University of Arkansas at Little Rock

U.S. Bank has presented Dr. Anthony F. Chelte, dean of UALR’s College of Business, a gift of $10,000 to help enhance the College’s high quality educational programs and economic development initiatives.

Michael Shelley, president of U.S. Bank, presented Chelte a check for the College of Business’ Dean’s Fund as a source of support for a wide range of activities that support the college’s vision as a catalyst for high quality business education and economic development in Arkansas.
“At U.S. Bank we recognize that UALR and the College of Business are vital to the Central Arkansas area,” Shelley said. “They are strategically located in the governmental, financial services and health care center of Arkansas and are in position to aid each of these important economic drivers for the state. UALR has great potential for partnership in such areas as economic development, medical research and many specific industries, including financial services.”

The Dean’s Fund supports continuous improvement efforts across the College of Business including: student initiatives and scholarships, faculty research and professional development, educational programming, and outreach efforts by the College.

Shelley said U.S. Bank relies on the College of Business to generate well-prepared graduates for its hiring needs and also looks to the UALR master of business administration program to further train several of its high-potential bankers.

“Chancellor Joel E. Anderson has clear vision of where he wants to see UALR go in the future,” Shelley said. “Enhancing the College of Business is a part of that vision. I am very impressed with Dean Chelte and his plans for the UALR College of Business and wanted to show our support in a tangible fashion. I felt a contribution to the Dean’s Discretionary Fund would enable Dean Chelte to determine how best to utilize the funds.”

U.S. Bank currently serves as a sponsor and partner for the UALR College of Business Sales Center and its regional commercial banking manager, Scott Teague, has served on the college’s advisory board for nearly five years. The bank also was a sponsor for the 2009 College of Business Alumni of the Year Awards Luncheon.

“U.S. Bank’s generosity will significantly help our efforts to successfully realize the College’s vision and greatly benefit students through programs that help prepare students for productive careers and lives,” Chelte said. “This type of giving enhances the college’s ability to develop partnerships with the business and broader communities that positively impact the overall quality of life in our community.”

Dr. Judyth Swingen, accounting professor at UALR, chaired the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants’ (AICPA) Tax Reform Task Force, which submitted federal tax reform recommendations in a report to President Obama’s tax reform panel this week.

AICPA is the national professional association of certified public accountants and has a long history of assisting lawmakers with tax policy matters and advocating sound tax policy. The AICPA Tax Division acknowledged the work done on the report, “Tax Reform Alternatives for the 21st Century,” by its five-member Tax Reform Task Force led by Dr. Swingen and the AICPA Tax Legislation and Policy Committee, of which Swingen is a member.

“I was fortunate to have the opportunity to work with some very experienced tax professionals on this project,” said Swingen. “My task force included the former national taxpayer advocate and the former head of the AICPA’s Tax Division.”

In March, Obama called for the formation of a task force to review the current income tax system and suggest ways to simplify it and improve compliance and to reform the corporate tax. With the continued focus on the need and desire to improve the current tax system by the administration and congressional leaders, the AICPA produced the report to serve as a resource to those engaged in the current tax reform debate. The committee’s objectives were to provide policymakers with a clear understanding of the issues and alternatives involved in federal tax reform and to foster informed discussion by providing unbiased information and analysis.

“Tax Reform Alternatives for the 21st Century” outlines efforts to improve the current system without changing its fundamental character. These include wide-ranging simplification efforts, increasing fairness, reducing revenue lost from tax evasion (known as the tax gap), and broadening the tax base. These proposals address economic growth by improving economic efficiency through greater neutrality, creating incentives for capital formation, accelerating depreciation, eliminating double taxation of corporate profits, simplifying and increasing tax-preferred savings options, and reforming counterproductive characteristics of the tax system as applied to domestic corporations and international businesses.

The report describes the nature of the issues leading to a tax reform debate, suggests a balanced approach for analyzing tax reform proposals, and summarizes key issues to be addressed whether taxing income or consumption or both.

“We are very pleased with Judyth’s efforts in leading this task force in this difficult but crucial work,” said Dr. Robert R. Oliva, chair of the Department of Accounting in UALR’s College of Business.

Tax reform will by necessity be influenced by issues currently facing the country including:

• The baby boom generation is starting to retire, placing additional burdens on strained entitlement programs including those where the costs of providing for health care continue to increase.
• The 2001 and 2003 tax cuts will expire in 2010, generating additional government revenues without corresponding examination of appropriate and fair tax burdens.
• The reach of the alternative minimum tax will grow exponentially, subjecting millions of taxpayers to unintended, higher levels of taxation, requiring more and more costly adjustments to limit its effect to the intended taxpayer group.
• Revenue needs will increase substantially to address historic levels of debt and annual deficits as a result of defense spending, the recent economic challenges, and financing new policy initiatives such as health care reform.

Congress faces some tough choices in the coming months. The annual budget deficit is now at a record level. Health care reform will be expensive. Medicare and Social Security payments this year will exceed the taxes collected for these programs. The AICPA Tax Reform study did not advocate a particular solution for the government’s fiscal problem. Instead, it identified several possible alternatives and discussed the pros and cons of each.

Business Expert Press recently announced the release of “Sustainable Business: An Executive’s Primer,” authored by Nancy E. Landrum, Ph.D., an associate professor of management at UALR, and Sandra Edwards.

The book provides an overview of how sustainability is applied throughout an organization. Chapters are organized by familiar departments or functions of business and covers applications and terminology of sustainability throughout each area. It is written for executives, entrepreneurs, and other employees or business students to understand the big picture of what it means to be a sustainable business.

“Sustainable Business: An Executive’s Primer” may be purchased on the Business Expert Press site.

Dr. Landrum will be presenting during the session “Greening 101/What is Green?” at the upcoming Little Rock Sustainability Summit, hosted by the City of Little Rock and the Little Rock Sustainability Commission, on Sept. 26 at the Statehouse Convention Center.

A principal at Sustainable Business Design Consulting, Landrum has consulted on sustainability issues with companies ranging from Fortune 200 and large oil companies to locally-owned small businesses. She is co-founder of the Sustainable Business Network of Central Arkansas, a committee member with the Little Rock Sustainability Commission, and serves on the Green Schools committee of the Arkansas chapter of the U.S. Green Building Council. Last year her Sustainable Business Design consulting blog was named among the Top 50 Business Professor Blogs by Biz.edu.

Landrum chairs UALR’s Sustainability Committee and is faculty advisor to UALR Net Impact. She was named a distinguished member of Net Impact, an international nonprofit organization that works to use the power of business to create a more socially and environmentally sustainable world. And she has been a visiting scholar in China and Finland

Through her class projects, she and her students have worked with several local private, public, government, and nonprofit organizations pursuing sustainability. Her research, teaching, consulting, and publication contributions are primarily in the areas of strategic management, corporate social responsibility, sustainable business, and base of the pyramid strategies. Landrum was previously a children’s mental health therapist and licensed social worker.

Advancing Management Education (AME), a giving circle for the College of Business, awarded its first three grants.

Four $500 scholarships for the Field Study in Mexico will be awarded for the spring 2010 trip. Faculty teaching international business courses will choose the winners based on financial need and potential success in the international business profession.

Two marketing department scholarships at $1,000 each will be awarded in March for use during the 2011 academic year. The department’s faculty will choose the winners based on scholastic achievement and potential success in the marketing profession.

Assistance for the College of Business Green Jobs Fair was also approved by AME, allocating $1,000 for the event.

Charter members of the giving circle include: Ethel Cook, Cynthia Daily, Brenda Fulkerson, Lyn Haralson, Susan Parke, Janet Roderick, Susan Rogers, Elizabeth Small, Cynthia Taylor, and Jane Wayland. AME members meet four times a year and hear speakers recognized for business knowledge and philanthropy. Once a year, members review and vote on College of Business grant opportunities and award them at an annual celebration.

The Executive Level for UALR alumni and friends of the College of Business is $1,000. The Leadership Level for recent graduates (five years) and university affiliates is $500. For more information on joining AME, contact Will Elliott at 501.569.3208 or jwelliott@ualr.edu.

UALR MBA student Robert Airo of North Little Rock, who worked on a team that completed a sustainability assessment for the City of Little Rock, was recently hired as the sustainability coordinator at the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences.

Airo was in Dr. Nancy Landrum’s Corporate Strategy course in the spring when he worked on the City’s sustainability assessment. Dr. Landrum, an associate professor of management in the College of Business, said the City wanted to know the state of the industry (urban sustainability), an internal analysis of how the City compared to similar cities around the country, and some recommendations on how to be more competitive on urban sustainability indicators. The team presented their research to the Little Rock Sustainability Commission (LRSC).

“The LRSC project was the deciding factor to hire me,” said Airo. He said it was a direct correlation of school work to obtaining a job, adding that people have told him that they “never actually knew anyone who had it happen. I am the first one UAMS hired to specifically work on sustainability.” Airo said he never before would have considered sustainability as a career path.

“To continue building upon this success, with Robert’s help, my current students in Sustainable Business (MGMT 7398) will be completing a self-study for UAMS this semester following the Green Guide for Health Care,” said Landrum. “They will also conduct industry research to identify best ‘green’ practices in the health care industry. By the end of the semester, we expect Robert and this new team of students to make recommendations to UAMS on how to be more green and sustainable in their operations.”

Airo started in the MBA program in fall 2007 and will complete his graduate degree this December.

Dr. James Bullard, president and chief executive officer of the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis, spoke to MBA students, business alumni, and other interested parties Thursday, Aug. 27, in an event cohosted by UALR College of Business and the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis.

Bullard’s 45-minute presentation — “Monetary Policy and the Economic Outlook” — was followed by a question-and-answer session and a reception. The event was held at the Donald W. Reynolds Center for Business and Economic Development at UALR.

Bullard took office as president and CEO in April 2008 directing the activities of the bank’s head office in St. Louis as well as its three branches in Little Rock, Louisville, Ky., and Memphis, Tenn. He also represents the Bank on the Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC), the Federal Reserve’s chief monetary policymaking body. The Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis, one of 12 regional reserve banks, along with the Board of Governors in Washington, D.C., constitute the Federal Reserve System. As the nation’s central bank, the Fed is responsible for conducting monetary policy, supervising banks, and operating the nation’s payment system.

After joining the research division of the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis in 1990, Bullard held several positions to include deputy director of research for monetary analysis. He holds a B.S. degree in quantitative methods and information systems and economics from St. Cloud State University in St. Cloud, Minn., and a doctorate in economics from Indiana University in Bloomington, Ind.

Bullard has written numerous papers published in professional journals and has been a peer reviewer for more than two dozen periodicals. He has participated in more than 150 conferences, symposia, or lectures sponsored by foreign central banks, academic institutions, and monetary policy groups around the world.

Centennial Bank directors and employees have established an endowment scholarship at the UALR College of Business honoring the late banker and marketing executive Tom Steves, a UALR alumnus. The Thomas E. Steves Sr. Memorial Alumni Endowment will benefit UALR students in marketing and advertising. Centennial Bank will match employer contributions to the endowment.

Steves, 68, died May 26 in a motorcycle accident. He had been executive vice president at Twin City Bank, now Centennial Bank, since 2002. Steves received a bachelor’s degree in advertising and marketing from UALR in 1970. He was long-time advertising and public relations professional in Little Rock who was a member of the UALR Alumni Association Board of Directors and University District Partnership Steering Committee and a former UALR adjunct professor.

“All of us at Centennial Bank are proud to support the Tom Steves Sr. Endowment,” said Centennial CEO Bob Birch. “We recognize both Tom and UALR’s commitment to education in the marketing and advertising professions. This endowment will perpetuate his memory as well as provide for students to learn about the career he truly loved.”

Steves’ dedication to UALR extended to his entire family. His wife, Robin Helton Steves, is a 1980 UALR graduate. His son, Tom Steves Jr., received accounting and finance degrees from UALR, and their daughter, Hope, is pursuing a master’s degree in education at UALR.

The Steves Endowment will be administered by the chair of the marketing and advertising department, and funds will be utilized for tuition, fees, books, and room/board at UALR. Recipients must be full- or part-time students majoring in marketing or advertising. Preference will be given to junior and senior level students. Academic accomplishment and financial need will be considered. Recipients must have a minimum grade point average of a 2.5.

To contribute to the endowed scholarship fund, contact Will Elliott, development director for the College of Business, at 501.569.3208 or jwelliott@ualr.edu

Dr. Nancy Landrum, associate professor of management in the UALR College of Business, has published a paper showing that Murphy Oil’s $50 million donation to establish the El Dorado Promise college scholarship program for local youth, was more than “checkbook philanthropy.”

“It was strategic philanthropy,” Landrum says. “Strategic philanthropy is that in which corporations use their charitable initiatives to improve the competitive context for the business, or the quality of the company’s immediate business environment.”

A major component necessary to conduct business is human capital. Since the announcement of the Murphy Corp.’s commitment, company officials said the Promise program will help make it easier to recruit people and rebuild the local talent pool. One year after announcing the Promise program, the city saw an 18 percent increase in college-bound seniors.

After two years, the community saw a 4 percent increase in school enrollment, the local community college experienced a 16 percent increase in enrollment, and families from more than 28 states and 10 foreign countries had moved to El Dorado.

“When viewed from the framework of strategic philanthropy, it becomes apparent how Murphy Oil’s investment in its business environment was strategic in nature by investing in factor conditions necessary for ongoing business (or the creation and development of human capital) and has the potential to improve long-term business prospects for the company,” Landrum said.

In addition to this research publication, Landrum had two other journal publications in 2008 and is anticipating the release of her book in August 2009, Sustainable Business: An Executive’s Primer.

A team of UALR graduate business students is one of five teams selected to compete in the worldwide Microsoft Imagine Cup H.E. Suzanne Mubarak Special Award competition in Cairo, Egypt, next month.

The Special Child team was among 113 entries in the competition to get the chance to represent the U.S. at the worldwide finals. Special Team won second runner-up in the national Microsoft Corp. Imagine Cup Software Design Initiative competition at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) in Cambridge, Mass.,in April. UALR’s finish was a stunning accomplishment, considering it was the first year the University competed in the worldwide contest.

UALR won two spots in the national competition. Earlier this spring, UALR fielded eight teams in the regional competition and is the only university in the four-state region - Arkansas, Texas, Oklahoma, and Louisiana - to have a team in the nationals.

In fielding eight teams this year, UALR broke the previous record of teams in the semi-finals. Three years ago, Virginia Commonwealth set the previous record of five teams.

The Imagine Cup is Microsoft’s largest competition, and they invest millions in it each year. Students had to design software around the theme “Imagine a world where technology helps solve the toughest problems facing us today.” Now in its seventh year, the Microsoft U.S. Imagine Cup attracts more than 200,000 students from more than 100 countries globally to enter the competition.

Special Child, UALR’s team of graduate students, proposes to establish a central point of information on adoptable children through Arkansas state agencies and families who have registered to be adoptive parents.

Special Child team members - all Master of Science in management information systems majors - are Joshua Thacker of Little Rock, Sandy Callahan of Benton and currently residing in Conway, Shreyasi Dutta, a native of India who lived in Dallas before coming to Little Rock, and Tomica Seals of Marvell.

The teams have been coached by Janet Bailey, Ph.D., associate professor of MIS, and James Parrish, assistant professor of management.

The second UALR team in the finals at MIT was PRODIGY - Positioning Research on Dynamic Information Globally Yielded. The team of undergraduates proposes using bioinformatics to uncover and eradicate causes of childhood cancer. It harnesses the power of technology to provide a mechanism through which parents, doctors and medical researchers can enter data into a worldwide database.

Management Information Systems majors on the team are Angela Howell of Mabelvale, Bernard Myers of North Little Rock, Aaron Yates of Bryant, and Emil White of Sherwood, who is also double majoring in accounting.

For their final projects in the Spring 2009 semester of Management 4385, Sustainable Business, groups of students conducted research into sustainable business practices, forming a blueprint for organizations that want to improve the world starting in their own backyards.

Students focused on a number of improvement areas, finding ways for organizations to improve energy efficiency, join groups for like-minded businesses, and save money while utilizing sustainable products. Projects included:

* Energy Efficiency Funding Opportunities – Many businesses are eager to implement energy saving measures but need financial assistance in funding the initiatives. Students identified 29 funding sources that included loans, grants, tax credits, tax deductions, and free energy assessments.

* Sustainable Business Networks – Students studied 22 nonprofit organizations around the country and found that they are commonly named sustainable business networks and sustainable business alliances. The organizations are membership-based and provide a variety of services, such as speakers bureaus, social events, professional mentoring and support for local sustainable and green businesses, green business certification programs, “Local First” shopping campaigns, and presentations, clinics, and workshops on sustainable business practices. The students’ research serves as the foundation for the creation of the Sustainable Business Network of Central Arkansas (www.sbnca.org), a nonprofit membership-based organization expected to be launched this summer to support the growing sustainable business community of central Arkansas.

* UALR College of Business Paper Project – Students identified ways the University could become more “green” and environmentally-friendly in printing practices and paper purchases while also saving money. The research study examined several options to reduce the environmental impact of the College of Business’ printing practices.

After considering several options and combinations of options, the students ultimately recommended that the college switch to 30 percent recycled paper, change default printer margins on all college computers, install printer management software on all college computers, change default settings on all printers and copiers to duplex (double-sided copies), and install EcoFont on all computers and set it as the default font.

The combined impact of these recommendations implemented in unison would reduce the college’s paper and ink purchases and result in a 39 percent cost savings over current methods; require the purchase of 151 cases of paper (instead of the current 251 cases) and 26 laser ink cartridges and toner (instead of the current 30 cartridges). The environmental benefits of implementing these recommendations would be 87.3 trees saved, 11.3 tons of wood saved, 16,659 pounds of CO2 emissions prevented, 57,753.6 gallons of water saved, 33,449.9 kilowatts of electricity saved, and 6,985.7 pounds of solid waste prevented.

For more information on the Sustainable Business course, contact Dr. Nancy Landrum.