This year my fraternity, Delta Sigma Pi-- the Business Fraternity here at IUPUI-- got the chance to do a fundraiser at the Indy 500.  They allow organizations to come in and staff different booths or shops--selling their merchandise.  The organizations get a certain percentage of the profits.  It sounded like a really awesome way to earn a lot of money for our fraternity. 

Ok, so here's the thing. We met up on campus at 4 am... which meant we had to wake up at 3 am... but here's the OTHER thing.. I had a girls sleepover the night before and we didn't get to bed until 2 am... NOT GOOD! Ok, so anyway, we get to the racetrack at 5am... go to our shop-- which is one of the biggest ones they have-- it's air conditioned and has its own bathroom (such a plus for girly girls like myself). I think we had 25 members there to help staff the shop.  We were there for 16 hours!!!!! From 5am until 9pm. I was actually in the group of people that they let leave at 730 but the rest of my brothers were there all 16 hours.  But at the end of the day we sold something like $25,000 worth of merchandise.  So, our fraternity made $1,500.  I did the math and it was the equivalent to paying each person there $4 an hour... I'm so not complaining... I was just curious... and that's okay because it went to our fraternity... so that's good!!

I really felt as though I was a big jerk the entire time. I was so tired.. I mean... I only got an hour of sleep the night before and the night before that I only slept a few hours, too. So not smart on my part. Oh well.  The girls sleepover was so much fun and we made these pretty awesome tie dye shirts. My hands are still red, blue, and pink from the dye.  All in all it was a pretty fun event and we have the chance to come back for the Brickyard.. I can't wait!!! I want to do it again but... I'll definitely get enough sleep this next time around.  I mean, I was pretty much yelling at customers at the end of it... especially the drunk dudes that were wanting the girls' phone numbers. What idiots!!!! Anyway, I took a lot from this event and one thing I have realized is that I really need to watch how I come across to people.  I mean, I really need to think before I say things.  I was tired.. but that is NO excuse... and it should never be excusable to be a jerk or say mean things to people.  I know that my brothers understand who I am and what I'm really all about and hopefully they won't hold my bad-ittude against me.

Oh and we got to watch some of the race, too.  It was my first time at the racetrack with cars actually there driving around the track.  It was sooooo loud...I was within like 10 feet of the cars that were going over 200 mph. It was rainy and cold and the race kept getting delayed in order for them to dry off the track.  Did you know that the way they dry off the track is by attaching a jet engine to the trailer behind a truck and blowing it to the side?? It was so loud... but so neat.  I think that was more exciting than watching the cars drive around the track.  Just kidding... the cars were more exciting!

Graduation 2007

What a great event!  I always enjoy graduation ceremonies.  It’s awesome to share the moment that so many people have worked so hard to accomplish.  Some of our graduates may have worked four years full-time to accomplish this goal; others may have worked part-time, putting in as many as ten years of classes to meet their goal.  Celebrating the accomplishment of graduation is an event I always look forward to. 

As I roamed through the Convention Center prior to the event, I was able to meet the family and friends of many of our graduates.  While it is always the graduate who can take the greatest pride in their accomplishment, it is the support of family and friends that helps to encourage the completion of their degree.  The pride shown in the eyes of the mothers and fathers of the graduates testifies to their encouragement. 

This year we recognized the top undergraduate students on stage with the faculty.  The Scholarship and Awards Committee that selects these individuals always has a tough time determining among the many qualified students who should receive the award of Outstanding Student.  Clearly grade point average (GPA) is one criterion, but another important criterion in the final determination is student leadership.  Leadership shows itself through activities in Kelley, on campus, and in our community. 

This year, the following graduating seniors were recognized:

Outstanding Finance Student - Nodira Issamidanova
Outstanding Accounting Student - Cynthia Huber
Outstanding CIS Student - Charity Batten
Outstanding Management Student - Andrew Wolfe
Outstanding Marketing Student - Elizabeth Helm
J. Dwight Peterson Award - Andrew Wolfe

Of the students selected in each major, one, Andrew Wolfe, was specially recognized with the J. Dwight Peterson Award, the top award for our undergraduate ceremonies.  He gave an inspiring speech about leadership and community involvement.

My job in the undergraduate ceremonies is reading the names as the students cross the stage.  Each student hands me a card with their name.  I then read the card as they cross the stage to shake the Associate Dean hand and the Dean’s hand.  This always creates a bit of nervousness for me, in making sure that I pronounce the name correctly.  My apologies to anyone where I may have mis-pronounced a name.

I look forward to next year’s graduation ceremonies. 

Okay, okay.... We've all heard the Old Wive's Tale about how easy summer courses are... how laid-back the teachers are... how teachers don't even have to give finals if they don't want to.... how EASY it is to get an A in ANY class you take....(COUGHS)

Well, if you believe that, then I have ocean-front property in Kansas I'd like you to invest in .... Just mail me the check. (Wink-wink)

(Pauses a moment for you to get your check book)

Okay, here's my story. I thought I'd get ahead on my classes and take A201 (Financial Accounting) in Summer session one. Hey, I heard summer classes are ALWAYS easy and the teachers are easy, too.  C'mon, fiip-flops, sun, shades and easy classes....

Boy, was I WRONG there! I have found out that we cover a chapter a day, take a quiz (either online or in-class) everyday. I've been in class a total of 4 days. The first day was "meet the teacher" day (yeah right). We jumped right in and covered EVERYTHING we learned in A100 (Intro to Accounting) in ONE day.... The next class meeting, we covered chapter 3, the third day chapter 4, and the fourth day we had our first test.... Yes, a TEST only after 3 days of class....

So... if someone tells you summer classes are easy.... Beware... perhaps they are pulling your leg.

Disclaimer: The opinions above are the opinions of the author! Perhaps others have had better luck than I have had this summer (hopefully)

It is summer time and life is fantastic.  I am enjoying my internship with the Indianapolis Tennis Championships and the weather too.  This weekend I spent some time at the race track volunteering and I also spent time playing; soccer, sand volleyball, softball, and some time just relaxing in the back yard. Every summer that I have been in school I have found many different things to do.  One summer I spent coaching day camps, one summer I took classes, last summer I went to London, and this summer I have my full time internship.  I feel that being a part of the Kelley School of Business has really allowed me to do all of these different things.  The school has opened many doors for me and I expect it to continue to do so in the years to come.

Sunday’s graduation was the first graduation ceremony I have participated in as a member of the Kelley School of Business staff.  The entire auditorium at the Convention Center was packed not only with the graduates, but with parents, friends, grandparents, and Kelley faculty and staff member celebrating the graduates’ achievements.  It is no small feat to leave this school with a Kelley diploma and it was incredibly gratifying for me to share this moment with so many students that I have had the privilege to work with during their time on campus.

And of course, it was Mother’s Day – my own mom had to wait for a Mother’s Day dinner as opposed to our traditional family breakfast – but I cannot imagine a better way for the moms in the audience to spend Mother’s Day than to see their children walk on stage and have their diploma hand-delivered by the Dean.  (In the interest of full disclosure, students do not actually receive their diploma on stage.  It is purely ceremonial - the diploma cases are empty and just given out so that there are some picture worthy moments on graduation day.  The diplomas themselves are mailed out three months after the students have been officially certified for graduation.  Now you know the full story) 

Below is a great graduation story.  It’s a high school graduation story, but still both funny and applicable.  It was written by Rabbi Marc Gellmann in 2005 in his online column for Newsweek.  You can find the full article here (http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/8318170/site/newsweek/)

The Naked Graduate (an excerpt)

During graduation ceremonies seven years ago this week at a small private high school in Vermont, each of the 14 seniors was given a chance to address the assembled guests and speak for a few minutes on a topic of their choice.  Most of the graduates chose the conventional topics of what they remembered most about high school, their plans for the future, and the obligatory litany of thanks to family, teachers and friends.  A few of them even thanked God.  This was before the Supreme Court ruled that it is unconstitutional for anyone to invoke God's name for anything at any time during a graduation ceremony unless of course somebody sneezes.

One of the graduates, a young woman whom we shall call Molly Smith, began her speech. At its beginning, Molly's speech was just like all the others. She spoke of how the school had challenged and inspired her individuality, and then, as she explained later, in her attempt to express the spirituality of her graduation, Molly tossed down her mortorboard, slipped out of her white graduation robe and completed her speech about truth, wisdom, confidence and the road less traveled—stark naked.  Even though they were in Vermont, the audience of 200 went wild; then the local media went wild; and then the national media went wild. Molly was even invited to appear on the David Letterman show.

Bob told me that nearly every resident of his small Vermont town got a call from one of those tabloid TV shows asking them if they knew of anyone who had a photograph or a videotape of Molly Smith giving her speech naked.  There was one, and only one.  Apparently when Molly dropped her robe everyone was so shocked that they did not even think of taking a picture, except for a man named Jay Cavallaro. Jay was the professional videographer who had been hired by the school to record the graduation ceremony, and so he had the whole naked truth on high-quality professional videotape. He quickly became a very popular guy.

Let me tell you what Bob told me about Jay.  He had just opened up his video-production services company.  He was in debt, married and anxious to start a family, but he couldn't because he had no money and his wife needed some surgery.  Then, suddenly the tabloids were competing to buy the tape and the offering price soared to $100,000.  Jay was looking at manna from heaven.  It was, after all, a public event, and Molly had made absolutely no attempt to hide—anything.  It was a windfall and just the moment Jay Cavallaro needed some wind.  And this is what Jay did: he turned down all the offers—all of them.  He just said no.  Jay later explained the reason.  He said, “It wouldn't have been right.”  That was that.  It just wouldn't have been right.

So, to the class of 2005 I say—make two lists for yourselves.  The first list is the list of the things you will do for money.  The second list is the list of things you will not do for money because it wouldn't be right.  Then, throw away the first list, keep the second list with you at all times and go live your life.  Everything else is a cinch.  Just ask Jay.

Chicago!

A couple of weeks ago, I had the fun of joining my sons’ eighth grade class trip.  We went to Chicago to see the sights.  We left at 6:30 am on Wednesday and returned Friday at close to midnight.   I coach soccer for my sons’ middle school class at Calvary, so I know most of the kids in the class.

Wednesday night we got to see a fantastic White socks game.  As the kids described it, it was the perfect game.  A player ejected in the second inning, a grand slam by the White Socks, two additional home runs, and a no-hitter thrown by Buehrle.  It was cold evening, almost freezing, but what a game. http://chicago.whitesox.mlb.com/news/article.jsp?ymd=20070423&content_id=1925959&vkey=news_cws&fext=.jsp&c_id=cws

The next morning we got up and went to the Contemporary Art Museum.  I enjoyed the picture of mass chaos in the middle of one wall.  It had several pictures super-imposed on each other adding to the setting of chaos.  The picture included people in brightly colored suits with computers all over the room.  What else could it be than the Chicago Board of Trade?  A good description of an auction market is organized chaos and the photographer captured it well.  Ever wonder why the traders are in such brightly colored clothes (http://www.mcachicago.org/exhibitions/img_detail.php?id=42), they need to be noticed.  When trading with another individual across the pit, you need to know who you are trading with, the brightly colored clothes assist traders in identifying each other quickly to process trades.  Only a finance professor would focus in on a picture of a stock exchange at the Contemporary Art Museum.  The eighth graders were not as impressed.

It’s always great walking around Chicago and seeing the tremendous amount of building going on in the town.  http://www.earthcam.com/usa/illinois/chicago/  We had fun seeing the city from the Sears tower.  Several new high rises are being built in Chicago are trying to retain the city’s status as the city with the tallest building in the U.S, towering 150 stories. http://www.cnn.com/2007/US/04/20/tallest.building.ap/index.html.

We also visited the Chicago Field Museum, Navy Pier, Planetarium, Shedd’s Aquarium, Bubba Gump’s restaurant, Ed Debivic’s restaurant, and Hard Rock Café.  Ed Debivic’s was an interesting place.  A restaurant with an attitude.  The restaurant is a 50’s style diner where the waiters and waitresses talk back to the visitors.  Not the normal theme for a restaurant, but the kids loved being treated rudely as they placed their orders.

It was a great trip.

Classes til 9:15 at night??? That has to be illegal !!!!  That is totally what I said when I was signing up for my summer classes. I think I might be crazy.  I mean, taking 12 credit hours??? What is wrong with me?!  It's like I can finally see the finish line and now I'm totally sprinting for it.  And I'm kind of sad that I haven't been taking summer classes all along. 

This is my first experience with summer classes and I really like it so far.  The class sizes are smaller and the professors are more laid back. I mean, they still make you do all the work, but at least they act a little bit cooler with the classes and everything.  For example, in my class last night, our professor had us put our chairs in a cirlce and go around the room and play a name game.  At first, I was like, "what the heck is this professor doing?!" but at the end of it, I could tell you all of my classmate's names.  I wish that more of my professors did fun things like that because we all got to know each other in a pretty short amount of time.  Oh and another awesome thing about summer classes has definitely got to be the parking situation!!!!  It's a lot better than when I take classes in the fall or spring.

Who knows.  My outlook on summer classes may be completely different by the end of summer sessions 1 and 2 but I'll definitely keep you posted on how they're going.  And if you want to pick up an extra class-- you should definitely consider the class where the professor plays name games.  Get at me and I'll definitely get you the hook up on which class that is.  But after looking at the syllabus, I'm not so sure you'll want to do that since we have 4 projects due in a 6 week class.  This could be a very interesting (and exhausting) summer.  Oh boy!!!!

But...oh my word!!! I'm so excited!!! Only 7 more months of school left. All this talk about commencement has me jealous.  But I'm okay with it becuase I JUST scheduled my Fall classes .. my very last semester of school... ever! Actually, I still have to take some online classes for a Certificate in Event Planning next Spring but at least I'll be done with my undergraduate classes! Woo hoo! Plus, I'll most likely start on my Master's pretty soon!! But I think I deserve a break before all of that.  Maybe I'll temporarily become a beach bum before I start on my Master's....

School is done for the summer and it is time to enjoy life. I start my internship this week and I am very excited about it. School ended well for me, but I am looking forward to staying away from it for the next few months. 

It is May again and for Indiana Sports that means only one thing RACE MONTH!  It all started May 5^th with the Mini Marathon and the 500 festival.  Then May 12^th is the first Pole Day and it all concludes May 27^th with the Indy 500.  For anyone that has never attended any of the race events, it really is an amazing spectacle.  I am not a true race fan, but going to the track and seeing just how massive the Indianapolis Motor Speedway is and viewing the hundreds of thousands of people that attend the actually race really can wow you.  I have taken different out of state friends to the track at least once for the last few years, none of which were race fans, but they all left in amazement at how one event can last an entire month and have so much meaning to so many people.  I know Carb Day and Race Day can get a bit out of hand and might not be the right atmosphere for everyone, but there are many other days that offer a true family experience for those who do not want to try and fight their way through massive crowds.  I really feel that anyone from Indiana must experience at least one day at the track in order to truly call themselves a Hoosier.

Midwest Finance Association Conference

Two weeks ago I went to academic conference in Minneapolis, Minnesota.  The conference was hosted in the downtown convention area.  The weather was pretty good for Minneapolis, but then the buildings are all connected, so you can get just about anywhere in the downtown without leaving the building and its maize of skyways and tunnels.  While at the conference, I also enjoyed a visit to the Mall of America.  But the main part of a conference is not the food or city, it is the paper presentations.

Paper Summary

I presented a paper that measures how companies in the bank and savings and loan industry manage earnings around the time that mutual savings and loans sell stock and convert to a publicly traded stock company.  Our primary hypothesis in the paper is that converting savings and loans have different incentives than most companies that sell stock.  For most companies, the goal of selling stock is to obtain the highest price.  This is because the original owners are selling part of the company at the time of the stock offering.  As the old adage in finance goes, “Buy low, sell high”.  So as a company goes public, most studies show that these companies have a tendency to do what they can to make their stock look as good as possible, one of these techniques is managing earnings, so that the earnings of the company, are as high as possible, allowing the company to hopefully sell at a higher stock price. 

However, converting savings and loans are unique.  We hypothesized that they would have incentives to manage their earnings down, the opposite direction of other traditional companies that go public.  The reason is that management and other owners do not sell stock in the offering, they purchase stock in the offering.  As purchasers of stock they want to buy low.  A mutual savings and loan differs from traditional initial public offerings because the owners of the company are the depositors.  However, the depositors only own a right to purchase the stock at the offering price, they do not actually own shares of the mutual company.  Management also has a right to purchase the company, so their goal may be to sell the company at a lower price.  How low they can set the stock price, is constrained by regulations that state that management is not to obtain excessive returns from taking the company public.  Regulators inspect the financial statements of the company and review the offer price to prevent the company from setting the price too low and potentially reaping too large of gains.  Our findings show that mutual companies that sell stock to become a public corporation do manage their earnings down, and that the returns on the offering date for mutual companies is greater than the returns for other traditional banks that issue stock.  Each of these findings are consistent with mutual firms managing their earnings down more than nonmutuals. 

Midwest Presentation

At the Midwest Finance Association meetings we presented our paper and other people in the audience gave constructive criticisms of the paper.  We are now in the process of taking these suggestions into account and rewriting the paper to reflect participant comments.

From conference to Journal submission

After these items are incorporated into the paper, we will submit the paper to a journal for publication.  Publication in a journal is no simple task.  The very best journal in the finance area have less than a 5% acceptance rate, so publishing in the journal is no small feat.  Even the second tier of journals (that we frequently refer to as A- journals) have acceptance rates around 10%.  One must also make sure that the topic that you are researching is unique.  If another writer has published a similar paper, your paper is not able to be published.  Being scooped in the finance area frequently results in filing the paper in the circular file in your office (trash can).  However, when a paper is published, one can take great pride in the fact that they have met very rigorous standards of publication that few researchers in the industry are able to obtain.