How are UHCL students different? Here's one way...

In today's Wall Street Journal (page A11) Bret Stephens bemoans the shallow intellect of the graduating class of 2014.  He describes the class based on the actions of the activists at several colleges, such as Dartmouth, who really showed their tails over the last few months, mainly by protesting graduation speakers but also by asking for stupid and self-centered social welfare "solutions" on campuses.

I'll agree with him that there's something to this whole Millennial phenomenon.  He had previously described the Class of 2012 as displaying an "inverse relationship between that class's self-regard and its command of basic facts."  I've met a few of those folks in the past 10 years, not just in 2012.  Stephens goes on to point out that "at least the pretense of knowledgeability was important" to the 2012 bunch.  "For the class of 2014, it seems that inviolable ignorance is the only true bliss."  The guy has a way with words...

So back to the topic of this post:  How are UHCL grads NOT like other students?  Maturity, among other things.  When I talk to employers and alums, though, it's the "M-word" that stands out.

Not age.  Sure, some of our students are older.  But that's not always linked to maturity.  I've had plenty of students fresh out of community college who know what's what.  It seems that adversity in life can be known to cause one to strengthen oneself.  Or something like that.

Want an example?  One of my students just graduated Sunday with honors, her name was the first one read by the dean.  She's been taking classes at night and online and managing two little kids at home while her husband worked extra to support them and help her finish school.  She'll have trouble finding a job because they can only afford one car right now.  I can tell you without question that this young lady knows more about life and responsibility right now than any 10 students coming out of "traditional" university programs.  She picked finance as a major BECAUSE it was hard, and because she wanted a reputation to rely on when she graduated.

Is this student a customer? (That's the OTHER raging debate in higher ed - How we must treat our students as customers...)  Yes, she IS a customer.  Her opportunity cost is huge.  She's poured her soul into learning as much as humanly possible in her time at UHCL.  The other customers (employers, society at large) should be tickled to death to help her get her career started when she's ready.  She's a perfect example of why your college professors worked so hard to help you learn as much as you could.

Are all students customers?  Nope.  The ones that want to learn just enough to get a grade, who want to barely pass, to gripe their way through and try to free ride in groups instead of taking personal responsibility?  Those folks aren't customers.  Not for me at least.  My customers are past employers, the future employers and the alums who've already graduated, the hard working students, and society (the state of Texas).  Those folks pay me to make sure that the slackers have to learn something to get a decent grade.

So, Mr. Stephens, I'll challenge you on your generalization, but I'll agree that a good number of precious snowflakes in the Class of 2014 deserve your criticism.  The good news is that the excellent students will stand out by comparison in the "real world."  Thank goodness for markets.

Local Gamestop announces Job Fair, 5/8/14

Our local Gamestop stores are holding a Job Fair on Thursday May 22 at the Gulf Freeway South and Pasadena (Southmore) locations between 11 AM and 5 PM.  They are looking for district managers, store managers, assistant store managers and entry-level management.  If you're interested, send a resume to this email address:

JOESANDOVAL@GAMESTOP.COM  (there might be a period between the first and last name, I can't tell from the pic I took).

Also, you should come with a completed application and a hard copy of your resume.

Now before you say "Ah, retail..." you should recognize that some of the best opportunities for new job seekers come from retail.  And food service.  And some of the best money for young job seekers comes from taking a retail management path early in their careers.  We've had plenty of UHCL grads come from these industries and go back into them to make an even bigger name for themselves.  So no elitism, OK.  Retail is a great way to make a living.

Plus...how cool would it be to work at a freakin' GAME STORE?

Poison Pills get a booster shot, 5/8/14

A Delaware court ruling has clarified that state's poison pills to allow company's to distinguish new investors based on their intent.  A WSJ article today has the details.  Investors that file an SEC Form 13D indicating that they seek to increase their stake in the firm can be restricted from purchasing more than a 10% stake.  Those investors who've filed a Form 13G which indicates a passive interest can be allowed to purchase or hold more stock by the firm.

Finance Intern position at Oiltanking, 050614

I got an email from Maegan Lee in UHCL Career Services today announcing a finance intern position at Oiltanking.  Please follow the links if you're interested - the job description follows (I have to cut and paste it too, so please forgive the formatting).

Good Morning,

Oiltanking is looking to immediately hire a Finance Intern for this summer. Please see attached job description for more information. If you are interested in this position please apply online at https://home.eease.adp.com/recruit/?id=9143261  and email your resume to clint.mcglynn@oiltanking.com.

Sincerely,

Maegan Lee

Coodinator of Recruiting & Employer Relations

Career & Counseling Services

University of Houston-Clear Lake

Phone: 281-283-2594

Email: LeeM@uhcl.edu

The translated text of the job description is here:

Job Title:	Finance Intern	Job Classification:	Hourly
Department/Group:	Accounting/Finance	Location:	Houston, TX
Position/Classification	Full-Time / Summer 2014	Pay:	$17 / hr

SUMMARY:

Working with the 'C-level' executives of our company, the Finance Intern will prepare presentations for senior management, the Board of Directors, and outside investors, perform competitor analysis, help coordinate North America budgeting activities, and perform ad-hoc analysis. In addition, individual will assist in our capital transactions and M&A activities by modeling and performing due diligence for various projects under analysis. The candidate will have a demonstrated ability to analyze data and be able to present findings to the Company's highest managerial levels. The candidate must have a high level of maturity and ability to interact with 'C-level' executives.

responsibilities:

·          Prepare presentations for senior management, the Board of Directors, and outside investors

·          Perform competitor analysis

·          Coordinate North America budgeting activities

·          Perform ad-hoc analysis

·          Assist in capital transactions and M&A

·          Other projects

Minimum Requirements:

·          Accomplished educational background; pursuing finance or economics degree

·          3.5 minimum GPA

Skills:

·  Quantitative and analytical skills, attention to detail and written/oral communication skills

·       High degree of self-motivation, a positive attitude, and a strong desire to be successful

·          Comprehensive understanding of a variety of the field's concepts, practices, and procedures.

·          Superior communication and presentation skills

·     Critical Thinking - Using logic and reasoning to identify the strengths and weaknesses of alternative solutions, conclusions or approaches to problems.

·          Excellent judgment and decision making; considering the relative costs and benefits of potential actions to choose the most appropriate one. The ability to forecast when making decisions is VERY imperative.

·       Must possess active listening within the department and team; giving full attention to what other people are saying, taking time to understand the points being made, asking questions as appropriate, and not interrupting at inappropriate times.

Attributes:

·          Dynamic personality and character.

·          Strong written and oral comprehension as well as oral expression.

·        Technical review capability and problem sensitivity; the ability to tell when something is wrong or is likely to go wrong. It does not involve solving the problem, only recognizing there is a problem

·       Deductive Reasoning - The ability to apply general rules to specific problems to produce answers that make sense.

·    Inductive Reasoning - The ability to combine pieces of information to form general rules or conclusions (includes finding a relationship among seemingly unrelated events).

·          Ability to build relationships

·          Committed team player

Schedule:

·          Summer 2014 – (June 2, 2014 – August “flexible”)

·          Part-Time ≤40 hours/week

Apply at: https://home.eease.adp.com/recruit/?id=9143261

 

Job opportunities at UTMB, 5/1/14

UHCL Career Services is posting two new job positions sent to them by UTMB Health.  Please see these below or contact the Career Services folks for more info.  Thanks to Maegan Lee for the alert on this.

Financial Analyst I

Job Description:	Job Description: To provide assistance in matters of financial activities such as debt administration, issuance and analysis, budget, contract compliance, financial reports, and other business management services with a limited functional or organizational scope. Specific Job Related Duties: - Assist departments in the completion of the annual physical inventory of capital and controlled assets as well as respond to custodian questions regarding scanner use and software - Coordinate and assist (as necessary) with equipment tagging for campus departments and facilitate supporting documentation for asset data entry into the Asset Management subledger - Review electronic forms submitted by departments for compliance with federal and state guidelines and policies - Assist in process improvement, including e-form development, updating the Asset Management subledger through the e-form process, etc - Assist in the development of instructional materials and training to asset custodians in use of scanners and available reporting tools - Analyze Purchase Orders & Requisitions and ensure asset related information is captured accurately - Process and maintain on-line equipment transfers and update loan information in the Asset Management subledger - Ensure data integrity between scanning solution and PSAM subledger and the GL - Perform reconciliations as required to maintain an appropriate control environment - Other duties as necessary
Qualifications:	Min Qualifications: Bachelor's degree in Finance/Accounting or equivalent in related field and two years related experience. Preferred Skill/Competency: Excellent customer service and problem resolution ability Established analytical skills Proficient in Microsoft Office suite (Specifically Excel) PeopleSoft or ERP system experience a plus
*Application Instructions:	Visit link below to apply:
Online Application Address:	http://jobs.utmbhealth.com/job/Galveston-Financial-Analyst-I-Asset-Management-Job-TX-77550/58641700/

Financial Analyst II

*Job Description:	Job Description: To provide assistance in matters of financial activities such as debt administration, issuance and analysis, budget, contract compliance, financial reports, and other business management services with an intermediate functional or organizational scope. Asset Management is responsible for accurately tracking and reporting UTMB's significant investments in capital assets. Departmental responsibilities include maintaining a centralized asset database, reconciling capital expenditures monthly, and facilitating the annual physical inventory. The position must be able to provide clear and accurate financial information to enable senior management to make informed decisions. Specific Job Related Duties: - Analyzes and prepares various financial reports for both internal use and as required for external agencies - Examines historical and projected financial data to provide senior management with valuable data upon which to make relevant financial decisions - Perform intermediate to complex financial & operational analysis - Assist with various departmental functions including reconciliations, variance analysis, ad-hoc reporting, financial statement preparation, and forecasting - Adheres to internal controls and reporting structure - Assist with preparation of Plant related Annual Financial Report schedules - Other duties as necessary
Qualifications:	Min Qualifications Bachelor's degree in Finance/Accounting or equivalent in related field and three years related experience. Preferred Skill/Competency: Proficient in Microsoft Office suite (Specifically Excel) PeopleSoft or ERP system experience a plus Hyperion, Essbase Add-In, Access, & other reporting tools experience preferred
*Application Instructions:	Apply at webiste below:
Online Application Address:	http://jobs.utmbhealth.com/job/Galveston-Financial-Analyst-II-Asset-Management-Job-TX-77550/58641600/

On Academic Integrity, Part Two

OK, I don't want to leave that one on a sour note.  The struggle is far from over, but the good guys still hold all of the high ground, and Mordor is crumbling.

The Good News:

We've started proctoring at UHCL.  At least some of us have - some faculty members just changed their tests to "Assessment Activities" or some such.  Tenure cuts both ways; you get the good and the bad.  Some of my senior (and junior) colleagues are short-sighted and don't care about outcomes, but you knew that already.

So the reputation backslide will stop here.  Has it been costly?  Yes, personally for me and a few others and now for everyone.  Enrollment in Summer 2014 is off a bit, as of today.  Why?  Maybe some students don't want to be proctored.  Maybe they don't want to pay for proctoring tests (which is why each professor is required to have Saturday on-campus sessions available for each exam).  Maybe some students were planning on using textbooks during exams and not studying beforehand.  Maybe some students were taking tests in groups, online.  Who knows?  

What we DO know, however, is that we'll have control over our tests from now on, and we won't have to keep figuring out new hoops for the honest students to jump through, new tunes to hum, just to keep the cheating students from having an advantage.  We won't have to worry that all of our test questions are out on the Web. (Note:  Mine are already out on the Web because I put them in BlackBoard - the essay questions at least.  I call them "Learning Objectives" and there are several pages for each test.  And some students STILL don't want to learn the material enough to pass the tests.)

Don't despair, Dear Reader.  The news is good.

Update:  As of 5/19/14, enrollments have started recovering, at least for the summer.  I'll continue to argue that making F2F students take online courses, and vice versa, will continue to harm our enrollment for several years to come.

On Academic Integrity

There's an ongoing debate in academia about the role of online courses and online degrees and such.  I can tell you that it comes down to one thing: academic integrity.  Without an emphasis on academic integrity, no new whiz bang modality (remember TV courses?) is going to make any difference in participation rates or graduation rates or careers or lives.

At UH Clear Lake, the School of Business started proctoring in all of our online courses during Spring 2014.  It was a surprise to students, and some folks seemed to be shocked that we would start this so abruptly.

In the words of one of my new (older) MS Finance students "You should have been proctoring the whole time."  He's right.

Anything that separates face-to-face (traditional) classes from Web classes (or any other distance classes) just muddies the water.  Two sections of the same course separated only by modality must be as close as possible to each other or the curriculum (and the outcomes) suffer.  This is why faculty spend so much time on assurance of learning (assessment) and curriculum integration, and why we work very hard to make sure students can take away something valuable.

Online "Programs" and Enrollment Growth:

Let me set up a hypothetical situation here:  Suppose you wanted to increase (short-term) enrollment at a university, maybe in their Masters of Studies program, or their Masters of Branching Algorithms.  One way to do that would be to, in the short-term, accept pretty much everyone who had a pulse.  Another way would be to dilute the curriculum so that those marginal students could pass right along with the really bright majority of students.  Those two things work hand-in-hand, you know.  

The easiest way to convince faculty to pass everyone might be to let faculty (who are lazy, as everyone knows) teach online courses with no accountability for faculty OR students, and let the chips fall where they may.  Throughout my career I've referred to this as "The Game."

Sidebar:  The Game

In Academia, The Game is the phenomenon that occurs when the faculty wants to be left to its own devices, to "do science" or whatever, and the students want to have the fewest constraints placed on their time as well.  So, The Game consists of the students pretending to learn while the faculty pretend to teach.  At the end of semester the faculty assign grades on a nearly random but inflated basis, with only the too stoned or brain-dead laziest undergrads missing out on the gravy train.  

As long as nobody outside of Academia gets wind of The Game it can go on unnoticed for years.  Witness, for example, the sheer popularity of undergraduate degrees that have negative NPVs, such as social work and psychology.  A very few people actually end up working in their college major after school, I admit, but virtually NONE of the sociology majors end up being sociologists.  It's part of The Game - the more students we have, the easier it is to justify crappier classes (large sections, lots of teaching assistants, etc.) and then faculty don't have to be "bothered" by teaching.  Especially teaching undergrads.

Note:  I recognized The Game pretty early on, and became a professor to push back against it.  Tilting at windmills - it's on my business card.

Back to Academic Integrity:

So...we have a university or college that wants to increase enrollment.  The "leadership" (and I use that word loosely) decides to put more things online, and to offer "online degrees".  In the meantime they cut sections of F2F classes, screwing the already existing student base.  They encourage faculty in online courses to make things as easy as possible by limiting the development time and resources available to them, which throws off the balance between online and F2F curriculum.  In the meantime, they REQUIRE faculty to use online testing if they test at all - no proctoring of any kind (even at remote locations for the very few remote students) is allowed.  Faculty who want to proctor are forced by their dean to change their syllabus, thus ensuring that the disparity in rigor will be institutionalized and get wider over time.  Oh, and if some faculty say anything about it they are systematically demonized as "troublemakers."

Once a clientele develops, changing the culture BACK to one of academic integrity entails huge costs - they will lose students.  Just as they lost students when they went away from emphasizing F2F classes by substituting online classes in the schedule.

What's also clear, but unrecognized in the short-term, is that the reputation of the F2F program, which has been built up over many years and by many people, and upon which thousands of current students and alums depend, will be diluted by the addition of the online programs.  Good luck convincing alums, employers and the community at large that unproctored online classes are as good as a F2F traditional program.  They don't care how academic administrators feel about it, they deal with results.  But...that's in the long term.

In the short term:  Administrators get to brag about how "forward-thinking" they are, how responsible they are being for embracing change and "leading" the university into a new era.  They get to put on their CVs that they were responsible for X new online programs and spread that around when looking for new jobs.  In the short term they've been able to create whatever administrative infrastructure they deemed necessary (except an actual, useful "Testing Center" that online faculty and students could get some use out of) while holding the wolves at bay.  When questioned about the huge growth in staff and administration they ask "Well just think how bad would things be if we hadn't started online programs?"

In short, we have a new Game.  It involves administrators encouraging things that MIGHT benefit the short-term outcomes of the school, but SURELY will harm the long-term outcomes of the school.  In corporate finance we call some aspects of this the agency problem.

What does this have to do with Academic Integrity?  Everything.  Once we've stepped off the curb, there's a lot of lanes to cross before we're on the other side, and the other side may not be the place we want to be.  

If it involves LESS Academic Integrity, I'll vote no.

Certification:

Academia, in short, is about certification.  As professor I certify that you know something when you leave my class, and I rank you against that crop of students.  As a faculty we rank our graduates and find many that don't need to graduate.

If everyone makes a good grade, and everyone graduates, then something is broken.  The key is to make sure that everyone we bring in has the opportunity to make good grades and has the opportunity to graduate if they work hard.  Notice the last part.

Once we've removed any semblance of certification, good luck with the "adding value" part.  If I don't test my students, I don't know if they were the ones who did the work (same as if I just used team projects in class).  If I don't know my students because I never see them or don't communicate with them routinely in a 1-on-1 fashion, then I can't counsel them on career or write recommendations for them.  Not with a good conscience, anyway.

Online classes can be effective (I've tried to convince my peers, weekly) but they are difficult and expensive because of the connections that are lost.  To make up for facetime is very expensive, and without it online classes are useless, or even worse than useless if they dilute the reputation of the F2F degrees.

Conspiracy:

One more hypothetical for today.  Say you wanted to curtail the power of the faculty at a school.  Taking students out of the classroom and into The Cloud might be one way to do it.  Breaking that connection.  Limiting the amount the professor could advise students (by cluttering up faculty time, if nothing else) would work, too.

That's something to ponder.