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Increasing the Representation of Women in Engineering | 02/13/2008 | Education Crossing |
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Universities Rush to Set Up Outposts Abroad | 02/09/2008 | New York Times - Online |
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Digging out of debt | 02/08/2008 | AZ Family |
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Not in an arranged marriage? (Are you sure?) | 02/08/2008 | Star Tribune - Online |
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Is Facebook the new Hula Hoop? | 02/07/2008 | InfoWorld |
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Public subsidies are essential for big projects | 02/06/2008 | Democrat and Chronicle - Online |
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Facing losses on bad loans, banks boost credit card rates | 02/06/2008 | USA Today - Online |
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RIT students assigned to save the squirrels | 02/05/2008 | Democrat and Chronicle - Online |
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U.S. should support free Pakistan election | 02/05/2008 | Democrat and Chronicle - Online |
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Web sites preserve deaf history, art | 02/04/2008 | CommunityCollegeTimes |
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Bringing international experiences to deaf students | 02/04/2008 | CommunityCollegeTimes |
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Coach Coughlin touched by RIT team: Players feel Super bond | 02/03/2008 | Record Online |
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Former players say Coughlin never forgot roots: RIT alumni praise coach | 02/02/2008 | Press & Sun-Bulletin |
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Are H-1B Workers Getting Bilked? | 02/01/2008 | BusinessWeek - Online |
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Industry could pay in advance for university IP, prez says | 02/01/2008 | EETimes Online |
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Increasing the Representation of Women in Engineering 02/13/2008 Education Crossing |
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| By Margaret B. Bailey, Ph.D., P.E.
Representation of women role models within engineering colleges is important in attracting women to the field in order to establish a critical mass of practicing women engineers. While some engineering fields have seen dramatic increases in the number of women engineers, female engineers currently comprise only 14.5% of the U.S. engineering workforce, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. Some may wonder why this low representation of women within engineering is an issue. This line of thought leads to an even more significant question: do we as Americans understand how the engineering profession impacts society? According to the National Academy of Engineering, "The public largely misunderstands engineering and under-appreciates its impact on our society and quality of life. Moreover, most citizens do not comprehend the complex interactions between society and technology that are fundamental to many of our nation's economic and social policy options." Through understanding the relationship between engineering and society we can begin to recognize the need for the engineering population demographic to mirror that of the society it serves. In the past, the intellectual capital that women possess within the United States has not been effectively utilized within the engineering enterprise. But how would a demographic shift in engineering influence the engineered solutions and public policy of the future? And what amount of shift are we talking about? Answers to the first question vary but many share grounding in generalizations that I often hear as a woman engineer, most notably concerning our collaborative and reflective natures, strong teamwork abilities, multi-tasking expertise, and heightened social conscientiousness. As for how large of a demographic shift is required, women need to achieve a critical mass within engineering populations, requiring a doubling of current engineering representation to around 30%. To accomplish this goal, gender diversity efforts need to broaden and become more effective in order to increase knowledge of and enthusiasm for engineering among the target population. For example, five years ago RIT's Kate Gleason College of Engineering created the Kate Gleason Endowed Chair position which allowed a faculty member to focus on gender diversity issues within engineering. As a result, a successful women-in-engineering organization called WE@RIT was formed which builds community among women engineering students while providing pre-engineering outreach programs to middle and high school female students. Last year the programs offered through WE@RIT reached over 1,500 K-12 students and educators while engaging 175 volunteers. The majority of the volunteers were women engineering students who are uniquely well-suited to communicate their enthusiasm regarding engineering and its strong societal relevance to a younger audience of women and girls. Pre-engineering outreach programs begin for girls as young as 4th grade with a two-week summer camp experience, and follow-on programming targets females in each year level through 12th grade. The college has subsequently experienced a steady increase in the number of first-year women engineering students over the same time interval. Doubling the representation of women engineers within our country is a complex problem which requires a multi-faceted, long-range strategy. However, individuals can make a difference by encouraging girls and young women to learn more about how engineering impacts society. If there is an interest, encourage participation in a pre-engineering outreach program like those offered by WE@RIT (http://www.rit.edu/~women/) and many other colleges of engineering throughout the country. © 2008 EducationCrossing |
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Universities Rush to Set Up Outposts Abroad 02/09/2008 New York Times - Online TAMAR LEWIN |
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| When John Sexton, the president of New York University, first met Omar Saif Ghobash, an investor trying to entice him to open a branch campus in the United Arab Emirates, Mr. Sexton was not sure what to make of the proposal - so he asked for a $50 million gift.
"It's like earnest money: if youre a $50 million donor, I'll take you seriously," Mr. Sexton said. "It's a way to test their bona fides. In the end, the money materialized from the government of Abu Dhabi, one of the seven emirates." Mr. Sexton has long been committed to building N.Y.U.s international presence, increasing study-abroad sites, opening programs in Singapore, and exploring new partnerships in France. But the plans for a comprehensive liberal-arts branch campus in the Persian Gulf, set to open in 2010, are in a class by themselves, and Mr. Sexton is already talking about the flow of professors and students he envisions between New York and Abu Dhabi. The American system of higher education, long the envy of the world, is becoming an important export as more universities take their programs overseas. In a kind of educational gold rush, American universities are competing to set up outposts in countries with limited higher education opportunities. American universities - not to mention Australian and British ones, which also offer instruction in English, the lingua franca of academia - are starting, or expanding, hundreds of programs and partnerships in booming markets like China, India and Singapore. And many are now considering full-fledged foreign branch campuses, particularly in the oil-rich Middle East. Already, students in the Persian Gulf state of Qatar can attend an American university without the expense, culture shock or post-9/11 visa problems of traveling to America. At Education City in Doha, Qatars capital, they can study medicine at Weill Medical College of Cornell University, international affairs at Georgetown, computer science and business at Carnegie Mellon, fine arts at Virginia Commonwealth, engineering at Texas A&M, and soon, journalism at Northwestern. In Dubai, another emirate, Michigan State University and Rochester Institute of Technology will offer classes this fall. "Where universities are heading now is toward becoming global universities," said Howard Rollins, the former director of international programs at Georgia Tech, which has degree programs in France, Singapore, Italy, South Africa and China, and plans for India. "We'll have more and more universities competing internationally for resources, faculty and the best students." Since the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, internationalization has moved high on the agenda at most universities, to prepare students for a globalized world, and to help faculty members stay up-to-date in their disciplines. Overseas programs can help American universities raise their profile, build international relationships, attract top research talent who, in turn, may attract grants and produce patents, and gain access to a new pool of tuition-paying students, just as the number of college-age Americans is about to decline. Even public universities, whose primary mission is to educate in-state students, are trying to establish a global brand in an era of limited state financing. Partly, it is about prestige. American universities have long worried about their ratings in U.S. News and World Report. These days, they are also mindful of the international rankings published in Britain, by the Times Higher Education Supplement, and in China, by Shanghai Jiao Tong University. The demand from overseas is huge. At the University of Washington, the administrator in charge of overseas programs said she received about a proposal a week. Its almost like spam, said the official, Susan Jeffords, whose position as vice provost for global affairs was created just two years ago. Traditionally, top universities built their international presence through study-abroad sites, research partnerships, faculty exchanges and joint degree programs offered with foreign universities. Yale has dozens of research collaborations with Chinese universities. Overseas branches, with the same requirements and degrees as the home campuses, are a newer - and riskier - phenomenon. "I still think the downside is lower than the upside is high," said Amy Gutmann, president of the University of Pennsylvania. "The risk is that we couldnt deliver the same quality education that we do here, and that it would mean diluting our faculty strength at home." While universities with overseas branches insist that the education equals what is offered in the United States, much of the faculty is hired locally, on a short-term basis. And certainly overseas branches raise fundamental questions: Will the programs reflect American values and culture, or the host countrys? Will American taxpayers end up footing part of the bill for overseas students? What happens if relations between the United States and the host country deteriorate? And will foreign branches that spread American know-how hurt American competitiveness? "A lot of these educators are trying to present themselves as benevolent and altruistic, when in reality, their programs are aimed at making money," said Representative Dana Rohrabacher, a California Republican who has criticized the rush overseas. David J. Skorton, the president of Cornell, on the other hand, said the global drive benefited the United States. "Higher education is the most important diplomatic asset we have," he said. "I believe these programs can actually reduce friction between countries and cultures." Tempering Expectations While the Persian Gulf campus of N.Y.U. is on the horizon, George Mason University is up and running - though not at full speed - in Ras al Khaymah, another one of the emirates. George Mason, a public university in Fairfax, Va., arrived in the gulf in 2005 with a tiny language program intended to help students achieve college-level English skills and meet the universitys admission standards for the degree programs that were beginning the next year. George Mason expected to have 200 undergraduates in 2006, and grow from there. But it enrolled nowhere near that many, then or now. It had just 57 degree students - 3 in biology, 27 in business and 27 in engineering - at the start of this academic year, joined by a few more students and programs this semester. The project, an hour north of Dubais skyscrapers and 7,000 miles from Virginia, is still finding its way. "I will freely confess that its all been more complicated than I expected," said Peter Stearns, George Masons provost. The Ras al Khaymah campus has had a succession of deans. Simple tasks like ordering books take months, in part because of government censors. Local licensing, still not complete, has been far more rigorous than expected. And it has not been easy to find interested students with the SAT scores and English skills that George Mason requires for admissions. "I'm optimistic, but if you look at it as a business, you can only take losses for so long," said Dr. Abul R. Hasan, the academic dean, who is from the South Dakota School of Mines and Technology. "Our goal is to have 2,000 students five years from now. What makes it difficult is that if youre giving the George Mason degree, you cannot lower your standards." Aisha Ravindran, a professor from India with no previous connection to George Mason, teaches students the same communications class required for business majors at the Virginia campus - but in the Arabian desert, it lands differently. Dr. Ravindran uses the same slides, showing emoticons and lists of nonverbal taboos to spread the American business ideal of diversity and inclusiveness. She emphasizes the need to use language that includes all listeners. And suddenly, there is an odd mismatch between the American curriculum and the local culture. In a country where homosexual acts are illegal, Dr. Ravindrans slide show suggests using "partner" or "life partner," since "husband" or "wife" might exclude some listeners. And in a country where mosques are ubiquitous, the slides counsel students to avoid the word "church" and substitute "place of worship." The Ras al Khaymah students include Bangladeshis, Palestinians, Egyptians, Indians, Iraqis, Lebanese, Syrians and more, most from families that can afford the $5,400-a-semester tuition. But George Mason has attracted few citizens of the emirates. The students say they love the small classes, diversity and camaraderie. Their dorm feels much like an American fraternity house, without the haze of alcohol. Some praise George Masons pedagogy, which they say differs substantially from the rote learning of their high schools. "At my local school in Abu Dhabi, it was all what the teachers told you, what was in the book," said Mona Bar Houm, a Palestinian student who grew up in Abu Dhabi. "Here you're asked to come up with your personal ideas." But what matters most, they say, is getting an American degree. "It means something if I go home to Bangladesh with an American degree," said Abdul Mukit, a business student. "It doesn't need to be Harvard. Its good enough to be just an American degree." Whether that degree really reflects George Mason is open to question. None of the faculty members came from George Mason, although that is likely to change next year. The money is not from George Mason, either: Ras al Khaymah bears all the costs. Nonetheless, Sharon Siverts, the vice president in charge of the campus, said: "What's George Mason is everything we do. The admissions are done at George Mason, by George Mason standards. The degree programs are Mason programs." Seeking a Partnership Three years ago, Mr. Ghobash, the Oxford-educated investor from the United Arab Emirates, heard a presentation by a private company, American Higher Education Inc., trying to broker a partnership between Kuwait and an American university. Mr. Ghobash, wanting to bring liberal arts to his country, hired the company to submit a proposal for a gulf campus run by a well-regarded American university. American Higher Education officials said they introduced him to N.Y.U. Mr. Ghobash spent hundreds of thousands of dollars on the companys fees, talked with many N.Y.U. officials and paid for a delegation to visit the emirates before meeting Mr. Sexton, the university president, in June 2005. Mr. Sexton said he solicited the $50 million gift to emphasize that he was not interested in a business-model deal and that academic excellence was expensive. Mr. Ghobash declined to be interviewed. But according to American Higher Education officials, $50 million was more than Mr. Ghobash could handle. So when the agreement for the Abu Dhabi campus New York University was signed last fall, Mr. Ghobash and the company were out of the picture, and the government of Abu Dhabi - the richest of the emirates - was the partner to build and operate the N.Y.U. campus. The Executive Affairs Authority of Abu Dhabi made the gift in November 2007. "The crown prince shares our vision of Abu Dhabi becoming an idea capital for the whole region," Mr. Sexton said. "We're going to be a global network university. This is central to what N.Y.U. is going to be in the future. Theres a commitment, on both sides, to have both campuses grow together, so that by 2020, both N.Y.U. and N.Y.U.-Abu Dhabi will in the worlds top 10 universities." Neither side will put a price tag on the plan. But both emphasize their shared ambition to create an entity central to the intellectual life not just of the Persian Gulf but also of South Asia and the Middle East. "We totally buy into Johns view of idea capitals," said Khaldoon al-Mubarak, chairman of the Executive Affairs Authority. "This is not a commercially driven relationship. Its a commitment to generations to come, to research. We see eye to eye. We see this as a Catholic marriage. Its forever." It is also, for New York University, a chance to grow, given Abu Dhabis promise to replace whatever the New York campus loses to the gulf. "If, say, 10 percent of the physics department goes there, they will pay to expand the physics department here by 10 percent," Mr. Sexton said. "That's a wonderful opportunity, and we think our faculty will see it that way and step up." Mr. Sexton is leading the way: next fall, even before the campus is built, he plans to teach a course in Abu Dhabi, leaving New York every other Friday evening, getting to Abu Dhabi on Saturday, teaching Sunday and returning to his New York office Monday morning. "The crown prince loved the idea and said he wanted to take the class," Mr. Sexton said. "But I said, No, think how that would be for the other students." Uncharted Territory While the gulfs wealth has drawn many American universities, others dream of Chinas enormous population. In October, the New York Institute of Technology, a private university offering career-oriented training, opened a Nanjing campus in collaboration with Nanjing University of Posts and Telecommunications, and dozens of American universities offer joint or dual degrees through Chinese universities. Kean University, a public university in New Jersey, had hoped mightily to be the first with a freestanding undergraduate campus in China. Two years ago, Kean announced its agreement to open a branch of the university in Wenzhou in September 2007. Whether the campus will materialize remains to be seen. Kean is still awaiting final approval from China, which prefers programs run through local universities. "I'm optimistic," said Dawood Farahi, Keans president. "I'm Lewis and Clark, looking for the Northwest Passage." In fact, his negotiations have been much like uncharted exploration. "It's very cumbersome negotiating with the Chinese," he said. "The deal you struck yesterday is not necessarily good today. The Chinese sign an agreement, and then the next day, you get a fax saying they want an amendment." Still, he persists, noting, "One out of every five humans on the planet is Chinese." Beyond the geopolitical, there are other reasons, pedagogic and economic. "A lot of our students are internationally illiterate," Dr. Farahi said. "It would be very good for them to have professors who've taught in China, to be able to study in China, and to have more awareness of the rest of the world. And I think I can make a few bucks there." Under the accord, he said, up to 8 percent of the Wenzhou revenues could be used to support New Jersey. With state support for public universities a constant challenge, new financing sources are vital, especially for lesser-known universities. Its precisely because were third tier that I have to find things that jettison us out of our orbit and into something spectacular, Dr. Farahi said. Possibilities and Alarms Most overseas campuses offer only a narrow slice of American higher education, most often programs in business, science, engineering and computers. Schools of technology have the most cachet. So although the New York Institute of Technology may not be one of Americas leading universities, it is a leading globalizer, with programs in Bahrain, Jordan, Abu Dhabi, Canada, Brazil and China. "We're leveraging what we've got, which is the New York in our first name and the Technology in our last name," said Edward Guiliano, the institutes president. I believe that in the 21st century, there will be a new class of truly global universities. "There isn't one yet, but were as close as anybody." Some huge universities get a toehold in the gulf with tiny programs. At a villa in Abu Dhabi, the University of Washington, a research colossus, offers short courses to citizens of the emirates, mostly women, in a government job-training program. "We're very eager to have a presence here," said Marisa Nickle, who runs the program. "In the gulf, its not whats here now, its whats coming. Everybody's on the way." Some lawmakers are wondering how that rush overseas will affect the United States. In July, the House Science and Technology subcommittee on research and science education held a hearing on university globalization. Mr. Rohrabacher, the California lawmaker, raises alarms. "I'm someone who believes that Americans should watch out for Americans first," he said. "It's one thing for universities here to send professors overseas and do exchange programs, which do make sense, but its another thing to have us running educational programs overseas." The subcommittee chairman, Representative Brian Baird, a Washington Democrat, disagrees. "If the U.S. universities arent doing this, someone else likely will," he said. "I think its better that we be invited in than that we be left out." Still, he said he worried that the foreign branches could undermine an important American asset - the number of world leaders who were students in the United States. "I do wonder," he said, "if we establish many of these campuses overseas, do we lose some of that cross-pollination?" Copyright 2008 The New York Times Company |
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Digging out of debt 02/08/2008 AZ Family |
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| Paying off debt is a matter of making more money than you spend and then allocating the extra funds to outstanding balances -- easier said than done, right? To some it may be just that easy, but to most, debt is so common that it eventually becomes a way of life.
In fact, American households are carrying an average of more than $9,000 of credit card debt, which translates into nearly $2,000 in finance charges and fees each year, according to the Rochester Institute of Technology. If you suspect you are in debt, ask yourself: 1. Is an increasing percentage of your income going towards paying down debts? 2. Are you near or at the limit of your lines of credit? 3. Can you only make the minimum payments on your revolving charge accounts? 4. Are you paying bills with money earmarked for something else? 5. Are you using credit to pay for items you used to buy with cash? If you answered yes to any or all of these questions, its time to sit down and review your total debt and spending habits. While a single red flag is not a sign of impending doom, it is a sign that your debt may be getting out of hand and its time to take action to avoid future trouble. The experts at Money Management International offer the following tips to help you tackle debt. Stop using credit. You cannot borrow your way out of financial difficulty or become debt free by continually charging. Create a budget. After allocating funds for needs such as rent, food and bills, set aside an amount to go into savings each month. Make a conscious effort to know the difference between needs and wants. Then, set aside an amount that you can spend on wants such as clothing and entertainment. Assess your debt. Gather all of your statements and find out whom you owe, how much you owe, and what interest rates you are paying. Ignoring your debt will not make it go away. Contact your creditors. Many creditors are willing to reduce interest rates for consumers who are facing temporary setbacks. Examine ways to increase income and decrease expenses and make reasonable payment arrangements with your creditors. Avoid predatory lenders. Payday loans and car-title loans may seem like a solution; however, the high fees and interest will only dig you further into debt. Get help. Career counseling, VA benefits, United Way agencies and Consumer Credit Counseling Services (CCCS) all may be of assistance. Finally, learn from your mistakes. Paying off debt is rarely an easy process but you will find the financial and emotional benefits to be worth it once you are debt free. © 2008 KTVK-TV |
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Not in an arranged marriage? (Are you sure?) 02/08/2008 Star Tribune - Online |
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| As singles across the globe find their own mates in record numbers, Westerners are looking for love using methods that -- surprise! -- mirror the arranged-marriage philosophy.
So, you think arranged marriage is wrong or at least weird. You'd never trust anyone else to make a decision as monumental as who you spend your life with. Um, can you say eHarmony? JDate? Speed dating? There's a funny thing going on in the world of love. Two vastly different paths to marriage are making wide U-turns. Young people in India, Africa and Asia are bucking the arranged marriage tradition and in large measure are finding their own mates. Meanwhile, Western singles, insanely busy, burned out on their own attempts and not getting any younger, are devouring matching methods that look an awful lot like high-tech versions of an age-old formula. 'Don't we 'arrange' marriages, in the sense that we rely on friends, co-workers, even the Internet, to screen for us?' asks Amit Batabyal, a professor of economics at the Rochester Institute of Technology in New York and author of a recent book on the subject. 'What is eHarmony?' he continues. 'It is nothing but an agency that does arranging! Fill out information about your interests and compatibilities.' He's perplexed that such sites don't use the word 'arrange.' 'They say, 'We bring people together.' It's odd.' Gail Laguna agrees. Laguna is a spokeswoman for Beverly Hills-based Spark Networks, which launched JDate for Jewish singles in 1997 and now boasts 30 online communities targeted toward religious, ethnic or special-interest groups. People on her sites aren't looking for dates. They're looking for life-mates. 'Eighty-six percent want to marry,' she said. Or their families want them to marry. When asked, 'Did your friends or family ever encourage you to join JDate?' for example, 63 percent said yes. And 34 percent answered yes when asked if friends and relatives helped with their online profile. 'Traditionally, especially in Jewish culture,' Laguna said, 'families are very close. Knowing that your mom is accepting of a partner is pretty important.' Make me a match! No need to rent 'Fiddler on the Roof' to channel your inner yenta. Another sign that what is old is new again is an increase in the number of matchmakers -- yes, matchmakers -- even if they don't call themselves that. 'Matchmakers of yesteryear are being replaced by 'love coaches' and 'love hunters,' operating with the same precision as executive headhunters,' said Ann Mack, a trend-spotter with advertising agency JWT. Not everyone is hiding from their roots. Lisa Clampitt is co-founder of the New York-based Matchmaking Institute (match makinginstitute.com), which trains and certifies matchmakers who must follow a strict code of ethics. From a dozen members a few years ago, she's now trained more than 200 matchmaking professionals, many of whom are listed on the MMLS -- Matchmakers Listing Service. Matchmaking, she said, is now a $250 million industry. 'Back in the old days,' Clampitt said, 'we belonged to a church or synagogue. We had a more cohesive family and religious background. Now there's less of a community sense.' Services like hers, she said, are bringing back 'a manageable community. Whether it's JDate or arranged marriages, you're focusing in on the community again. It narrows it down. Our biggest downfall is too many options.' © 2008 Star Tribune |
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Is Facebook the new Hula Hoop? 02/07/2008 InfoWorld Snyder, Bill |
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| Tech's Bottom Line
Where Digital Meets Financial Social-networking sites are fun and even useful. But when it comes to attracting advertising dollars -- or the interest of IT mangers and other execs -- fugetaboutit. Sure, social networking is hot. Most of us get more invitations to make a connection on sites such as LinkedIn or Facebook than we have time to manage. And you don't have to search very hard to find a news story touting the political impact of YouTube and viral marketing. Not on IT's horizon But if you worry that your enterprise will ask IT to support social-networking software and functions, you can relax -- at least for now. A recent survey of more than 2,000 IT and business professionals by The 451 Group and ChangeWave Research found that 54 percent were either unwilling or not very willing to use "social software" -- including blogs, wikis, social networking, and collaborative tagging technologies -- for business purposes. Just 14 percent said they were "very willing" to climb onboard. The consumer-based business model is iffy, at least today So maybe social networking isn't ready for business prime time, but surely there's a play around using the technology to reach consumers. After all, it seems that some days the news media are filled with nothing but stories about Facebook and other Web 2.0 trends. But when it comes attracting ad dollars -- the lifeblood of the online world -- social networking lays an egg. In 2007, advertisers poured $21.4 billion into ads on the Web and within e-mail, and that number is expected to jump to $27.5 billion this year, according to eMarketer.com. But social-networking sites attracted just $920 million in advertising revenue, an anemic 4.3 percent. And despite the buzz, the share in 2008 will grow to only 5.7 percent. If anyone could cash in on a hot, online trend, it would be Google, which dominates online search and advertising the way Microsoft dominates the desktop. But on Google's most recent earnings call, CFO George Reyes said that his company's huge investments in MySpace and Orkut "are not monetizing as well as expected." Translation: We're not making money there and we're not sure when we will. Google co-founder Larry Page said, "We're running lots of experiments," including better demographic targeting and "optimizing" the look and feel of the ads on social-networking site. Well, be careful what you wish for, Mr. Page. John Verret, who runs the advertising program at Boston University's College of Communications, warns that "the fastest way to make YouTube and Facebook irrelevant to young people is to invade the sites with commercials, taking away what was once a place only for the kids." Indeed, when AOL started loading up its AIM service with ads, usage plummeted, Verret told me. What's more, young people find online ads boring. "One reason why the ads may not be doing as well is because people tend to ignore them on social networking sites. There is so much other interesting content that the ads get overlooked," Susan Barnes and Neil Hare of Rochester Institute of Technology wrote in a recent research paper. The freewheeling culture of the Web's social-networking sites also poses something of a dilemma for advertisers. "Social networks cannot guarantee a brand-safe environment. Advertisers don't want to see their ads displayed alongside illicit content, for example," says Karsten Weide, program director of IDC's Digital Marketplace: Media and Entertainment. "The dilemma for social networks is if they start to control what content users can post, they will lose popularity, which is what attracted advertisers in the first place." Usually when I post a disclosure near the bottom of this column, it has to do with a stock that I own. In this case, I'll disclose that I'm one of those aging Baby Boomers who are a lot closer to retirement than to college. So maybe I don't get it. (I'm sure my daughters would agree.) But cool and fun don't necessarily translate into sales dollars, let alone profits. Nor do they necessarily translate into useful tools for business operations. Freud is reputed to have said, "Sometimes a cigar is just a cigar." This may be an overstatement, but I'm tempted to say, "Sometimes a fad is just a fad." I welcome your comments, tips, and suggestions. Reach me at bill_snyder@infoworld.com. Copyright © 2008 |
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Public subsidies are essential for big projects 02/06/2008 Democrat and Chronicle - Online |
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| William A. Johnson Jr.
Guest essayist Again there is great angst about a signature project that once promised to stimulate economic recovery. The plight of PAETEC Park and the Rhinos is another blow to the community's self-esteem. They were once widely exalted for helping to earn us national recognition as 'the best minor league sports city in America.' Even Mayor Robert Duffy wonders aloud whether PAETEC Park ever should have been built. Ten upbeat years ago, the answer was a resounding 'Yes.' The Rhinos played before sold-out crowds on a baseball field, inspiring a huge push by avid soccer fans and some civic leaders for their own 'field of dreams.' While we might have been minor league in size, there was nothing minor about our aspirations. We were willing, and presumably able, to foot the bill for two new stadiums and a third refurbished indoor arena, two or three new performing arts venues, at least three new entertainment districts, several waterfront projects, a ferry service and a new downtown transit center. This 'can-do' boosterism flew in the face of stark reality: We were going through an unprecedented economic and demographic decline. These were all immensely popular, highly publicized projects. Yet most did not perform as expected. Some never materialized, some floundered, while the survivors relied heavily on public subsidies. What went wrong? We underestimated the impact of our declining demographics and wealth. Like most Rust Belt cities, Rochester has suffered irreversible population losses in every decade since 1950. Our population in 2000 (219,773) was essentially the same as in 1910 (218,149). Monroe County, which grew by nearly 50 percent in 1950-70, has gained a meager 5 percent since. Kodak has eliminated 51,000 jobs in the past 25 years, and its huge corporate philanthropy also has shrunk. Other homegrown manufacturing, retail and financial companies have substantially downsized, relocated or merged out of existence. Their successors have not come close to matching their size, influence and largesse. Tax bases also shrank, forcing fewer people to pay for the escalating costs of government, including all of these new projects. Facing such decline, few taxpayers stick with failing projects. Politicians, fearing public backlash, cut and run, even from projects that they initially touted. Regional economics cannot be easily ignored. Remember when the state invested more than $100 million to keep the Bills in Buffalo? The recent announcement that the Bills will play some home games in Toronto bears watching: Metro Toronto is 5 times larger than metro Buffalo. How long before the Bills flee upstate, leaving an orphaned stadium? This should not happen without a fight. We can accept marginalization or plan boldly with resources at our disposal. This entails carefully pursuing ventures with the potential to positively change our community's profile, and rejecting those that will be difficult to complete. Taking some risks and patiently standing beside those decisions are essential, especially in the critical startup phases. The painful truth is that these expensive projects rarely succeed without substantial public investment. Elected leaders must continue to pursue every nickel of private investment, but they must bravely declare that public subsidies are often necessary to build these projects, and sometimes indispensable in maintaining them. This is the documented fact behind recent projects that have met the most favor: the Interstate 490 downtown bridge, the Sagamore, Corn Hill Landing, as well as many older projects. I should have been braver about saying that about the fast ferry. In a 1964 book, Midtown Mall developer Victor Gruen described the partnership between the city and the McCurdy and Forman families that produced one of the most massive building projects in city history. Both businesses were willing to spend millions for a new downtown centerpiece, in partnership with the city's plan to build the new midtown garage and other infrastructure. That's how the Bausch & Lomb headquarters, the Upper Falls and West Avenue plazas, in partnership with Tops Markets, were built 10 to 15 years ago. You have to be willing to spend a little to get a lot. We are poorer but not destitute. We must change our trajectory from negative to positive, from decline to growth. That means looking at projects such as PAETEC Park where millions of dollars have been invested, to find what is wrong and how to make it right. Continuing investment in that neighborhood will make it better for residents and patrons alike. Federal and state governments have earmarked more than $200 million for downtown projects diagonally across from each other. Rather than viewing Renaissance Square and the PAETEC headquarters as competitors championed by political rivals, why not find a way to better integrate them? It requires compromise on both sides, but we cannot afford the multi-year delays experienced by Renaissance and other projects. Rochester is a declining city but not a desperate one. We don't have to spend more money, just spend more wisely. We have the resources and initiative to manage our decline in an intelligent way that moves us forward, rather than keeping us stuck. Johnson, Rochester's former mayor, is distinguished professor of public policy at Rochester Institute of Technology. |
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Facing losses on bad loans, banks boost credit card rates 02/06/2008 USA Today - Online Kathy Chu |
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| To understand how the collapse of the nation's real estate market is hitting borrowers of all kinds, consider Carson Moore.
Moore, of Elkton, Ky., says he always pays more than the minimum due on his credit cards, and does it on time, every time. But in January, Bank of America told him it was nearly tripling his interest rate, to 22%. 'I don't know why they did it, but I'm not very happy about it,' says Moore, 60. 'It's not like I miss payments or anything.' Bank of America (BAC) says it's raising rates on some card accounts based on 'periodic' reviews of consumers' risk. The change, it says, isn't directly linked to delinquencies on mortgages and other consumer loans. But as banks' losses mount, they're jacking up fees and rates and tightening rules on all sorts of consumer loans from credit cards to auto loans to cushion their losses, some analysts say. 'Banks will want to make up that income somewhere,' says William McCracken of Synergistics Research, a research firm. 'They're going to be much more aggressive. Everyone is going to see some (price) increase unless they have perfect credit.' By raising rates and fees but not boosting them so high that they push borrowers into default lenders are seeking a 'delicate financial balance,' says Robert Manning, a finance professor at Rochester Institute of Technology. 'They can't squeeze too hard that they're going to kill their client. But they have to squeeze more revenue out of their current portfolios.' Even as the Federal Reserve has aggressively slashed short-term interest rates, banks are raising rates on some credit cards. They're also boosting late fees, lifting caps on balance-transfer fees and raising ATM fees for other banks' customers. Bank fees have been rising for years. But as their loan losses have surged, banks have become quicker to raise certain fees and rates, analysts say. Lenders collected a record $18.1 billion in penalty fees last year just on credit cards up 69% from 2003 from such customer missteps as paying late or exceeding a credit limit, according to R.K. Hammer, a consulting firm. The fees are likely to rise an additional 5.5% this year, Hammer says, because of late fees as people struggle to pay bills. 'I would expect banks to raise fees on a variety of services to offset some of the losses,' says Richard Bove, a financial services analyst at Punk Ziegel. 'They're going to start to nickel-and-dime you to build non-interest revenue.' Escalating fees and rate increases come at a politically explosive time. Congress has held hearings on whether banks need tighter regulation given the increasingly broad range of credit-card fees and policies such as deadlines in the middle of a day for receiving payments that have tripped up consumers. Ahead of those hearings, companies vowed to scale back some of their fees and punitive practices. Chase, for instance, announced then that it'd stop raising card rates on customers whose credit scores had dropped, and Citigroup said it would no longer raise rates if customers paid late to other creditors. But Bill Hardekopf, CEO of LowCards.com, a card-comparison site, says he fears that 'amid Congress' preoccupation with fears about the economy, the ramp-up in fees and punishing practices by consumer lenders will go unchecked.' Banks' stepped-up reliance on fees in a sputtering economy makes it 'abundantly clear that we do need new laws and rules to protect consumers, to protect the market,' says Rep. Carolyn Maloney, D-N.Y. 'Financial institutions have a right to make a profit, but they don't have a right to make an extra profit because they messed up elsewhere,' says Maloney, who plans to introduce a bill to combat arbitrary interest rate increases and to ban issuers from applying such increases to existing debt. Sens. Hillary Rodham Clinton and Barack Obama have also made credit card reform an issue in their presidential campaigns. Read the fine print on rates Overall, falling interest rates are expected to reduce banks' cost of capital. In theory, that should lead to lower loan rates for consumers. Many credit card rates are pegged to short-term rates that fall when the Fed cuts rates. But that doesn't stop issuers from changing an interest rate. Their contracts typically say they have the right to change a rate 'at any time, for any reason.' A Federal Reserve survey of senior loan officers last month found that 13 of the 53 banks surveyed have widened the spread which could boost their profits between what it costs them to borrow and what they charge on certain consumer loans. Four of 39 banks surveyed widened spreads on credit cards. Loren Cooley, 39, of Toledo, Ohio, saw the rate on her Chase credit card nearly tripled late last year, to about 20%. Why? Her overall debt had swelled, and her credit score had dropped, mainly because of medical bills. Her issuer raised her rate, Cooley complains, even though she usually paid on time and hadn't increased her debt on the card. After USA TODAY contacted Chase, it offered to cut Cooley's rate on her existing balance to 7.99%. Chase wouldn't discuss the rate increase but says it's working with the consumer to resolve the issue. Chase has also raised the rate paid by new customers of its popular Chase Freedom card even as the Fed has cut rates. The card's rate soared as high as 17.2% in December, compared with 14.2% in September, before slipping back to 16% in January. Card rates exceeding 30%? Advocates say they fear that as employers shed jobs and housing values sink, more people will see their credit card rates raised to as much as 32%.Such penalty pricing can kick in if consumers pay late by just one minute or exceed their credit limit once. Consumers can also be slapped with penalty rates if they pay late to some other creditor, because 'a lot of issuers are still re-pricing accounts based on credit scores,' says Curtis Arnold of CardRatings.com. The New York State Banking Department says it's fielding more complaints about credit cards, many of them from people who feel their rates have been unfairly jacked up, says spokeswoman Jacqueline McCormack. The state agency refers such calls to federal regulators that oversee card companies, she says. On a national level, data about card complaints are mixed. Complaints to the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp., which oversees state-chartered banks, rose 53% from 2006 to 2007. Janet Kincaid, head of the FDIC's consumer-response center, says she expects complaints to rise further this year because of the soft economy. Meantime, the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency, which supervises national banks, says it hasn't seen a noticeable rise in such complaints. Though card defaults are still mild compared with historical levels, Fitch Ratings expects them to rise through 2008 because, 'We're not sure the Fed cuts will have an immediate effect' on consumers, says Christopher Wolfe, a managing director at Fitch. The firm expects credit card charge-offs to climb at least 35% and auto-loan losses at least 50% this year. As defaults rise, auto lenders are becoming stricter about who qualifies for loans. GMAC Financial Services is making fewer loans to consumers with poor credit, says spokeswoman Gina Proia. Still, those who qualify for auto loans are generally able to stretch their payments over a longer period meaning lower monthly payments as cars have become costlier, says John Bella, a managing director at Fitch. But Bella warns that banks could cut back on these longer-term auto loans if their losses on them escalate. Some student-loan borrowers, meantime, can expect to pay more. Mark Kantrowitz of FinAid.org, a financial aid site, expects interest rates on private loans which aren't guaranteed by the government to rise by between a quarter of a percentage point and 1 points over the next few months. As the economy weakens, consumers should look out for such changes in loan terms and rates especially on credit cards. Banks generally must tell consumers in writing of 'material' changes in terms. Some of the stricter policies banks are imposing: - In mid-April, Bank of America will start charging 3% for balances transferred to all its credit cards, rather than capping fees at $75 to $100 on some cards. Last year, it also raised, to $3, the fee it charges customers of other banks for withdrawing money from its ATMs. - Chase has raised ATM fees charged to other banks' customers for using most of its ATMs. Wachovia says it's testing the higher fee for withdrawals by other banks' customers at 4% of its 5,100 ATMs. Chase spokesman Tom Kelly says it's 'appropriate' to charge other banks' customers $3 to use Chase ATMs because 'it's continually more expensive to buy and service machines.' - Citigroup (C) is weighing similar changes to its credit cards. Last month, after the bank announced a large write-down on bad mortgage loans, CFO Gary Crittenden replied to an analyst's question about whether Citi would 'pull back (on offering cards) or increase pricing or neither' by saying it was doing 'all of the above.' A majority of Citi's recent card losses occurred in five states California, Florida, Illinois, Arizona and Michigan where a disproportionate number of customers are defaulting on mortgage bills, it says. - Discover Financial (DFS) last year raised the top rate charged to risky new card customers and raised late fees for most of its customers. Spokeswoman Laura Gingiss says the company 'assess(es) different risk factors on an ongoing basis,' which could result in changes such as higher APRs on credit cards. - Capital One (COF) made a slew of changes to its credit cards last year. They include shortening the grace period the time that customers have to pay their bills without incurring interest charges to 25 days from 30 days and raising the cash-advance fee to 23% from 19%. In 2008, the issuer plans to 'assess fewer fees on customers as they continue to adjust to (last year's) new pricing,' CEO Richard Fairbank said last month. Nelson Brentlinger of Pueblo West, Colo., says he recently borrowed $5,400 from his Capital One card to pay mortgage bills because he was told he'd pay no interest for 18 months. But when Brentlinger made new purchases on the card and tried to pay them off at the end of the month, the issuer applied his payment to his 0% balance and charged him 17.99% interest on his new purchases. Brentlinger says he felt misled, because no one told him that payments would be applied to the lower-rate balance first. He complained to state regulators and to Capital One. Eventually, the bank forgave his interest charges. Capital One said it did so as a 'goodwill gesture' because a representative might have given him wrong information. Still, Brentlinger isn't happy with the way he was treated. He suggests that if he, as someone who always pays on time, is being hit by unexpected new fees, other consumers will also be feeling the pain. The experience 'makes me feel very uncomfortable about credit card companies,' Brentlinger says. Contributing: Christine Dugas and Venuri Siriwardane Copyright 2008 USA TODAY, a division of Gannett Co. Inc. |
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RIT students assigned to save the squirrels 02/05/2008 Democrat and Chronicle - Online |
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| HENRIETTA - About 120 Rochester Institute of Technology students are working on a nutty assignment.
They're designing and building wooden houses where squirrels will live while they recuperate from injuries or until they're moved to a new location. Professor Amos Scully dreamed up the assignment for students in the 3D design class he teaches with Rod Northcutt. Wildlife rehabilitators will use the houses when they care for squirrels and relocate them. While they are healing, the squirrels will live in the structures, which can be installed in trees when the animal is ready to return to the wild. The assignment called for a design that is both functional and attractive enough to garner some sympathy for squirrels from humans who might spot them in the woods. The students have been working on their projects about four weeks. Northcutt examined the nearly completed rodent residences in class on Monday. Scully will see his students' work today. 'I was pretty surprised. The students had a fairly positive reaction from the start and I thought it would be sort of indifferent or negative,' said Scully. For the sake of art, Grace Smith played along. 'It's a little ridiculous trying to save squirrels,' said Smith, 19, of Avon, Livingston County, a sophomore fine arts student. Her partner, Lauren Kerwell, 19, of Montgomery, Pa., pointed out that 'it's pretty cool they're actually going to be used for something." The students paired off to create about 60 shelters, each one a unique creation. Some look like large birdhouses. Some are abstract forms and others have angular, geometric styles. 'I was pretty excited. This was pretty zany, so I liked it,' said Abby Aker, 19, of Chelmsford, Mass., a freshman industrial design student. Aker and partner Kristin Pitoni, 22, of Rochester, a senior fine arts major, used triangular pieces of wood laced together with wire and decorated with small glued-on pieces of wood cut into various shapes and sizes. 'It kind of reminded me of like a Chinese (food) takeout box,' Aker said. Copyright © 2008, The Rochester Democrat and Chronicle |
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U.S. should support free Pakistan election 02/05/2008 Democrat and Chronicle - Online |
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| Amit Batabyal
Guest essayist The assassination of Benazir Bhutto has raised questions about the probity of our foreign policy in general, and toward Pakistan in particular. In the aftermath of 9/11, then-Gen. Pervez Musharraf was offered a stark choice: You're either with us or against us. Musharraf decided he was with the United States. Since then, President Bush has often claimed that Musharraf is an 'indispensable ally' in the U.S.- led war on terror. However, more than six years after 9/11, neither Osama bin Laden nor Ayman al-Zawahiri has been apprehended. In addition, a resurgent Taliban, receiving sanctuary in Pakistan, has been attacking U.S. and NATO soldiers in Afghanistan. Within Pakistan, Musharraf is unpopular, and it is unclear whether he will be able to win the election this month without rigging it. Large amounts of the more than $10 billion in aid that the United States has given Pakistan cannot be accounted for. So, should we be supporting Musharraf to the extent that we have? The Bush administration and many of its predecessors have wanted to promote democracy abroad. However, instead of focusing excessively on the outcome of democratic processes such as elections, our foreign policy ought to focus more on the processes themselves. One recurring criticism of U.S. foreign policy is that we are for democracy when it suits us and that we are against democracy when the outcome displeases us. Our foreign policy has often involved 'regime change' when the outcome of a democratic process is unacceptable to us. In 1953, we overthrew Mohammad Mossadegh, the democratically elected prime minister of Iran. In 1954, we toppled Jacobo Arbenz, the democratically elected president of Guatemala. Finally, in 1973, we ousted Salvador Allende, Chile's democratically elected president. It is unclear whether our regime-change-based foreign policy has helped us in the long run. What is clear is that to many observers, our foreign policy is orotund, self-serving and myopic. It is possible that we will err again by focusing on an outcome - keeping Musharraf in power - and not on a key democratic process, free and fair elections. Our foreign policy ought to be for the Pakistanis, not for the preservation of an individual who is doing little to qualify as an 'indispensable ally.' By supporting democratic processes in Pakistan, we may end up with an unfriendly government. Also, that such a government would control nuclear weapons makes the underlying scenario complex. However, even here, it is better to be vigilant and monitor the activities of this unfriendly government than to concentrate on an outcome that is manifestly against the Pakistani people. Batabyal is the Arthur J. Gosnell professor of economics at Rochester Institute of Technology, but these views are his own. |
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Web sites preserve deaf history, art 02/04/2008 CommunityCollegeTimes |
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| The National Technical Institute for the Deaf (NTID) at Rochester Institute of Technology (RIT) in New York recently launched two Web sites to capture and preserve the history, experiences and contributions of deaf and hard-of-hearing people in two areas: World War II and the arts.
The sites are enriching NTID deaf studies curriculum, contributing to the intellectual advancement of the field and gaining recognition around the country, not only among the deaf community, but also with historians and the general public. Moving testimonies of the heartache and suffering of deaf and hard-of-hearing Holocaust survivors, a streaming video clip of a deaf Japanese-American survivor of the Pearl Harbor bombing and a chilling photograph of young women and children boarding a train to a concentration camp are all part of the Web site, which casts a rarely seen light on the experiences of deaf people during World War II. "In developing a deaf studies course on WWII and the Holocaust, I realized how difficult it was to find and access historical materials," says Patricia Durr, associate professor in NTIDs department of cultural and creative studies and the Web sites content administrator. Frustrated by the lack of available materials, Durr spent nearly five years researching and collecting information. With design, videotaping and editing assistance from Simon Ting, Cathy Clarke and Don Feigel of NTIDs educational design resources department, and with help securing copyright permission from RIT librarian Joan Naturale, Durr launched the site, which covers three global spheres involved in the conflictAsia, Europe and North America. The site (www.rit.edu/deafww2) is designed for students, teachers, scholars, researchers and historians and features articles, scripts, video clips, testimonies, artwork, books and links to related sites. Also included is an NTID award-winning documentary, Exodus: A Deaf Jewish Family Escapes the Holocaust, which follows a familys flight from Nazi-occupied Austria to Ellis Island. Durr made the site public, so others could have easy access and because many of the remaining deaf survivors and eyewitnesses of WWII have passed away or will pass on within the coming years. Feedback has proven the value of the effort. Visitors to the site have come from 55 different countries, and its become an important resource for teaching a Holocaust studies course at NTID. "The site is an excellent tool for me to use to show my students the experiences of Jewish deaf people who survived the horrors of genocide by the Nazi Regime," says J. Matt Searls, instructor of the course. "It also provokes classroom discussion about the genocide still happening in the world today." "Clearly, there is great worth in amassing and disseminating these materials," notes Durr. "Specifically, for deaf people whose stories have been overlooked, the sharing is priceless." Also developed at RIT/NTID is a Web site that showcases and promotes the works of deaf and hard-of-hearing artists in the U.S. The site (www.rit.edu/deafartists) is the largest that any college offers for deaf artists. It features art and biographical information of more than 60 professional deaf artists from around the world, streaming videos and articles related to deaf artists and deaf art. A resources section provides links related to deaf art and to individual artists Web sites. Also included is a group of RIT/NTID students whose self portraits with written or video descriptions are shown. Development of the site was an expansion of the former International Archives of Deaf Artists Web site created in 1998 by NTID arts and imaging studies instructors Paula Grcevic and Barbara Fox and RITs Wallace Memorial Library. The site was the perfect medium to showcase the art, but it was cumbersome to navigate, Durr says. She was asked by Grcevic to streamline it and then worked with Ting to make it more accessible. "The site, which was two years in the making, is a great resource for any artist, researcher, scholar or professional in the field of deaf studies," Durr says. "It's become an important resource that my colleagues and I can use when teaching students in our cultural and creative studies classes." Durr is seeking and collecting more materials for both Web sites. E-mail her at paddhd@rit.edu. This article first appeared in fall/winter 2007 edition of NTIDs FOCUS magazine. It is reprinted with permission. |
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Bringing international experiences to deaf students 02/04/2008 CommunityCollegeTimes |
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| The mission of the Rochester Institute of Technologys National Technical Institute for the Deaf (NTID) in New York is to prepare students for technical and professional careers in a technologically global society.
Alan Hurwitz, NTIDs dean and CEO and Vice President of Rochester Institute of Technology/NTID, places a heavy emphasis on global. A variety of study-abroad opportunities and bringing foreign students on campus help bring an international perspective to the college, which is an opportunity not often afforded to deaf and hard-of-hearing students. "The international program is important for our students as it provides cultural enrichment in interacting with students from other countries," Hurwitz said. NTID, the first and largest technical college in the world for students who are deaf or hard of hearing, was permitted to admit international students when Congress reauthorized the Education of the Deaf Act in 1992. Since then, the college has served students from 46 countries. This year, there are 49 international students enrolled at NTID from countries such as Chad, China, Ghana, India, Japan, Malaysia, Switzerland, Taiwan, Tanzania and Thailand. NTID is not allowed to use federal funds to support recruitment of international students. The college is limited to 15 percent of student enrollment for international students. With no formal recruitment program and limited financing available for international students, most student applications come to NTID through word of mouth, said Greg Livadas, director of media relations for the college. While international students do not qualify for federal student aid, Livadas said that they may apply for limited private funds designated for international students, such as the Royichi Sasakawa Endowed Scholarship Fund. NTID students can also study abroad. RIT and NTID collaborate to provide the students with the services they need in other countries. A major ongoing project centered at the college is the PEN-International program, a multinational partnership of colleges and universities to improve and expand postsecondary education for deaf students, especially in developing countries. It was created in 2001 with funding from the Nippon Foundation. As the primary host of the programs, the college often receives international visitors who want an overview of the college and the support access services it provides students. Most recently, NTID hosted a 10-member delegation from Vietnam. Through PEN-International, NTID this summer will hold the International Symposium on Technology and Deaf Education, which is held every two to three years and draws about 300 people. Domestic students also benefit through the program. Several NTID students participated in a leadership symposium in England in 2006 sponsored by PEN-International. Such events help bridge the gap of both language and cultural differences to understand the importance of leadership and advocacy as individuals and in the larger international deaf community, Hurwitz said. It also gave students a global perspective of how deaf and hard-of-hearing individuals in different cultures work to get the access services to help them succeed, he said. Copyright 2008 American Association of Community Colleges |
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Coach Coughlin touched by RIT team: Players feel Super bond 02/03/2008 Record Online Dave Buscema |
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| PHOENIX
They all should have been too busy for each other, but Tom Coughlin taught them to treat no man on the team greater than the next so none of them would do so now. Including the coach so often accused of being a curmudgeon that many people think he only found his charming side this year. The coach who, the day before leading the Giants into the Super Bowl, became touched when he heard about what the guys he first led as a head coach were doing back in Rochester. Thirty-five years had passed since most of them spoke, but now they were hanging up with each other to dial their travel agents, dropping everything to come together and root for the man who created a bond that lasted through all that time and lack of communication. One by one, Mark McCabe would reach out to his old Rochester Institute of Technology teammates this week, his memory jogged by a conversation with a reporter about his college coach a couple of weeks before. One by one, they would agree to fly or drive to RIT and cheer coach Coughlin in the Super Bowl. Dave Pierson booked his flight from Texas in two hours. Dave Mick prepared to make the long drive from Ohio. Mike D'Avanzo hopped in the car for the relatively easy ride up from Tuxedo Park. Soon, McCabe's list had grown to 37 people and his voice cracked thinking of the man who had inspired such unity because he kept so many of his old players from falling apart. 'I'm getting emotional, which I don't do,' McCabe said, needing a long pause before he could speak again. 'I don't think he realizes the influence he had on people, that ' that lasts a lifetime, you know?' News of the reunion and the players' feelings were relayed to the coach through a Giants spokesman yesterday. The coach was 'really touched by this,' the spokesman said. 'Those guys played the game in its purest form,' Coughlin told him. 'It was club ball going to varsity. To think that they learned some life lessons that they still practice and are passing along to the children means a lot to me. That was a special group of young men who loved the game for the game. 'For them to be able to share in this moment and feel a part of this moment is very meaningful.' Told his old college coach had reacted that way about a team he hadn't coached in three decades the day before the Super Bowl D'Avanzo was stunned. Then he realized he shouldn't have been. 'You've gotta be kidding me,' he said from his cell as he drove through Ithaca on the road to the reunion. 'Unbelievable. That's him. That's him. I would expect nothing less really. Unbelievable. That gives me goosebumps.' THEY had just been a club team which Coughlin helped turn into a Division III squad back in the early 1970s. The school president wasn't a big football fan and wanted to focus on academics so Coughlin would often tell his players to keep a low profile. But he would look after them even as he preached the same 'team above all' philosophy he stated again from a Super Bowl press conference podium the other day. 'He created a bond between us that even though you don't communicate or see everybody all the time, it's still there,' said D'Avanzo, who was a wide receiver and team captain. 'I think that's why everybody's kinda dropping their plans and trying to make an effort to get there.' Dave Mick had to be there. He still remembered mourning the death of his friend and teammate, Paul Isbell, who had died in a rafting accident the year after college. He remembered the stories from Paul's parents on how coach Coughlin would call through the years, always checking on them. He remembered getting a call at work two months after leaving Coughlin a congratulatory message when the coach was hired by Jacksonville. 'Mickey,' the voice said. 'Who is speaking please?' Mick said. 'It's coach Coughlin,' the voice said. 'I go, 'Holy cow!'' Mick remembered. 'I was floored. That was a pretty special memory for me.' They all had their special memories, even if all of them weren't always so pleasant. Even if it often took years to appreciate Coughlin's style of caring for a bunch of college kids who grew up in the rebellion-filled '70s. 'Absolutely,' said D'Avanzo, who exchanges letters with Coughlin once a year. 'All you're thinking about is, this guy is a tough, physical disciplinarian for a Division III program and you're thinking, 'What am I doing here?' as opposed to what it's gonna do for you down the road.' Down the road, McCabe nearly cries thinking about how he might not have finished school without Coughlin staying on him for his grades, offering to get him a tutor if he needed help. Down the road, a group of adults dropped their plans at a moment's notice 35 years after last speaking to each other. The coach who had benched their star players because no man was greater than the next had made the Super Bowl and that had sparked some memories. They would do their best to come together and cheer him on, even if they should have been too busy. None more busy than that very coach, the one who showed once more that the supposed curmudgeon could be so utterly human even on the day before the biggest game of his career. 'Wow,' McCabe said when told of Coughlin's reaction to the RIT reunion. 'Once you're a part of his team, you're always a part of it. Everybody who's reached out to him would tell you the same thing.' Copyright © 2008 Hudson Valley Media Group, a division of Ottaway Newspapers, Inc. |
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Former players say Coughlin never forgot roots: RIT alumni praise coach 02/02/2008 Press & Sun-Bulletin |
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| Tom Coughlin was relentless -- in their facemasks and helmet ear holes, all the time, pushing them to the limit.
And beyond. Never mind that it was August and hotter than a blast furnace. Three times a day, the young, gung-ho Rochester Institute of Technology football coach from the Seneca County village of Waterloo would run his players through grueling practices. Each day, for two consecutive weeks each summer, it was football with 'Coach C' -- morning, noon and night, breakfast, lunch and dinner. 'It was brutal, no place for wimps,' recalls Mark McCabe, one of the Tigers who endured those survival-of-the-fittest camps during the early 1970s. 'I swear there were times when you wanted to strangle the guy, but you were too pooped to try.' These days, McCabe, a Rochester resident who runs an international investigative firm, would rather hug than strangle the man who drove him further than he realized he could go. And he's hardly alone in his adoration for the coach who will lead the New York Giants against the unbeaten New England Patriots on Sunday night in Super Bowl XLII. Most of those graduates of Camp Coughlin went from cursing him to praising him. 'I'm not necessarily a Giants fan, but I am a huge Tom Coughlin fan,' says Dave Mick, a former RIT defensive end who manages a liquid fuel terminal in Aurora, Ohio. 'How could I not pull for a guy who influenced my life the way Coach C influenced mine? I doubt I would have made it through school and had a successful business career if it weren't for him. And I know most of my old teammates feel the same way.' RIT was the first head coaching job for Coughlin, who had been a three-sport star at Waterloo Central and a three-year starter for a Syracuse University football team that featured All-American running backs Floyd Little and Larry Csonka. Golden rule Coughlin spent the 1971-73 seasons with the Tigers, compiling a 16-15-2 record against Division III schools with superior players and facilities, not to mention much longer football traditions. 'We often didn't match up talent-wise with our opponents, but thanks to Coach Coughlin, we were usually tougher, mentally and physically, and we were always better prepared,' says Ken Wegner, a trucking executive and long-time Buffalo-area high school football coach who played outside linebacker and defensive end at RIT under Coughlin. 'He was tough, but he was fair. The thing we respected about him was that he never asked you do anything he wouldn't do. As long as you worked hard, mentally and physically, you'd be fine.' His indefatigable work ethic and his strong sense of right and wrong had been ingrained in him by his parents, Lou and Betty Coughlin, while growing up in Waterloo, a canal-town about 50 miles east of Rochester. 'One morning several of us were driving to school and we decided we were going to skip school and drive to Rochester for the day,' said Andrew 'Ozzie' Osborne, a high school classmate of Coughlin's who tends bar at Harry's Place in Waterloo. 'Tom refused to go along. We wound up dropping him off at school. That was Tom.' Competition also was Tom. Friends remember Coughlin turning even the simplest of things into challenges. 'It didn't matter if he was delivering groceries on his bike or walking home, he'd treat it like it was a race,' Osborne said. 'He was always pushing himself to do more and be better.' Coughlin served as the captain of the football, basketball and baseball varsity teams, leading the Indians to league titles in all three sports. Football was his passion, and during his senior season, he established a school record that still stands 44 years later by scoring 19 touchdowns. Syracuse offered a full scholarship, and the kid who grew up idolizing SU Heisman Trophy winner Ernie Davis wound up following in his footsteps at old Archbold Stadium. 'He was just a natural athlete at everything,' says Joe Sposato, the longtime Waterloo athletic director who was four years behind Coughlin in school. 'And he was totally unselfish. One year, the catcher on the baseball team got hurt and Tom volunteered to catch. We all looked up to him.' Coughlin was a high-honors student at Syracuse, and during his time at RIT, he placed a heavy emphasis on academics. Some of his players occasionally attempted to skirt the rules, but you couldn't get anything past Coughlin. 'If you cut a class, he'd find out about it, and you'd be out there on the track running at 6:30 in the morning, and he'd be right there with you,' said Mick, laughing. People person He was a taskmaster, to be sure, but there was a compassionate side to him, too. He truly cared about his players as people. Just ask Ed Buda, a center from Albany, who wound up breaking his right femur (thigh bone) in practice. Those were the days before the surgical insertion of metal plates, so Buda had to spend nearly five weeks in traction at Strong Memorial Hospital. Coughlin visited frequently. 'Despite the way he's portrayed by the media, he really is a personable, caring guy,' says Buda, who runs an electrical manufacturing company in his hometown. 'I was still in the hospital on Thanksgiving that year (1973), and he brought me a home-made turkey dinner with all the fixings. That's the Tom Coughlin I know.' His players also saw his softer side after his final season at RIT in '73. Coughlin choked up in a team meeting in which he told his players he was leaving to become an assistant football coach at SU. 'He told us that we were his first team and that he would never forget us,' said Wegner. 'He said to contact him if there was anything he could ever do for us, and he's been true to his word.' When Coughlin was coaching at Boston College, he frequently left Wegner game tickets. And when the one-time RIT player visited the Giants training camp in Albany last summer, he was shocked when Coughlin invited him to come through the ropes and watch practice from the sidelines and grab something to eat in the dining hall. 'I wasn't expecting anything like that,' he says. 'I just wanted to say 'Hi.' But that's the way Coach C is. He hasn't changed his core values. Unlike a lot of people, he didn't forget his roots when he hit the big-time.' Each year, Coughlin flies his old high school coach, Bill Carey and his wife, to New York for dinner and a Giants game. In the mid-1990s, Coughlin established a $1,000-a-year scholarship fund at Waterloo High School for college-bound student-athletes. And he contributed an undisclosed amount of money, believed to be in the high five figures, to buy weights and other equipment for the school's fitness center. A few years ago, his alma mater honored him by naming its new football stadium after him. He said it was one of the biggest thrills of his life. 'The nice thing about him reaching the Super Bowl is that it reminds our kids that someone from a small town can make it big,' Sposato says. 'We try to remind them that it happened to Tom because of a lot of hard work and dedication.' Those who played for him at RIT more than three decades ago learned how far that can take you. In Coughlin's case -- all the way from a college that no longer has a football program to the Super Bowl in Phoenix. Copyright © 2008 Binghamton Press & Sun-Bulletin |
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Are H-1B Workers Getting Bilked? 02/01/2008 BusinessWeek - Online Moira Herbst |
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| Overseas companies are accused of underpaying foreigners on work visasand hurting U.S. wages
A few years ago, Vishal Goel had high hopes of moving from his native India to the U.S. to work as a computer programmer. He approached Patni Computer Systems, a Mumbai company that provides tech services to many American businesses, and Patni agreed to apply for a U.S. work visa on his behalf. By 2004, Goel was in Bloomington, Ill., working for Patni at State Farm Mutual Automobile Insurance, the largest car insurer in the country. But this was no dream job come true. Goel's base salary was $23,310, about half the $44,000 that Patni had said it would pay on the visa application, according to a lawsuit he has filed against the company. When Goel complained, one official said that Patni would brand him a 'troublemaker' and that his parents in India would be harassed unless he stopped, the suit alleges. Goel, who left Patni in 2005, filed suit in November, 2007, in federal court in Illinois. He's suing along with a former colleague, Peeush Goyal, who alleges he was subjected to similar treatment. Patni declined to comment, though in court documents it denies the charges. Goel's is not an isolated case. A number of the most active users of the work-visa program, for what are known as H-1B visas, have been accused of underpaying or otherwise mistreating workers. Last year, Patni paid $2.4 million to 607 H-1B visa workers after a Labor Dept. investigation uncovered systematic underpayment of wages. 'I highly suspect that these employment practices are widespread among the tech-outsourcing firms,' says Ron Hira, assistant professor of public policy at Rochester Institute of Technology, who will testify as an expert witness in the Goel case. The Goel lawsuit is one of the first filed in U.S. courts by a visa worker against his employer, perhaps because of the murky legal status of such workers. The estimated 500,000 people in the U.S. on H-1Bs are by definition citizens of other nations, and they're usually beholden to employers that can transfer them home at will. The Goel case provides rare insight into how one outfit allegedly has treated workers it brings into the U.S. SIMPLE GREED In their case, Goel and Goyal say that Patni regularly underpays employees in the U.S. 'This forces the same financially strapped individuals ... to incur the expense of retaining an attorney to try and obtain the money to which they are entitled,' the suit charges. If workers complain, the plaintiffs say, Patni threatens to sue them. They charge that Patni's motivation is simple greed. 'The more H-1B employees that Patni is underpaying, the more total profit that is made by Patni,' the suit alleges. Goel, Goyal, and their lawyer, Thomas J. Arkell, declined to comment for this article because the litigation is ongoing. Patni says in court papers it didn't promise Goel $44,000 and says he has no 'right to action' because he has no claim under the laws cited in the case. The Goel lawsuit raises questions for U.S. workers, too. The H-1B program requires companies that bring employees into the U.S. to pay the prevailing wage in that job, so as not to depress the salaries of Americans in similar occupations. Documents filed in the suit appear to show that Patni told the Labor Dept. it would pay Goel a base salary of $44,000, which it said was more than the $43,867 prevailing wage it determined for a midlevel programmer and analyst. Yet even after working the equivalent of 23 days of overtime at $11.72 an hour, Goel earned a total of $35,305 in 2004. 'Patni's underpayment of wages not only harms its H-1B employees but also harms the wages of U.S. employees,' the lawsuit charges. Many prominent U.S. companies use outsourcers, especially for tech services and support. Patni's largest client is General Electric (GE). Others include MetLife (MET) and St. Jude Medical. GE and MetLife declined to comment on Patni and whether they monitor how it manages its workers. St. Jude says it advocates for contract workers who file complaints, although no Patni workers have done so. State Farm has turned increasingly to Patni and is now its No. 2 client. Dick Luedke, a State Farm spokesman, says that visa workers receive fair treatment. "Working conditions at all our State Farm locations are monitored and maintained without distinction of State Farm or vendor employee," he says. "We of course negotiate how much we pay the vendor; what the vendor does to get the work done is up to the vendor." According to the Goel suit, State Farm paid Patni "in excess of" $100,000 per worker. State Farm has had layoffs as it has brought in Patni workers. Outplacement specialist Challenger, Gray & Christmas says the insurer has let go 10,000 workers nationwide since 1995, though Luedke says only one quarter of those were "involuntary severances." He says Patni employees have not replaced staffers and the insurer's own IT staff has risen from 5,500 in 1995 to 5,900 in 2007. Luedke says State Farm doesn't track how many outsourced workers it uses. George Moraetes is a U.S. worker who believes he was affected by the H1-B program. A specialist in info tech security, he worked at State Farm from 2002 to 2004, when the company declined to extend his contract. Now in Chicago, he's unable to find a staff position in his specialty. "The whole industry is being outsourced and contracted," he says. "The American IT worker is a dying breed." Moraetes has empathy, not anger, for employees such as Goel who come to the U.S. on H-1Bs. "The workers are living in squalor," he says. "I feel sorry for them." The H-1B program could get an overhaul later this year. Senators Richard J. Durbin (D-Ill.) and Charles E. Grassley (R-Iowa) have proposed reforms because of what they consider widespread abuse. "There are simply too many loopholes that companies can use to get around the original intent of the H-1B visa," says Grassley in an e-mail. As for Goel, he hasn't given up on his dream of living in the U.S. He's in California with another employer serving as his visa sponsor. His case is expected to go to trial later this year. More Harm Than Good? In his paper "Outsourcing America's Technology and Knowledge Jobs," Ron Hira, a Rochester Institute of Technology assistant professor, argues that U. S. visa programs for overseas workers hurt the wages and job security of U.S. tech workers. Expanding the number of visas, Hira contends, "would directly lead to more offshore outsourcing of jobs, displacement of American technology workers, decreased wages and job opportunities, and the discouragement of young people from entering science and engineering fields." Copyright 2008 by The McGraw-Hill Companies Inc. |
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Industry could pay in advance for university IP, prez says 02/01/2008 EETimes Online Riley, Sheila Riley |
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| SAN FRANCISCO - When it comes to research and development, experts say the U.S. isn't making the most of one of its last competitive advantages--the talent in its colleges and universities.
The national economic landscape could be significantly brighter if corporations and academia would stop haggling over intellectual property rights, said Rochester Institute of Technology president Bill Destler, in a paper on the school's Web site, "A New Relationship between Business and Academia." In the paper, Destler suggests that corporations could pay universities up front for R&D to be shared by students, faculty and universities. In return, when a project is launched, universities would relinquish all IP rights associated with the work to their industry sponsor. 'The whole idea is that the faculty or staff don't know whether any IP is going to be developed,' Destler said. 'They could hold out for those IP rights but, in fact, they might be worth nothing in the final analysis.' Destler stressed that he's referring to new R&D efforts for which industry seeks university help. 'If a university or college has been working on a particular area for some time and they have developed patents or IP, I'm not talking about donating them,' he said. 'I think we should be much more flexible on IP rights in that situation.' RIT is currently hammering out such agreements with several companies. Industry response to the proposal has been very positive, Destler said. The proposal, while general, is probably the most business-friendly among many efforts to realign and improve academic-business relationships. It could 're-energize' corporate R&D, Destler argued, which is often stymied by fears that projects won't generate profits soon enough in the face of aggressive foreign competition. Companies can be skittish about the long-term relationships that come with an ongoing future tab for university-owned IP. That wouldn't be the case with RIT's approach, according to Destler. 'The companies would be reassured that they would not be held hostage to any future royalty payments to universities or colleges for work that they fund.' Reaction to the idea of universities handing over patent rights was mixed. John Cronin, who manages ipCapital Group (Williston, Vt), a consulting and licensing firm, agreed that the business-academic relationship on IP needs work, but expressed concerns about Destler's proposal. 'The current system is problematic. The solution makes sense on its face, but problems come in implementation,' said Cronin, who spent 18 years at IBM and has worked with many universities and technology companies. Companies and universities have different ideas about going public with research and inventions. Both sides may want publication and patents, but businesses also want to slow the information flow to head off competitors, Cronin said. There also have to be rewards for university innovation, Cronin said. "Something has to occur to recognize or remunerate university employees for their effort," he said. "What may work is to have companies provide agreements with universities whereby they [companies] keep patent rights, but give back market-rate royalties to the university." Paul Ryan, CEO of Acacia Technologies Group (Newport Beach, Calif.), also had reservations about the RIT proposal. "It's true that there's a lot of wasted innovation in universities," adding that universities nevertheless need to approach the issue carefully. "I don't think a university should relinquish its IP rights without due consideration, and in most cases, an ongoing royalty," he said. "Royalties allow for continued innovation and keep the innovation ecosystem going." However, "some universities in state systems make their licensing terms so onerous that corporations don't want to deal with them," he added. The best solution might be for universities to have both sponsored and unsponsored research, Ryan said. Some top-ranked schools have already adopted this approach. "The more sophisticated universities generally have a two-tiered system," Ryan said. The RIT report blames both academia and business for weaknesses in basic R&D. Universities sometimes dream of a "significant financial return," demanding IP rights and royalty payments so energetically that corporate attorneys give up before they get started, according to Destler. That attitude doesn't fit the true nature of academic institutions: tax-exempt, nonprofit organizations whose primary role is to serve society, not to make money, the report stated. The report listed other problems on the academic side. For instance, academic timelines, or what the report called the "Fund-me-for-three-years-and-I'll-give-you-a-progress-report" factor--don't go over well with industry. Destler spread the blame around, saying corporations often focus on "the next quarter's bottom line" without seeing the larger picture. Meanwhile, they spend billions of dollars on acquisitions to buy the technologies they need without adding any significant new IP the the U.S. inventory. Some also avoid acknowledging university costs to support R&D, he added. There's a better solution, he concluded: Corporations should pay for what they need while benefiting from the innovation available at U.S. universities. "Our institutions of higher education in the U.S. are still without question the finest in the world [and] American graduate students are still the most cost-effective R&D labor force anywhere," Destler noted in his paper. Copyright © 2008 CMP Media LLC |
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