► Smith Now Gives Recruiters Free Access to International Employment Advice
► The Smith School and Avaya Expand Research and Development Relationship and Activities
► Statistics Day Features Nobel Prize Winner Robert F. Engle III
►Maryland’s Chapter of the Collegiate AMA Wins National Award
► Smith School in the News 

Smith School Now Gives Recruiters Free Access to International Employment Advice

The Smith School has recently launched a unique collaboration with Reed Smith LLP, one of the largest U.S. law firms, that gives employers free access to Reed Smith’s immigration lawyers for legal advice and consulting services. Employers will benefit from the innovative new program, which in keeping with the Smith Office of Career Management’s dedication to employer-focused customer service, will make it easier to recruit and hire foreign graduates.

Any employer interested in recruiting a Smith School student can take advantage of Reed Smith’s complementary services, which include:

• Consultation with employers regarding all aspects of the sponsorship process
• Case-by-case visa assessments
• Pre-negotiated legal fees for H1-B visa processing
• Advice and materials on immigration issues

“The Smith School remains at the forefront in its efforts to match corporate recruiters with the best and most qualified pool of graduates. This is just one step in many that we have taken to make the hiring and recruitment of our students as seamless as possible,” said Howard Frank, dean of the Smith School. “Thirty-nine percent of our graduate population is from outside the United States, and we are doing both our students and our corporate community a great service in making it easier to recruit from Smith’s full student population.”

Employers interested in recruiting an international Smith School graduate can access the new immigration consultation services and legal advice by contacting Peter Brown, director of employer development, Office of Career Management, (301) 405-9475, e-mail: pbrown@rhsmith.umd.edu.

The Smith School and Avaya Expand Research and Development Relationship and Activities

Avaya Inc, a leading global provider of business communications software, systems and services, and the Smith School recently announced an expansion of their research and development relationship with a new “virtual community” project; as well as the extension of existing work in communications-enabling supply chains and executive mobility into new scenarios and applications.

Avaya and the Smith School will develop a virtual community prototype that will make it easier and more convenient for students, faculty and staff to communicate, work and learn together. As a first step in the prototype, virtual community participants will have access to the Avaya Unified Communications Center, which provides a unified messaging mailbox with speech access capabilities to IBM Lotus Notes. Participants will be able to choose a voice interface, Web access or touchtone commands to interact with calendars, tasks, voicemail, e-mail and faxes, plus schedule meetings and launch conference calls with other participants.

The Smith School and Avaya will also build on previous collaborative research to extend communications in radio frequency identification (RFID) sensor networks into supply chain management and healthcare scenarios, and in event-triggered conferencing for crisis situations. Past Avaya-Smith research in this area has resulted in significant advances in enterprise supply chains beginning with a project for the United States Air Force in 2000 as well as for the State of Maryland.

Statistics Day Features Nobel Prize Winner Robert F. Engle III

(l to r) Robert F. Engle III and Smith School Associate Professor Frank Alt, an organizer of the event, talk after Engle's lecture.

Robert F. Engle III, co-recipient of the 2003 Nobel Prize in Economic Sciences with Clive W. Granger, spoke at the Smith School on Friday, April 15 as part of the University of Maryland Statistics Consortium’s Statistics Day 2005 program. Engle is the Michael Armellino Professor of Management of Financial Services at the Stern School of Business, New York University. He was honored for his work in developing methods for statistical modeling of time-varying volatility. In addition to being a Nobel laureate, Engle is also a former lacrosse player and avid fan, as well as an accomplished figure skater who competed in the 1997 Adult Ice Dance competition in Lake Placid, New York.

For baby boomers interested in managing their retirement funds, the issue of how to manage stock market volatility is of immediate and pressing interest. Financial planners often use one of the many variations of Engle’s ARCH (auto-regressive conditional heteroskedasticity) models, which describe uncertainty in the financial world, to manage portfolio holdings. The models helped launch the discipline combining economics, statistics and high-level math, known as econometrics. They accurately capture the properties of many time series and are indispensable tools for researchers and for financial analysts, who use them in asset pricing and in evaluating portfolio risk.

►Read More

Maryland’s Chapter of the Collegiate AMA Wins National Award

The University of Maryland chapter of the American Marketing Association (AMA) used to have just 15 members. Today, thanks to the efforts of Professors Mary Harms and Steve Vargo, and the 15 carryover members from last year, that number has multiplied 10 fold, and the chapter now boasts 150 active, national members! This dramatic increase, along with an overnight trip to New York City and increased philanthropic efforts, was enough to catch the attention of the national AMA. The University of Maryland chapter was one of four collegiate chapters to be recognized as the Most Revitalized Chapter at the recent 2005 AMA Collegiate Conference in New Orleans.

The chapter’s restructuring has included changing the purpose of just being a forum for marketing recruiters, to one of focused direction and exciting programs for the student members. In November the sponsors took 38 students on an overnight trip to New York City, where they went to breakfast with the business professionals in the New York Chapter of AMA. They heard a lecture by the well-known fashion designer Donna Karan, and they had a roundtable discussion on the topic of “advergaming.” The students saw, and thought: “this could definitely be me in a few years.” Senior marketing major Laura Hart was able to get an internship with Donna Karan, and was so successful that she was the first intern ever to be asked to return to help the international fashion company with the launch of its fall fashion line.

Several of the documents that are required for consideration of awards at the national collegiate conference include writing a chapter plan and an annual report, which the group prepared. Some of the increase in membership has been attributed to students hearing the “buzz” about the NYC trip.

Another criteria for recognition is to raise the level of philanthropic activities. Listening to a speaker from My Sister’s Circle, a group for disadvantaged fifth grade girls, sparked that fire in several of the club members. The speaker said most of the fifth grade girls had never heard about the opportunity to go to college, and would really benefit from hearing about college life. Several young women raised their hands and volunteered to go to Baltimore in March and talk with these girls about life in college. They have gone on to create a Web site for the group, which is currently being constructed.

Professor Harms is in her fourth year as a lecturer with the Smith School and teaches BMGT 451, Consumer Behavior, and BMGT 484, Electronic Marketing. Professor Vargo teaches BMGT 350, Marketing Principles and Organization. The students were excellent ambassadors for the Smith School of Business at the conference and we look forward to bringing home more awards next year," said Harms.

For more information on the University of Maryland Chapter of the American Marketing Association visit http://www.studentorg.umd.edu/ama. The co-presidents are Noreen McCaffrey, who can be reached via e-mail at namccaff@wam.umd.edu, and Jeffrey Small, who can be reached at byg.dog@verizon.net.

▓ Carol Cron, Smith Newslink Inside

Smith School in the News

Janet Wagner, associate chair of the marketing department, offered insight into why Target has escaped some of the criticisms faced by Wal-Mart – despite the fact that the two retailers share a number of similarities – in a CNN/Money article (4/20). Roland Rust, holder of the David Bruce Smith Chair in Marketing, told viewers the secrets to McDonald’s global success in an interview on USA Tonight (4/15), an evening news magazine program by Washington, D.C., CBS affiliate WUSA. Rust was also quoted in an Associated Press (4/20) story about the demand for pictures and merchandise associated with the newly elected Pope Benedict as well as offered insight into effective marketing for hospitals in another Associated Press (4/12) article. Janet Richert, managing director of the Smith School’s office of career management, discussed the current rising demand for MBAs in a Washington Business Journal (4/15) article that was also picked up by MSNBC online (4/17). The Smith School’s newly-established Center for Health Information and Decision Systems was highlighted in a number of local news outlets including a business news brief in the Washington Post (4/18). A Smith School student’s entrepreneurial efforts with mention of seed money from the Dingman Center were featured in an article on student enterprises in U.S. News and World Report (4/18). Peter Morici, professor of international business, commented on General Motors’ recent woes in a number of articles from media outlets including The (Baltimore) Sun (4/17), Chicago Tribune (4/20) and Washington Post (4/20). Morici was also quoted as a leading trade and economic expert in Barron’s (4/18), Bloomberg (4/14, 4/15) and other leading business news outlets.

For more Smith School media highlights and links to articles, visit Smith School in the News.

More News:

Fifth Annual Netcentricity Conference, April 29
Imagining Tomorrow's Internet: The Convergence of Social and Digital Networks

On Friday, April 29 the Smith School will host a one-day conference, join us for a one-day conference featuring thought leaders and cutting-edge research at the intersection of digital and social networks. Speakers include executives from Amazon.com and Washington Technology Partners. The program features panels on virtual communities in health care, open source networks, and global coordination of digital and social networks.

►Read More

Smith to Host Second Annual Joseph M. Wikler Finance Case Competition, April 29

The Joseph M. Wikler Finance Case Competition provides an opportunity for students to showcase their abilities, while simulating roles in the financial management profession. Students will use classroom formulas and calculations to develop a solution and strategy for a real-world organization's current issue. On Friday, April 29, each team will present their findings to a panel of industry and academic judges who will determine the winners. Cash prizes will be awarded to each member of the winning teams: first place team - $1,000; second place team- $500; and third place team - $100. Joseph Wikler sponsors the competition. Wikler is a director of Oppenheimer Funds and a consultant for T. Rowe Price Small-Cap Value Fund. Make plans to attend the presentation to witness these young financial minds at their best. For more information, send e-mail to sharris@rhsmith.umd.edu.

►Read More

Calendar Highlights:

4/28/05 William D. Bradford Minority Awards Banquet ►Register Online

4/29/05 Netcentricity Conference ►http://www.rhsmith.umd.edu/netconference/

4/29/05 Joseph M. Wikler Finance Case Competition ►Find Out More

4/30/05 Maryland Day ►http://www.marylandday.umd.edu/

5/6/05 Next Faculty & Staff School Assembly 1:30 p.m., Rouse Room, 1412 Van Munching Hall.

►Smith Calendar of Events

Notes Tip: Setting your Out-of-Office Agent

As the summer months approach, many of us will be taking time off. Remember to set your Out-of-Office agent in Lotus Notes. Once configured, your Out-of-Office agent will automatically respond to incoming mail when a message is received in your inbox. Notes sends a response indicating you are out of the office and when you plan to return.

To set this feature, go to Actions>Tools>Out of Office. From the Dates tab you can set the dates you are leaving and returning by either entering them in the fields or by clicking the calendar icons. Keep the “Book busy time for these dates” checkbox selected to mark your calendar so that other can see the dates when you are unavailable.

Click the Out-of-Office Message tab if you would like to modify the default automatic message.

The Special Message tab allows you to send a different message to specific individuals or groups. This message will only be sent when you receive mail from the people listed in the To: field. You can also enter a new subject and special remarks.

If you want more control over who will receive an Out-of-Office message, click the Exceptions tab. Click the checkbox to block replies to mail from internet addresses. You can also cancel replies to mail sent from specific people or group mails addressed to certain groups or messages containing specific subjects or phrases.

When you are finished selecting your settings, click Enable. A message box will appear summarizing your settings. To start the Out-of-Office notifications, click yes, then click ok. To close the dialog box, click ok.

Out-of-Office is now enabled.

To disable the Out-of-Office agent, go to Actions>Tools>Out of Office. To turn off the agent, click Disable.