American business schools to cut their budgets

Business Schools Get Lean
Source: Bloomberg Business Week
Money woes have many B-schools looking for ways to avoid layoffs and program disruptions, and they're finding them in the unlikeliest of places
By Francesca Di Meglio

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Like many small, private business schools, Dartmouth College's Tuck School of Business (Tuck Full-Time MBA Profile) in Hanover, N.H., relied on its endowment for its budget before the financial crisis hit in 2008, says Steven Lubrano, assistant dean of administration and chief operating officer at Tuck. The crisis meant fewer alumni and corporate sponsors contributed, and endowment returns took a hit. The school struggled with a difficult question: To lay off staff or not to lay off staff?

Knowing layoffs would have a big impact on employees and the small town of Hanover, where jobs were scarce even in good times, the staff rallied to come up with creative ways to cut back on spending and become more efficient, says Lubrano. In the end, he says, Tuck was able to trim costs by nearly 3 percent and avoid layoffs by centralizing the school's recycling system, which saves janitors seven hours per week in labor; creating financial centers, where a few people handle all the necessary paperwork for employee expenses; reducing mailed print materials from 55 to 10 per year; and reducing travel in favor of videoconferencing and other technologies.

"We told people their jobs were not at risk, but we had to change how we do things," he said. "Once jobs were safe, people were more willing to participate and offer suggestions."
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Practice What They Teach

Indeed, business schools across the U.S. had to practice what they teach by becoming leaner—not to mention more creative—to get through the thick of the financial crisis.University endowments suffered losses averaging 18.7 percent in the year ended June 30, 2009—their worst year since the Great Depression—and are just now beginning to recover. And with virtually every state in the union facing massive budget shortfalls, 43 have made cuts to higher education, according to the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities.

For some business schools, the solution to dwindling resources was layoffs and program eliminations. At Ohio University, the College of Business (Ohio Part-Time MBA Profile) on Nov. 12 suspended its full-time MBA program, citing "major budget challenges." The school has also cut two undergraduate majors with low enrollment, and had a number of B-school staff redeployed to other parts of the university, says Hugh Sherman, Ohio's B-school dean.

But like many other B-schools, Ohio didn't stop there. To create more revenue and respond to demand, the school expanded its executive education programs, increased its part-time MBA program from two cohorts to six, and increased recruitment of international students.

"Being businesspeople, there's a need for us to be strategists," says Sherman. "That's a different concept for universities, which like to think that you can service everyone. You can't."

Shifting Resources

To avoid layoffs and other drastic measures, many business schools opted for cuts that minimized disruption, sometimes shifting resources where they're needed more. For example, the University of Chicago's Booth School of Business (Booth Full-Time MBA Profile) didn't fill open positions, reduced the number of temps and contract workers, delayed expenditures on facility updates, and began requiring dean's-office approval for most travel—a change that forced staff to start looking for bargains, says Stacey Kole, deputy dean for full-time MBA programs at Booth.

At the same time, she says, Booth added career services staff to develop relationships with recruiters and provided funding for students who wanted to intern at nontraditional or nonprofit employers. "Students learned that we fully supported them in their job search by putting more resources into our career services at a time when we reduced resources to non-student-facing services," wrote Kole in an e-mail.

Determined to continue to recruit high-quality business faculty and refrain from cutting services to students, the University of Pennsylvania's Wharton School (Wharton Full-Time MBA Profile) gave other parts of its budget more scrutiny, says Peter Degnan, vice-dean for finance and administration at Wharton, which faced one round of layoffs in its executive education department. The school also negotiated more discounts from vendors and kept travel and entertainment expenses down, he added.
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Saving on Utility Bills

The facilities of various business schools can cost big bucks to maintain. Much like American families who are paying closer attention to the length of their showers and turning off lights when they leave a room, business schools are finding ways to bring down utility bills.

Harvard Business School (Harvard Full-Time MBA Profile) realized that having the air-conditioning or heating systems turned on during nonbusiness hours was a waste, and it wasn't very green, which is a priority, writes Meghan Duggan, assistant director of sustainability and energy management at HBS, in an e-mail. Although a few employees who work late might have to wear sweaters during the winter or take them off during the summer, the savings, which Duggan would only describe as in the "six figures," are worth it, she writes.

"Simple behavioral efforts that don't cost a cent can have a positive financial impact," she writes.

With the economy showing signs of life, the need for additional belt-tightening has subsided. At Wharton, Degnan says, executive education programs have recovered most of their lost ground and gift-giving has stabilized. With money not quite as scarce as it once was, schools are starting to spend—Booth, says Kole, has begun filling open positions again. Still, don't expect business schools to revert to their old spendthrift ways anytime soon.

"We are still keeping a close watch on expenses," says Degnan. "It isn't time yet to open the floodgates and just let things happen."

No one will soon forget the Great Recession, least of all business schools. Kole admits the crisis brought on a "tough morale period" for the staff at Booth, who, she adds, shouldered more responsibility than usual. Despite the sacrifices, Kole says the staff united to make sure students did well, and people noticed these efforts.
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"You couldn't 'bonus' people, but you could write personal thank-yous, which is something we weren't doing enough of before," she says. "It brought us closer together."

Di Meglio is a reporter for Businessweek.com in Fort Lee, N.J.

Google Chases Computer Criminals to Search-Engine Competitors

By Jeff Bliss

Source: Bloomberg Business Week

Keywords: malicious software, hackers, cyber criminals, worms, viruses, Trojans, Max Berley, Robin Meszoly

Google Inc. has almost cut in half the malicious software affecting users of its search engine, driving hackers to competitors including Microsoft Inc.’s Bing, Yahoo! Inc. and Twitter Inc., a report says.

Hackers targeted Google, owner of the most popular search engine, 38 percent of the time as of Dec. 31, according to the report to be released later this month by Barracuda Networks Inc., a web security firm. Mountain View, California-based Google accounted for 69 percent of the attacks in a sample conducted around June, the report says. A Barracuda report in July labeled Google “king of malware.”

Even as Google improved its security, the number of attacks increased. In the December sample, Barracuda said it found 226 pieces of bad software a day, compared with 146 in June. Meanwhile, Google’s competitors recorded an increase in malware- laced search results: Cyber criminals placed 30 percent of their bad software on Yahoo! search results in December, up from 18 percent in June. Bing accounted for 24 percent in December, up from 12 percent in June. And the targeting of Twitter rose to 8 percent from 1 percent, the report says.

Google said it has ratcheted up efforts to identify and scrub attempts at so-called search poisoning, which allows criminals to take control of computers to perpetuate cyber attacks, as well as large-scale banking and identity-theft swindles.

Faster Detection

“We have done a lot of work to detect these quickly and to warn users,” Niels Provos, principal software engineer in Google’s infrastructure security group, said in an interview. Last year, it took 10 hours to remove the bugs; now it takes an hour, he said.

Until a few years ago, worms, viruses, Trojans and other such malware could largely be avoided if users stayed away from porn sites and other dubious web neighborhoods. The cyber thieves’ gambit to infect search results is harder to bypass. Americans conducted 17.8 billion searches in November 2010, a 23 percent increase from a year earlier, according to ComScore Inc., a Reston Virginia-based market-research firm.

“One of the reasons this is so highly targeted is the volume of searches is increasing rapidly,” said Paul Judge, chief research officer of Campbell, California-based Barracuda. “People have become lazy and dependent on” Google and its rivals.

Targeting Popular Searches

During a 60-day period last year, one out of every three terms ranked most popular by search companies produced a result that linked to malicious code, Judge said.

Recently, some web users who clicked on search results for Gwyneth Paltrow, Brett Favre and Prince William’s fiancée Kate Middleton were tricked into downloading programs that allowed criminals to take over their computers, the consultants said.

Once hackers get access, they scour data banks for Social Security numbers, tax returns and other personal information, said Chris Swecker, former assistant director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation’s criminal investigative division.

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“They want to suck information out of your computer,” said Swecker, who heads his own Charlotte, North Carolina-based security consulting firm.

The infected PCs then also can be enlisted in an army of other unwitting machines known as botnets that are used to carry out scams.

Marketing Lessons

The criminals rely on some of the same techniques -- sprinkling key words, links and videos on their websites -- legitimate companies use to boost their search-result rankings, Judge said.

“The attackers have learned from the marketing people,” he said.

Some companies make the criminals’ job easier by ranking their searches, the most popular of which are then targeted to be infected, he said.

Cyber criminals also spread rumors -- including recent false reports of singer Gwen Stefani’s death -- to spark searches they can embed with their programs, said Anup Ghosh, a former program manager at the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency.

In one recent incident, users who clicked on a picture of Paltrow at a New York charity event were greeted by a dialog box that said their computer needed to be scanned for viruses. A click on that box triggered animation simulating a scan that claimed to find numerous viruses. Choosing “remove all” downloaded the malicious program. The link was taken down one hour after it appeared.

Anti-Virus Focus

For the most part, security companies spend most of their time developing anti-viral programs and fixes for existing software and aren’t focused on cleaning up the searches, said Ghosh, who founded Fairfax, Virginia-based Invincea Inc. to create products to fill that void.

“Just about everybody in the security industry ignores this problem,” said Ghosh.

That may be changing. Google and Microsoft engineers said they scan billions of web addresses daily to identify suspect sites. The rivals also share information on hacker search ploys, said Bruce Cowper, a group manager in Redmond, Washington-based Microsoft’s Trustworthy Computing unit.

“As attacks become more complex, I think there’s going to be a lot more collaboration across the industry,” he said.

Dana Lengkeek, a Yahoo! spokeswoman, referred questions to Microsoft, which provides security for the Sunnyvale, California-based company’s search engine. Matt Graves and Jodi Olson, spokespeople for San Francisco-based Twitter, didn’t respond to e-mails.

--Editors: Max Berley, Robin Meszoly

Obama Proposes $3.73 Trillion Budget

Budget Plan Marks Start of Long Fight on Spending
Source: Wall Street Journal
By COREY BOLES
WASHINGTON—President Barack Obama's $3.73 trillion budget proposal for fiscal-year 2012 marks the start of a long fight with congressional Republicans about the depth of spending cuts.

Mr. Obama's budget offers up more than $1 trillion in deficit reductions over a 10-year period—three-quarters coming from spending cuts and the balance from tax increases or the elimination of existing tax breaks.

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In fiscal 2012 alone, the administration proposed reducing or closing 200 federal programs at a savings of $33 billion. Proposed cuts would hit Democratic priorities such as the Low Income Home Energy Assistance Program, which would stand to lose $2.5 billion, or community-development grants, which would suffer a $300 million reduction.

Mr. Obama said the cuts fall on "many programs whose mission I care deeply about, but meeting our fiscal targets while investing in our future demands no less."

The White House budget acknowledges the cuts rest on the non-security, discretionary-spending portion of the budget, which represents approximately 12% of all spending. "The solution to our long-term fiscal problems cannot rest on this alone," the budget document noted.

Republican lawmakers criticized Mr. Obama for failing to spell out how to reduce entitlement spending on Social Security and Medicare.

"We're not having any leadership" at all, Sen. Jeff Sessions (R., Ala.), the top Republican on the Senate budget committee said on CNN. "I do believe he deserves serious criticism for that." Mr. Sessions added his party stood ready to begin negotiations with Mr. Obama on overhauling the entitlement programs.

The White House also came under attack from David Walker, the former U.S. comptroller general and a long-time fiscal hawk.

"The budget contains language that notes the importance of addressing our nation's structural deficits, however, it is largely void of concrete proposals and specific time lines for addressing them," Mr. Walker said.
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The proposed savings from Mr. Obama go nowhere near the short-term reductions that House Republicans are pushing for. And many of these proposed budget cuts and tax increases were on the table earlier and met strong opposition in Congress.

Republicans now are focused on a short-term budget battle. Friday night, the party's leaders released details of a plan to slash $62 billion in the remaining 7½ months of fiscal 2011, and they promised to cut more in their fiscal 2012 budget plan.

And the proposed Obama budget reductions don't come close to the $4 trillion in savings recommended by a White House-appointed deficit commission. This is largely because the president's budget shies away from pushing for any substantial changes to the entitlement programs Medicare, Medicaid or Social Security. Nor does it include a specific outline for overhauling either the corporate or individual tax codes.

On Social Security, Mr. Obama sought to start the conversation by outlining a series of principles for an overhaul effort. He is proposing no reductions in basic benefits for seniors, and future beneficiaries could not see their "benefits slashed."

The broader story in Mr. Obama's budget seeks to balance two agendas: dramatic cuts to federal spending while also investing in programs to improve U.S. competitiveness.

"My budget makes investments that can help America win this competition and transform our economy, and it does so fully aware of the very difficult fiscal situation we face," Mr. Obama said in his budget message.

His budget would boost funding for the Department of Education to $77 billion from the $64 billion it received in fiscal 2010. The money would be used to increase education competitiveness and increase the number of science, engineering and math teachers in schools by 100,000.

At the same time, the president called for a five-year non-security discretionary-spending freeze and a two-year freeze of federal government employees' salaries. The budget plan discusses how the proposed cuts to discretionary spending were only a beginning to addressing the core fiscal problems facing the country.

Mr. Obama, speaking at an education event in Baltimore, said his budget plan responds to the goals of the fiscal commission.

"The only way to truly tackle our deficit is to cut excessive spending wherever we find it, in domestic spending, defense spending, health-care spending, and spending through tax breaks and loopholes,'' Mr. Obama said. "So what we've done here is make a down payment."

Under the president's budget, the deficit as a share of U.S. gross domestic product would decline from its projected 10.9% in fiscal 2011 to 2.9% by fiscal 2018. Most economists agree that a deficit lower than 3% of GDP is sustainable. But then under the White House budget, the deficit would begin increasing again as a share of GDP in the latter years of the decade, largely as a result of the costs of the entitlement programs.

Mr. Obama does propose aggressively cutting the Pentagon's budget—which along with the entitlement programs and interest on the national debt account for the lion's share of federal spending.
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He would cut defense spending by $78 billion over the next five years, bringing the Pentagon budget down to zero real growth. Combined with reduced expected spending on the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan in the coming years, that would reduce defense spending substantially.

On the investment side, Mr. Obama called again for making the research and development tax credit permanent—at a cost of $106 billion over the next decade.

The budget would maintain the maximum $5,500 grant available to poorer college students—it would pay for the substantial cost of doing so by eliminating the grant's availability during summer school, and interest would begin accruing on loans taken out by graduate students from their inception.

Important thing to remember: Valentine's day and prenuptial agreement go together

By Claudia Buck
Published: Sunday, Feb. 13, 2011
Source: Sacbee.com
Valentine's Day: That heartfelt time of rings, romancing and oh-so-many wedding proposals. And a day when three little words just might be whispered in your ear.

No, not those three little words. The I-love-yous aside, we're talking these: a prenuptial agreement.

As the busy summer wedding season approaches, it's a good time to consider a document with a decidedly ominous reputation.

"It sounds so unromantic," said Beth Appelsmith, a Sacramento family law attorney, who's done dozens of premarital agreements. "But the negative connotations come from celebrity cases, the ones that go bad," she noted, like that of San Francisco Giants baseball player Barry Bonds, whose last-minute premarital document was contested all the way to the California Supreme Court.

Or the current, contentious case of Los Angeles Dodgers owners Frank and Jamie McCourt, whose prenuptial agreement has been at the heart of the couple's multimillion-dollar divorce.

In fact, the term has become so synonymous with loveless legalese that veteran family law attorneys like Hal Bartholomew in Sacramento prefer to call them "marital agreements" – "because it's a more positive word."

Nationally, the number of couples signing prenuptial agreements appears to be growing and the economy could be a factor.

In a survey of American Academy of Matrimonial Lawyers (AAML) members released last September, 73 percent said they've seen an increase in so-called "pre-nups" during the past five years. Also, 52 percent reported more women requesting prenups and 36 percent said pensions and retirement benefits are more commonly cited.

Stephanie Barber, a claims analyst with the State Compensation Insurance Fund in Sacramento, said she and her fiancé drew up a prenuptial agreement prior to their marriage four years ago "because I had a vested retirement and savings and he had a home with a lot of equity. It was so simple and it separated the financial from the emotional."

Unfortunately, the marriage didn't last, but the couple's prenup, Barber says, made the divorce amicable enough that "we're still friends."

Who needs one?

"If all you have is an apartment and a paycheck, then you don't need a prenup," said attorney Appelsmith. "But if you have real estate, a business, children from previous relationships, then you do need one."

Appelsmith, who's seen a slight increase in prenup requests the past few years, said it might be worthwhile for a couple to have a one-hour consultation with an attorney before deciding whether a prenup is needed.

Berkeley-based Nolo Press, which published a how-to book on prenups (see box), recommends that couples do some homework together, writing a draft of their financial preferences before heading to a lawyer's office.

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Basically, a prenuptial agreement states your wishes for how your marital assets and debts would be handled, in the event of divorce or death. Some couples don't want to be bound by California's community property laws, which generally divvy up all assets and income earned during a marriage in equal portions. Some couples waive spousal support in case of divorce. Older couples with children from previous marriages, established businesses or complicated investments may want to spell out which assets go where, often as part of their estate planning.

It's all about how you approach it, says longtime lawyer Bartholomew, who's done 50 or 60 prenuptial agreements over the years. "Too often I've seen agreements where one side has a buddy who's a lawyer. The agreement is very sterile or approached like it's a business arrangement."

But prenups are not an emotionless contract. "This is different: This is a couple in love with each other. … I like the empowerment of couples making these (financial) decisions together," said Bartholomew, past president of the AAML's Northern California chapter.

He and Appelsmith are advocates of so-called "collaborative" agreements, where a couple sit down, each with an attorney, to amicably devise a financial agreement that works for both sides. The emphasis is teamwork, not adversarial.

Appelsmith said it can also be helpful to have a neutral financial planner or adviser on hand to discuss the tax implications and financial strategies that might be involved.

And while it's commonly assumed that prenups are only for the wealthy – who want to shield expensive homes, cars and bank accounts in case of divorce – that's not necessarily so, say family law attorneys.

Sacramento attorney Dena Bez, who executed five or six prenups last year, said many of her clients are blue-collar couples with modest incomes.

The recession, she says, has driven more couples to seek out premarital agreements as protection from financial harm.

"Because of the economic climate, they're hesitant to get into a relationship that could affect their credit scores or expose them to debt collection," said Bez. "They want to insulate themselves from a partner's debts."

In one case, a middle-aged couple wanted a prenup because one had a clean credit history but the other had large amounts of credit card debt. Their prenup stipulated that each person's income and debts remain separate.

Another, a 20-something bride-to-be, sought a prenup to make it "abundantly clear" that her expected inheritance would remain her separate property. Even though inheritances and gifts are not considered shared assets in a marriage, she and her parents didn't want any uncertainty in case the young marriage didn't last.

What's required in a prenup? It must be in writing. Both sides must wait seven days before signing. Each person must fully disclose all their assets and their debts.

In addition, if alimony or spousal support is involved, both sides should have an attorney's advice. And if one party's primary language isn't English, the prenup should be translated so there's no misunderstanding of what's in the document.

It's also recommended that couples review their prenuptial agreement periodically, especially after 10 years or so, to be sure the terms still suit their circumstances.

Perhaps the best outcome of a prenup is that it gets couples talking about their finances before saying "I do."

"If a couple has a chance to talk about their expectations around money, they should be able to minimize conflict and surprises during their marriage," said Appelsmith, who's seen how financial differences can lead to divorce.

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"Some people think it's kind of crass to talk about money," she noted. But if two people have completely different ideas about how to handle their finances, the process of setting up a prenuptial agreement "can actually generate harmony."

Ultimately, a prenup is insurance in case happily-ever-after doesn't happen.

"I've seen so many people go through horrific situations in a divorce because they didn't have a prenup. It gets ugly and emotional," said Barber, 39. By contrast, she says her split was clean, simple and friendly, thanks to the prenup: She kept her CalPERS pension; he kept his house.

"It was a no-brainer for us. I would definitely do another prenup, if I were to consider remarrying. Absolutely."

Delaware jobs: Teens, graduates struggle to find work, too

They compete with adults who are unemployed
By PHILLIP LUCAS
Source: Delaware Online
12:34 AM, Feb. 13, 2011
Tim Watson, of Wilmington, has filled out application after application over the past six months looking for his first job.

The sense of enthusiasm he had at the beginning of his search is a shadow of what it once was -- yet Watson, 16, tries to stay hopeful.

"I haven't tried everything yet, I guess," said Watson, a sophomore at Salesianum. He added that most contact with potential employers ends when the application is handed in -- or submitted electronically.

"Things are online now," he said. "Nobody calls you back."

Watson's plight is painfully familiar for many teens and young adults looking for work in a stagnant job market.

Finding a first job or career -- a rite of passage for teens and recent graduates across the country -- has become more difficult with fewer jobs on the market and unemployed adults now competing for part-time and entry-level positions once dominated by teens and young adults.

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Youth unemployment reached a record high in July -- a month that once saw youth employment levels peak with high school and college students beginning their summer vacations. In July 2010, 18.6 million people between the ages of 16 and 24 were employed.

The figure represents only 48.9 percent of the youth labor force -- which is the first time in history that more than half of the youth labor force was unemployed, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics.

Youth unemployment also has reached record highs on a global level -- with the International Labor Organization reporting that about 80 million young people worldwide were jobless in 2010.

With plenty of applicants and not enough jobs to go around, Watson's father, Stuart, knows the onslaught of older unemployed applicants at local businesses have a distinct advantage over teens and young adults.

"If you're at the lower end of the scale, it's a lot trickier," he said.

Watching his son struggle to find something that once came so easy has been difficult.

"You don't want them to be discouraged," he said. "You like them to see that employment has rewards other than just monetary."

A 2010 study by the Center for Labor Market Studies at Northeastern University found that rewards of employment for young people are a stronger work ethic, a diminished risk for delinquent behavior, better job opportunities in their early 20s and a diminished likelihood for teen pregnancy -- among other things.

High rates of unemployment have been linked to higher crime rates.

"It's probably not a good idea to have youth sitting around without any money and nothing to do," said Tom Smith, director of the state Division of Employment and Training in the Department of Labor. "The work experience provides a baseline opportunity to make them successful later."

The Department of Labor offers a summer employment program for eligible youth ages 14 to 21 and pairs them with employers for four- to 10-week terms.

Over the past two years, the program received about $1.5 million in additional stimulus funding to complement its budget of $450,000 from the state Legislature.

However, because the program has not received additional stimulus funding for 2011, it is likely to place only about 400 young people in jobs this summer, Smith said. In 2010, the program served about 1,200 throughout the state.

Without having a job and learning good work habits early, experts say, discouraged youth could be at risk for becoming a lost generation that prematurely drops out of the work force.

However, good news for young job seekers may be on the horizon.

The National Association of Colleges and Employees reportsemployers anticipate hiring 13.5 percent more new college graduates in 2011 than they hired from the class of 2010. In 2009, the association reported employers planned to hire 21.9 percent fewer college grads than in 2008.

A tough economy has forced about a quarter of recent college graduates to work in fields that are unrelated to their educational backgrounds.

About 40 percent of graduates under the age of 25 work in careers they did not study to enter, according to the Center for Labor Market Studies at Northeastern University.

Of that 40 percent of recent graduates, 26 percent work retail jobs or as waiters and bartenders until they can find work in their fields.

"It is hard. I always say, 'Oh, if I can't find a job, I'll be a waitress.' But I just have to motivate myself and surround myself with good people," said Alyson Belgraier, a junior majoring in health and behavior sciences at the University of Delaware.

Belgraier was in the university's Career Services Center Friday looking for pointers on where to begin a job and internship search.

Before her junior year, she'd been in the office only once -- as a freshman.

"But I wasn't really paying attention because I didn't really care about that stuff then," she said.

However, as she moves closer to graduating, Belgraier, of Long Island, N.Y., realized career planning resources are more relevant than ever as young people face challenges entering the job market.

Criztal Hernandez, a junior majoring in food and agricultural business, aspires to work for theU.S. Department of Agriculture or Food and Drug Administration to help facilitate the international trade of agricultural goods.

Despite early planning and using career planning resources, Hernandez is still anxious about finding a job after graduation.

"You kind of start thinking about the real world and what's going to happen next -- it's kind of scary," she said.

"A lot of college students are seeing their moms and dads being laid off," said Matthew Brink, director of Career Services at UD. "Because of that, there's higher levels of stress and anxiety."

There are also higher levels of freshmen planning their careers and researching their respective industries by making one-on-one intake appointments at the center.

"Last fall, I believe we had four freshmen make an appointment in their first semester," Brink said, "This year, we had 74."

He estimates the number of freshmen who use career services, such as the Blue Hen Jobs online jobs database, has tripled since last academic year.

Career coaches at the Career Services office at Delaware State University stress early exposure to internship and co-op programs years before graduation to prepare students for an increasingly competitive -- and constricted -- job market.

"What we realized is that most graduating seniors were trying to find employment either after graduation or right before graduation," said Fred Cooke, a career coach at DSU.



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The office now offers between 30 and 40 formal and informal career coaching and mock interview sessions each semester.

"We're swamped, and I think it's just a matter of changing their mind-set," Cooke said.

Pupils' roles as students are cast aside when they enroll in the university, he said.

"They're pre-professionals now."

Man who posted 140 mph on Youtube arrested

Man jailed after filming himself driving 140 mph
By Dan Cook | Reuters – Sunday 13, 2011
PORTLAND, Oregon (Reuters) - A man who filmed the speedometer of his car while driving more than 140 miles per hour so he could post it on YouTube, ended up in jail on Saturday and the video confiscated, police said.

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Stanislav Vadimovich Bakanov was pulled over by police on Oregon Interstate 5 after he was clocked driving his black 2005 BMW at 118 mph. He filmed Sheriff's Deputy Ryan Postlewait as he approached the car.

When Postlewait asked why he was videotaping, Bakanov said he was filming his speedometer, and his arrest, to post on Youtube. The video later revealed that Bakanov had attained speeds in excess of 140 mph.

He was arrested and confined in Marion County jail Saturday night, charged with reckless driving and speeding. It was his third speeding incident in the past year. The video was confiscated and will be used as evidence against him.

Marion County Police spokesman Don Thompson said winds were gusting at up to 50 mph during the day.

"There were tree branches down on the freeway. To be driving at these speeds today was just plain crazy," he said.

Biotech Investing Tips For 2011

By Patrick Henderson
Sunday, February 13, 2011
Source: SFGate
Most investors understand the volatility associated with biotech stocks. Many avoid the sector altogether, horrified at stock charts that swing over 50% within a single trading day. Massive, sudden, and (seemingly) unpredictable price movements in the shares of biotech companies have given the sector a "high risk" classification in many investment circles. Although investors are attracted to the extraordinary gains - such as Clinical Data's (NASDAQ: CLDA) 80% gain in 2011 - they are also afraid of the associated risk of loss. Is biotech investing a hopeless gamble? Is there a way to control for risk, or are investors better off to enjoy their money in a casino, where at least they can get a few drinks out of the deal?

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The unfortunate reality is that many biotech companies are cash-starved businesses that are ultimately at the mercy of the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approving their drug in order to have any hope for profitability. Although some companies have multiple business areas and several drugs in their pipeline, other biotech companies go "all in" on a single drug candidate and hope for the best. Factors such as economic volatility, healthcare reform, barriers to early-stage financing of innovation, and an increasingly hostile reimbursement environment all contribute to uncertainty in the biotech industry. Even formal FDA drug approvals do not always lead to improvement in biotech stock prices, as biotech companies will often use an FDA approval to dilute their shares for emergency financing and drug manufacturing expenses.

Without knowing the decisions of the FDA beforehand - as that would constitute insider trading - how can investors trade biotech stocks with a high probability of success? If the odds of the sector can be boiled down to essentially two possibilities - FDA approval or rejection - then why even bother with this sector? Would it not simply be wiser to look into businesses like Coca-Cola (NYSE: KO), where at least the odds of profitability are not a total crap shoot?

Actually, there are many ways to limit risk in biotech investing. For example, options create an interesting way to profit from FDA decisions, as the premium on options generally rises as companies approach their FDA decision date. Option premium is the extra price that investors must pay for the right to trade stock at a predetermined price at a predetermined future time. The luxury of having a fixed price and time for trading stock - the "luxury" of the option - has a cost: the premium. Therefore, a simple way to profit from FDA decisions is simply to sell high-priced options premium ahead of FDA decisions. There are many strategies for selling options premium, including many risk-limiting strategies.

Another way to limit risk in biotech investing is simply to trade the run-up in stock price prior to FDA decisions, exiting positions prior to the decision altogether. This relatively predictable behavior of pre-FDA-approval stock prices is called a "biorunup" and has inspired newsletter services like BuySellShort.net and BioRunUp.com to create entire trading methodologies based on only trading biorunups. Biorunup trading methodologies limit risk of investment loss by exiting positions prior to any FDA announcement. By doing this, investors buy the rumor, not the news. Investors can start an investment several weeks or months prior to a major FDA decision and exit in the days prior to the decision. By eliminating the risk of holding through any volatile FDA decision, the investor can potentially profit from the growing excitement - the rumor - but avoid the risk of the actual decision.

BioRunUp.com explains, "The Run-Up method involves locating and buying shares of these companies well before their decision date, riding the share price up, and selling BEFORE the FDA announces their decision. The concept can also be applied to clinical trials with data releases. The goal is simple: Minimize risk while maximizing consistent profits."

Another way to limit risk is to buy into companies that receive disappointing FDA decisions when the share price falls below the company's true value. This modified form of "value investing" has a simple premise: FDA rejections deliver crushing blows to companies, and disappointed investors will often be willing to sell their stock at irrationally discounted prices because of negative emotions. Biotech value investors will often watch stock prices fall after the FDA rejects a drug application. If the stock begins to sell for prices below the company's true value, then value investors will start to buy the stock, hoping to sell the stock at a later date for a price closer to that company's true value.

For example, over a year ago, Transcept Pharmaceuticals (NASDAQ: TSPT) received a Complete Response Letter from the FDA regarding its insomnia drug Intermezzo. The FDA expressed some concerns about packaging of the drug, potential dosing errors during sleepy times in the middle of the night, and possible next-day impairment of driving ability. In response to this disappointing FDA decision, shares of TSPT fell from over $10/share to below $4.50/share as depressed investors dumped their shares onto any willing bidders.

Astute biotech value investors, however, had already begun their due diligence and share price calculations. Some discovered that despite the disappointment, TSPT was actually worth well over $5.50/share. The company had no debt, a minimal cash burn rate, and a significant amount of cash and equipment. Value investors began to realize that even if the company were liquidated at "fire sale" prices, the shares would be...Read more on SFGate