Sarah Mazur addresses incoming students at a START session July 13.
START sessions aimed at helping new students, both transfers and freshmen, make a smooth transition toward the College of Business in fall 2015 are under way and will continue periodically throughout August, with a final session scheduled for late September.
A group of about 50, students and parents alike, filed into Austin Hall’s Stirek Auditorium for one of the sessions on Monday, July 13. Advisors Daniel Schwab and Sarah Mazur briefed the audience on a wide range of topics ranging from core requirements to academic honesty to the importance of networking – an overview of everything a new student needs to know to be successful in the College of Business.
“This makes me feel more focused, more ready,” said freshman to be Sarah Ryner of Oregon City, who’s interested in entrepreneurship. “I’m excited.”
Ryner was accompanied by her sister Rachael, a junior majoring in microbiology.
“I’m playing the role of parent today,” Rachael joked.
The rest of the START sessions are scheduled for July 21 and 24, Aug. 24 and 26, and Sept. 21. The July 21 and Aug. 24 sessions are aimed at freshmen, the July 24 and Aug. 26 ones are geared for transfer students, and the final one is a catch-all.
For more information, visit the advising office, 122 Austin Hall, or call 541-737-3716.
Nine students majoring in either apparel design or merchandising management spent six days in New York last month, earning two senior-level credits apiece while touring and analyzing various locales in the hub of the fashion world.
“The trip was incredible,” said advisor Allison Ramsing, who accompanied the students. “I went on a study tour in ’08 as a student, so to go on the instructor side was incredible. The city has changed a ton; there are always new things happening in the fashion industry.”
The students – Lu Lu, Ruochen Huang, Duncan Miller, Monica Nguyen, Yin Hung, Shelby Dodrill, Gabrielle Palazuelos, Marie Recine and Meagan Amos – went on “educational shopping trips” to the flagship stores of three retailers: Urban Outfitters, Forever 21 and Brooks Brothers.
“They’d go into the store and see how many markdowns there were, how much product there was, what was the fitting room like, how long the line was,” Ramsing said, ticking off just a few of the more than three dozen study questions the students had to answer as part of their store-experience analyses.
Other parts of the coursework included keeping a reflective journal, doing a portfolio page, and following up with and writing thank-yous to each company the students interacted with – Tiger J, Kleinfeld Bridal, Ross Stores, JPMA Global, Wanderlust Girls, Tuleste Market, CHF Industries, Fashion Snoops, Maran Inc./Squeeze Jeans, Mood Designer Fabrics, Macy’s, Kenneth D. King and Tibi, in addition to the three stores previously mentioned.
The group trip to New York has been an “every other summer” offering for apparel design and merchandising management students “for quite a few years,” Ramsing said.
The advisor shared some of her favorite student comments from the trip in a presentation to her colleagues after returning home:
“Just knowing that there are possibilities in New York City has expanded my thoughts on what I am able to do in the future.”
“So thankful for all of the people I’ve met, and the bonds I made with the people on this trip will last a lifetime.”
“Overall this experience has been eye-opening for a lot of jobs in the industry.”
The final Celebration of Achievement of the Ilene Kleinsorge era took place June 4 at Reser Stadium and included a collection of her colleagues paying a David Letterman-style tribute to the retiring dean: “Ten things we’ve always wanted to say to Ilene.”
The one-liners included a dig at Kleinsorge’s trademark running shoes, and an admission by one professor that she’d bumped into Kleinsorge at an airport not during a research term, as Kleinsorge had thought (and had found irksome enough), but during a teaching term.
“I had my classes covered,” the professor said to a din of laughter.
During the awards presentation part of the night, the following honors were bestowed:
College Service Outreach Award – Jonathan Arthurs;
Byron L. Newton Award – Excellence in Teaching – Anthony Klotz;
Outstanding Professional Faculty & Staff Service Award – Laura Scott;
Excellence in Scholarship Award – Pauline Schilpzand;
Experiential Learning Award – Christine Gallagher;
College Service Award – Jared Moore;
Betty and Forrest Simmons Excellence in Graduate Teaching Fellowship – Aimee Huff;
Newcomb Fellowships – Jenn Casey, Pam Knowles and VT Raja
Jeremy Banka affixes lettering to the wall of the display area at the Autzen House.
Sometime this summer, drop by the Autzen House, home of the OSU Center for the Humanities, and check out the collection of Occupy Movement posters from around the world put together by Andrea Marks, a graphic design professor, and one of her students, freshman Jeremy Banka.
Inside the exhibit room at the Autzen House, 811 S.W. Jefferson Ave., are 30 posters selected by Marks and Banka; the works on display are a small part of the Occuprint collection viewable at occuprint.org.
“The posters were chosen for their visual variety and cleverness in communication,” Marks said.
Banka designed the typeface, which he named Ergata, used on the various pieces of text that accompany the posters.
“There is no better visual artifact to record history than the poster,” the professor said. “Protest posters give the viewer a snapshot into a country’s political and social history.”
The poster project stems from a Center for Humanities Grant that Marks received in 2012. The posters will be on display through mid-September; viewing is free.
Ilene Kleinsorge’s final day as dean of the College of Business was June 30.
As she begins her retirement, please join us in thanking her for her many contributions, and we hope you enjoy this collection of photographs from Kleinsorge’s time as the college’s leader.
MBA candidates take their seats before the graduation ceremony in Stirek Auditorium.
Eighty-eight students representing eight nations were recognized June 13 for having completed their MBA studies during the 2014-15 school year. The Oregon State MBA program features eight different tracks, and the graduation ceremony honored students from all eight: research thesis, commercialization, business analytics, marketing, accountancy, wealth management, global operations and executive leadership.
Prior to the ceremony, six MBA graduates one other College of Business student were inducted into Beta Gamma Sigma, an international honor society serving schools accredited by the Association to Advance Collegiate Schools of Business. The inductees were Sinae Cho, Casey Miller, Yuriy Mikitchenko, Gary Phibbs, Kevin Russell, Halley Todd, and Phil Walter.
Erick Frack, president of Katapult Partners, LLC, and a 1981 College of Business graduate, delivered the keynote address at the MBA graduation ceremony. Frack’s talk centered around leadership, which he believes centers around caring about other people and listening to them.
“Your ability to show yourself as a good leader will help you more than anything,” Frack said.
Three of the MBA graduates also addressed the audience: Perren Baker (business analytics), Feng Qiu (research thesis) and Lauren West (commercialization). Baker urged his cohort to strive for a work/life balance, Feng talked about the challenges of being an international student while thanking his major professor, Keith Leavitt, for changing his life, and West told her fellow graduates, “When opportunity comes knocking, always say yes.”
The ceremony also recognized Grace Berczel, Casey Miller, Thomas Nguyen, Sara Kelley and Dan McCain for completing their combined doctor of pharmacy/MBA degree.
Following the 75-minute program, graduates and their guests repaired to Austin Hall’s third floor for a reception.
It was the second celebratory event of the day at Austin Hall, which in the afternoon hosted an outdoor reception for the College of Business’ newest bachelor’s degree recipients and their families and friends. Each of the 753 graduating seniors who stopped by received a COB business card holder as a gift from the college, and the event also included a photo booth and a group picture of all of the graduates on hand.
Associate dean Jim Coakley, right, congratulates MBA graduate Ryan Perry.
Benny Beaver was among retiring professor Erik Larson’s well-wishers.
Fittingly, as management professor, Neil Young devotee and renowned good guy Erik Larson took the podium at his retirement celebration May 15, Young’s tour de force “Heart of Gold” poured forth from the sound system in the Robert Family Events Room.
“I want to live; I want to give,” Young sang. “I’ve been a miner for a heart of gold.”
That’s exactly what the College of Business collected back in 1980 when it lured a young scholar west from SUNY-Buffalo, the pairing working so well that Larson became something of a rarity: a professor whose entire career took place at one university.
“I’m proud to have worked at Oregon State and in this college,” Larson said. “And I’m really glad to have gotten to spend my last year here, in the house that Ilene built.”
A colleague of Dean Ilene Kleinsorge for nearly three decades, Larson chose for his final year at the university a corner, fourth-floor office at brand-new Austin Hall as an exclamation point after spending 34 years in the college’s former home, Bexell Hall.
“It’s up to you guys to make (Austin Hall) a home,” he told the dozens of faculty and staff who turned out to wish him a well – a crowd whose size surprised the unassuming project-management legend.
“I told my wife as we were driving over here, ‘I wonder if anybody will show up; it’s a Friday afternoon,’’ Larson said.
Fellow management professor Keith Leavitt emceed the event (and arranged for the Young soundtrack). Leavitt said Larson was defined by genuine concern for others exemplified by how he shielded young faculty from things they didn’t need to worry about and spoke with candor about the issues they did need to be concerned with.
“Erik will tell you exactly what’s on his mind,” Leavitt said. “And he embodies the culture of the College of Business: Performance should never sacrifice people. He’ll always remind you not to take yourself too seriously.”
In retirement, Larson plans to follow Young’s advice to keep on rockin’ in the free world – with an emphasis on the world part of that. He’s been to 45 countries and wants to visit another 45, likely teaching part time wherever his travels find him and his wife, Ann – whom he thanked from the podium for “putting up with me.”
“I don’t know how she does it,” Larson said, training his eyes on her in the crowd. “I love you.”
For design professor Leslie Burns, being a scholar has meant seeing her research change the world for the better in ways she never even imagined.
Just one example: Her work with Sharron Lennon of Indiana University on the role of appearance in social perception has been used to refute rape defendants’ claims that what the victim was wearing was responsible for the defendant believing she wanted to have sex.
“Social perception is as much about the perceiver as it is who is being perceived, and so the judgments made often can’t be generalized beyond the perceiver,” Burns explained.
That means that whereas once upon a time an accused attacker could attempt a sexy-dress defense in court – as ludicrous as that may sound – Burns and Lennon scientifically disproved the notion that a particular type of apparel could be generally taken as consent.
Burns, who is retiring following spring term after 30 years at Oregon State, grew up in northwestern Montana in Cut Bank, a town of about 3,000 people 30 miles south of the Canadian border.
“I started designing clothing when I was in grade school, but I didn’t know that could be a career,” she said.
At Washington State she studied clothing and textiles and also developed a fondness for marketing research. Moving on to Purdue, she earned a Ph.D. in consumer sciences and retailing.
Burns was an instructor at San Diego State for a year and an assistant professor at Utah State for three before arriving in Corvallis, where her work has included five years in academic affairs; she helped create the degree partnership programs now in place between OSU and Oregon’s community colleges.
Burns is gratified by the partnership, along with her impactful research, and of how OSU started what is now a highly respected Ph.D. program in design and human environment.
“Seeing it grow and become acknowledged as one of the top doctoral programs in the country, I’m really proud of that,” she said.
In retirement, Burns will operate a startup, Responsible Global Fashion, LLC., which will produce educational materials aimed at helping the fashion industry make socially conscious decisions such as the ones she emphasizes to her students.
“I want to get to the decision makers of the future, that’s where the difference can be made,” she said. “These students, they are going to be the decision makers. I have a vision of where I see our industry headed.”
Burns is one of two longtime College of Business professors retiring this year. The other is Erik Larson, who will be featured in the COB blog later this week.
Proposed logo for Western Washington football team.
Branding a college football team.
Integrating individuals’ compostable household waste into a green network that includes a community garden.
Building a campaign for an ongoing food drive by encouraging, via a popular online comic strip, grocery consumers to purchase “Just One More” item to continually bolster food banks.
Putting together apps to help you shop, cook and travel more enjoyably and efficiently.
Creating tools to keep young girls out of the sex trade, and to extricate them if they’re already there.
Those were just a handful of the roughly two dozen capstone projects on display June 3 in the Robert Family Events Room as graduating seniors in graphic design showcased and talked about the signature works of their academic careers in the College of Business.
The two-hour reception featured a steady bustle of students, faculty, staff and parents, all of whom could view the design work the students had put together and also hear them talk about the projects one on one.
The crowd included various business and design faculty, Dean Ilene Kleinsorge and community members such as Kari Rieck, the executive director for Court Appointed Special Advocates of Benton County. An interview with Rieck was part of the research conducted by student Chloie Parsons, whose work involved branding for nonprofits.
Project topics varied widely. Kevin Bradley’s focused on how to brand a college football team, specifically the one at Western Washington University in Bellingham. The university dropped football several years ago, but if it opts to restore the sport, it could do worse than to lean on the efforts of Bradley, who designed and prototyped everything from game schedules to decals to fan gear to team helmets.
Bradley’s premise is that strong branding leads to potent recruiting and an overall successful program.
He chose the topic simply because he’s passionate about college football. Professor Andrea Marks encourages students embarking on the two-term projects to begin by picking something that truly excites them – that’s the thesis stage – and then branching into considering the design aspects of what they’re doing later as the work progresses.
Marks marveled at the work of the 2015 graphic design cohort, and of OSU graphic design students in general.
“Their interest never wanes,” she said. “Our graphic design graduates go to work in graphic design; they’re not just getting a degree.”
Students Jasmine Hart, left, and Alyssa Johnson, center, visit with professor Andrea Marks.
The Austin Family Business Program in Oregon State University’s College of Business has been selected as the 2015 recipient of the Family Firm Institute’s Interdisciplinary Achievement Award.
“This prestigious award is the pinnacle of achievement in the field and we are pleased to name the Austin Family Business Program as its recipient for 2015,” said Judy Green, president of the institute, which is the leading association worldwide for family enterprise professionals.
Established in 1999, the Interdisciplinary Award recognizes outstanding achievement in the advancement of interdisciplinary services to business families. It is the highest professional honor presented by the Family Firm Institute, which provides research-based learning and relevant tools for advisors and consultants, academics and family enterprise members to drive success.
“We’re thrilled to receive this recognition from FFI that honors our commitment to delivering quality education to family businesses,” said program director Sherri Noxel. “It’s particularly special for us because 2015 is our 30-year anniversary.”
Founded in 1985, the Austin Family Business Program provides inspiration, education, outreach and research to support the success and survival of family businesses.
The program works with family business advising practitioners and consultants to design educational programs to prepare family businesses to balance the well-being of the business, the family and individuals, Noxel said.
Noxel will accept the award on behalf of the program at the FFI Gala Awards Dinner in October in London.
