meaning the needs of the local community. This is because it is not something that is measured as success. Greenfield said they measure success as profit, and measuring these factors helps give the business direction and focus.

Greenfield then began talking about Ben & Jerry's as an example of business done the right way, as he saw it. He continued talking about how Ben & Jerry's have applied the things he talked about. For instance, the business operates on a two-part bottom line: one part is profit and the other is the business's impact, or "giving back" to the community. He talked about how the idea of "giving back" had to be worked into the daily routine of the business for it to work.

Ben & Jerry's Ice Cream are continually improving their example of business though multiple venues. One of the company's goals is to be using 100 percent fair trade ingredients in Europe by 2011 and the U.S. by 2013. Ben & Jerry's also uses non-profit suppliers that help people by giving them jobs, along with operating 14 non-profit shops. The many charitable organizations that are supported by the business show that the company is applying the original idea Ben and Jerry had, which was to pass on the benefits of growth on to the community.

Being socially responsible is not just a weakness; it can be a vital asset to the company in building good relations with the community, which in turn helps retain customers and attract the best employees. Greenfield closed his presentation saying there is a spiritual aspect of business, just as there is to the lives of individuals and "the good that you do comes back to you."

Sustainability Conference Keynote Speaker: Jerry Greenfield of Ben & Jerry's Ice Cream - Features

Rotunda Article 3/4/09

Despite Weather, Overflow Crowd Turns Out to Hear Tractor Supply Company Exec

John Ivey

The Rotunda Issue date: 3/4/09 Section: News

On Tuesday, March 3, the Executive-in-Residence series brought its last speaker of the year, Joe Scarlett, to the College of Business and Economics. Students, faculty and guests attended the event, with a noticeable drop in attendance from the last Executive-in-Residence, due to the inclement weather. However, even with the lower attendance the audience filled the Hiner auditorium with latecomers viewing in the adjacent classrooms simulcasting the event. The speaker, who some referred to as the "best in the series," discussed the significance of ethics in the business world and its importance to being a good leader, giving examples of the benefits from his own life.

Scarlett is a retired executive of Tractor Supply Company (TSC) who got most of his experience from a lifelong career in the retail field. With his experience in the retail field, Scarlett began work at TSC in 1979. Later, in 1982 he joined a buyout group of TSC and soon after took the company public in 1994. During his time at TSC, Scarlett served as CEO for over 10 years, during which time company revenues quadrupled and stock prices increased tenfold. Also he has received multiple honors for his work with TSC, such as the 2003 Southeast's entrepreneur of the year. Under his guidance the company was selected by Forbes "as one the best-managed companies in America in 2004." Today, Scarlett works on building top-notch business leadership programs for emerging leaders that emphasize ethics and communication.

Starting off, Scarlett talked about the many ways in which ethics have not been used in businesses in the past. To show this he gave several examples, one of which was the recent peanut butter scare at Peanut Co. of America, whose executives knowingly sold peanut butter contaminated with salmonella which cost nine people their lives, caused company to go into bankruptcy and opened the possibility of criminal charges being filed against the executives involved. This, Scarlett highlighted is a prime example of unethical practices in business and how they can be very costly to all those involved.

Other examples he gave included large business corruption cases such as TYCO, ENRON and others. He even shared a few stories of unethical practices at TSC during his time, including an executive member who had to be fired due to his unethical behavior within the company. But, he didn't just point out unethical cases in the corporate world; he also showed that strong ethics are needed in government too, citing Watergate, the Monica Lewinski scandal and the Illinois governor corruption case.

He later went on to discuss ethics in the business world and how vital they are to becoming successful in the business world, especially in terms of leadership. To show this, Scarlett made several important points: "Stand up for what is right," and "ethics will always pay off." These, he said, are key ideas relating to ethics. He went on to talk about how most people who have ethical inadequacies tend to begin by being unethical about small things at first, which eventually grow in large ethical problems later in life. However, by maintaining strong ethics, he said, a person enhances his or her reputation as a trustworthy individual, making him or her a more desirable asset to companies and more likely to be a successful leader.
Scarlett closed by talking about how the ethical choice is not always the easiest choice but making the right ethical decision will cause future benefit.

Overall, Scarlett's discussion on ethics in leadership and business was a good reminder that doing the right thing does pay off in the future and while some think that the business world is corrupt, it is actually made up of mostly honest businesspeople. As an end to the year's Executive-in-Residence series, Scarlett provided a good ending to a series that has brought many inspirational leaders to give their insight to the Longwood community.

Despite Weather, Overflow Crowd Turns Out to Hear Tractor Supply Company Exec - News