Fixing Advising: A Model for Faculty Advising

This paper addresses mandates to fix the advising process with a focus on faculty advising systems. Measures of student success and satisfaction, administrative issues, and faculty concerns are among the many factors discussed. Regression analysis is used to explore long-voiced faculty complaints that students do not follow advice. A case study is used to illustrate changes in one department’s advising process and measures of student satisfaction are reported. A model of advising components is offered to illustrate practices suggested to realize the full potential of the advising process

Provincial Effects on Reading Achievement

Although Canadian students performed well on the 2000 Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA), there were considerable differences among provinces. Based on the Canadian sample of PISA 2000, our multilevel analysis examined the extent to which schools in various provinces produced differential effects on the reading achievement of their students. School characteristics that showed significant provincial effects on reading achievement included variables that described school context, school resources, and school climate, with most of these significant school-level variables being measures of school climate. Disciplinary climate and sense of belonging to school were the most important of significant school characteristics. They showed significant average effects by province on reading achievement, and their effects varied significantly across provinces. Results of our analysis suggest that provinces can use school effects to promote the reading achievement of their students.Bien que les élèves canadiens aient bien réussi au Programme international pour le suivi des acquis des élèves (PISA) en 2000, les résultats accusaient d’écarts importants entre les provinces. Nous appuyant sur l’échantillon canadien du PISA 2000, nous avons analysé, à plusieurs niveaux, la mesure dans laquelle des écoles de différentes provinces ont produit des effets différentiels sur les résultats de leurs élèves en lecture. Parmi les caractéristiques de l’école qui ont joué un rôle significatif dans les résultats provinciaux d’aptitude à la lecture, notons les variables suivantes : le contexte de l’école, les ressources de l’école et le climat scolaire. L’ambiance disciplinaire et le sentiment d’appartenance face à l’école se sont avérés être les caractéristiques les plus importantes de l’école, jouant un rôle significatif dans les résultats provinciaux d’aptitude à la lecture. D’écarts importants ont été notés dans l’effet de ces deux variables d’une province à l’autre. Les résultats de notre analyse indiquent que les provinces peuvent s’appuyer sur ces variables du climat scolaire pour améliorer l’aptitude à la lecture de leurs élèves

Green Leaf Grocery - Executive Compensation Case Study

The primary purpose of this teaching case is to aid students in understanding how executive compensation plans are utilized to achieve organizational goals and to then construct their own executive compensation plan for the CEO of Greenleaf Grocery, a fictional retail business based on an actual company. Students have the opportunity to create a comprehensive executive compensation plan using salary, bonuses, stock options, benefits, and other compensation tools. Additionally, the case provides the opportunity to discuss the use of both short-term and long-term incentive compensation. The company in this case is poised to undertake an initial public offering of stock and retaining the current CEO is viewed as critical for this next phase. The case affords the class the opportunity to explore ethical issues in executive compensation as well as other aspects of the organization’s overall compensation structure

Universal Dripping and Jetting in a Transverse Shear Flow

One particularly efficient approach to making emulsions having monosized droplets is to push a fluid through an orifice into a transverse flow of a second immiscible fluid. We find that, at an intermediate particle Reynolds number, the final droplet size can be readily computed using a simple force balance. Remarkably like the well-known dripping faucet, this system displays both dripping and jetting behavior, controlled by the capillary, Weber and Ohnesorge numbers of the relevant fluids, and interesting nonlinear behavior such as period doubling near the transition between these two regimes

Green Leaf Grocery - Executive Compensation Case Study

The primary purpose of this teaching case is to aid students in understanding how executive compensation plans are utilized to achieve organizational goals and to then construct their own executive compensation plan for the CEO of Greenleaf Grocery, a fictional retail business based on an actual company. Students have the opportunity to create a comprehensive executive compensation plan using salary, bonuses, stock options, benefits, and other compensation tools.  Additionally, the case provides the opportunity to discuss the use of both short-term and long-term incentive compensation.  The company in this case is poised to undertake an initial public offering of stock and retaining the current CEO is viewed as critical for this next phase.    The case affords the class the opportunity to explore ethical issues in executive compensation as well as other aspects of the organization’s overall compensation structure. &nbsp

Introductory Information Systems Course Redesign: Better Preparing Business Students

Aim/Purpose The dynamic nature of the information systems (IS) field presents educators with the perpetual challenge of keeping course offerings current and relevant. This paper describes the process at a College of Business (COB) to redesign the introductory IS course to better prepare students for advanced business classes and equip them with interdisciplinary knowledge and skills demanded in today’s workplace. Background The course was previously in the Computer Science (CSC) Department, itself within the COB. However, an administrative restructuring resulted in the CSC department’s removal from the COB and left the core course in limbo. Methodology This paper presents a case study using focus groups with students, faculty, and advisory council members to assess the value of the traditional introductory course. A survey was distributed to students after implementation of the newly developed course to assess the reception of the course. Contribution This paper provides an outline of the decision-making process leading to the course redesign of the introductory IS course, including the context and the process of a new course development. Practical suggestions for implementing and teaching an introductory IS course in a business school are given. Findings Focus group assessment revealed that stakeholders rated the existing introductory IS course of minimal value as students progressed through the COB program, and even less upon entering the workforce. The findings indicated a complete overhaul of the course was required

Letter from Robert Crocker, Secretary-Treasurer of The Newspaper Grind, to Charlotte Michaud

April 1, 1972, letter from Robert (Bob) Crocker, Secretary-Treasurer of The Newspaper Guild, to Charlotte Michaud.https://digitalcommons.usm.maine.edu/michaud-1970-1973/1008/thumbnail.jp

Determinants of Hotel Property Prices

Pricing commercial real estate has its foundations in present value theory. Recent improvements for accessing transaction data have stimulated interest in commercial property hedonic pricing models, the structures of which follow traditions in single-family real estate in that the implicit prices of property characteristics and site-specific variables represent city and national market conditions. Adding present value variables has become increasingly common to account for general market conditions. We test two hedonic pricing models; one that follows the residential tradition and another that departs by incorporating city-specific net operating incomes and the discount rates. Modeling prices in these alternative ways allows for recognition of the relative contributions of property, city, and capital market determinants. Empirical testing relies on a sample of hotel transactions from 2005–2010. The responsiveness of hotel cash flows to market changes is an important consideration. We find that models with property characteristics perform about the same as models that also include present value variables. A plausible explanation for this phenomenon is that implicit prices corresponding to property characteristics and site-specific variables appear to reflect income streams associated with city and nationwide economic conditions

Exploring canyons in glassy energy landscapes using metadynamics

The complex physics of glass forming systems is controlled by the structure of the low energy portions of their potential energy landscapes. Here, we report that a modified metadynamics algorithm efficiently explores and samples low energy regions of such high-dimensional landscapes. In the energy landscape for a model foam, metadynamics finds and descends meandering `canyons' in the landscape, which contain dense clusters of energy minima along their floors. Similar canyon structures in the energy landscapes of two model glass formers--hard sphere fluids and the Kob-Andersen glass--allow metadynamics to reach low energies. In the hard sphere system, fluid configurations are found to form continuous regions that cover the canyon floors, but only up to a volume fraction close to that predicted for kinetic arrest. For the Kob-Andersen glass former, metadynamics reaches the canyons' ends with modest computational effort; with the lowest energies found approaching the predicted Kauzmann limit.Comment: 7 pages and 5 figures, plus appendice