Hunker Down or Reset

At a meeting last week of women in higher education in New England, the keynote speaker mentioned a phrase "hunker down or reset" that she had come across in her readings. In elaborating, she asked us to think about whether the current situation facing higher education is a one time event (i.e. should we hunker down?) or has there been a fundamental, systemic change (should we reset?). I couldn't get the thought out of my mind and in searching the internet to see if I could find the source that she mentioned, I found David Linsky's blog, Linsky on Leadership: Will You Reset or Hunker Down? David Linksy's blog, Linsky on Leadership: Will You Reset or Hunker Down? I highly recommend reading it.

Kaufmann Study Dispels Myths About Entrepreneurship

Read Anatomy of an Entrepreneur to see what kinds of people become entrepreneurs. You will likely be surprised.

An Alternative to Buying Textbooks: Renting

Faculty wishing to help students lower the cost of textbooks may find that renting textbooks could be one partial solution. The Chronicle of Higher Education 7/6/2009 online issue, Wired Campus reported that Chegg and other companies and some colleges have started to rent textbooks to students. Chegg rents textbooks to students for 125 days (for a semester) with an option to buy. Rental periods are also available for quarter systems (8r days) and summer sessions (60 days). Chegg offers as an example of savings to students a 5th edition calculus text which sells for at $180.95. Students can ent it on Chegg for $$62.09, a 66% savings. As a bonus --- Chegg rents one tree for every textbook it sells or rents.

Business Plan Contest Winner Named

Bridgewater State College's Center for Entrepreneurship Studies has named Barbara Mulford the winner of its 2009 Business Plan Writing Contest. The Canton resident, who was a senior at BSC at the time she entered the contest, won the top prize of $2,500, as well as free services and support from local firms, including law, accounting, and marketing companies.
Read the complete story at BSC NewsLog.

Accounting Student's Paper in Bridgewater Review

Julie Blanchette, junior accounting major, has published an article in the most recent edition of Bridgewater Review. Julie’s article, “Our World Flipped Upside Down,” deals with the complexities of harmonizing the U.S. Generally Accepted Accounting Principles (US GAAP) and the International Financial Reporting Standards. The pending convergence raises many concerns and issues for companies currently using US GAAP and for students of accounting.

Julie wrote this paper for her Intermediate Accounting III honors class. She is the first accounting student to publish a paper in Bridgewater Review and we are extremely proud of her. Her mentor for the paper was her instructor, Dr. Patricia Bancroft.

Tomorrow at our honors ceremony, she will receive one of the two Ricciardi scholarships.

Technology and Marketing

Scott Kirsner, writer for the Boston Globe on the innovation economy, writes that traditional forms of marketing and advertising may be dying, replaced by forms made possible by new technology. Marketing methods such as Inbound Marketing, Content Marketing, and marketing via personal connections using social networking technology.

Economist Emmanuel Saez Wins the Clark Medal

Saez wins the John Bates Clark Medal, the economics prize for economists under the age of 40. See the WSJ article, 4/25/09.