Tag Archives: McCombs School of Business

Deep in the Start-Up of Texas

August 9, 2017 lwallace Leave a comment

One of the more gratifying aspects of being a subject librarian is witnessing students actually using the resources you introduced to them during an instruction session. Back in February of this year, Regina Hughes, the director Texas Business Foundations Program (Texas BFP) offered the opportunity to conduct an information resources session for her class. With no hesitation, I accepted the invitation and with Gina Watts, the business GRA prepped for the session.

The Texas BFP, which is designed to give undergraduate students of any discipline a fundamental background in business, is one of the largest and widely recognized certificate and minor programs at The University of Texas. The session covered all the business resources offered through the UT Libraries, with an emphasis upon how and when to use specific databases.

At the end of the semester the students get a chance to show off their entrepreneurial knowledge and skills to a panel of judges who will determine, theoretically, if their projects are worthy of funding. This semester Gina and I sat as judges for the first time and were handed the responsibility of reviewing the projects of half a dozen teams. Joining the panel of judges was fantastic. The students were all well prepared for their presentations, and had clearly been using (and correctly citing) the business resources. Since we generally never see the final product after a consultation for an assignment, it was great to see their success. It was also nice for Gina be more involved with the business school, because many GRA positions do not allow for much faculty interaction.

The presentations were brief, each group had only five minutes to describe the product or service; the target market, how they would make a profit, estimate the return-on-investment, as well as ask for a definitive amount of funding to launch the venture.

The ideas ranged from providing dental care to low-income families by acting as mediators and facilitating contact with dental professionals willing to provide care, pro bono. Another group developed a service that would provide fresh ingredients for preparing desserts delivered to your door. The standout was the proposal to develop a software application, which would allow students to develop budgets and manage their finances throughout their college career. It included an option for allowing parents monitor the process, which was very interesting.

The pace was fast and exciting. The highlight of the session was seeing the amount of business resources students had incorporated into their work. Moreover, how having access to real world databases, such as Mintel, Marketline and SimplyMap helped to prepare them for similar challenges beyond their university experience.

Events, Students

Financial Literacy for Students

January 31, 2017 Texlibris 3 Comments

Student debt is at an all-time high. Robert Duvic of the McCombs School presents a talk with financial management solutions for students.

Today’s college students face a daunting financial landscape due to a variety of factors that include rising tuition. A quick primer on the current outlook reveals some distressing data:

$1.26 trillion in total U.S. student loan debt
44.2 million Americans with student loan debt
Student loan delinquency rate of 11.1%
Average monthly student loan payment (for borrower aged 20 to 30 years): $351
Median monthly student loan payment (for borrower aged 20 to 30 years): $203

The lack of financial literacy, sometimes called financial illiteracy, can negatively impact a graduate’s earning potential, job opportunities and even housing options after they leave college. The Libraries are hosting Professor Robert Duvic of the McCombs School of Business for a discussion of ways to navigate the minefield of financial management during the transition to adulthood and independent responsibility.

“Got Debt? The Importance of Being Financially Literate” will attempt to guide students through basic money management skills such as living within a budget, handling credit cards, and managing student loan debt. Students will learn about resources that are available to aid them in overcoming real life financial decisions.

In addition to the lecture, the Office of Financial Aid offers courses in money management and financial aid called Bevonomics as part of a national and local effort to provide free resources to students.

The presentation is in conjunction with the efforts of the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) and the US Financial Literacy and Education Commission to promote financial literacy education. Both organizations work to improve financial education, financial literacy standards, and financial literacy principles for all ages and education levels.

Professor Duvic is a 2011 recipient of the Regents’ Outstanding Teaching Award, given by the University of Texas Board of Regents to recognize faculty members at the nine University of Texas System academic institutions who have demonstrated extraordinary classroom performance and innovation in undergraduate instruction. He has also twice received The Hank and Mary Harkins Foundation Teaching Excellence Award for Effective and Innovative Teaching in Undergraduate Classes from the McCombs School of Business, among other prestigious university awards. Dr. Duvic’s areas of research are corporate capital budgeting, international corporate financial management and international foreign exchange markets. He is a Major (retired) in the United States Army Reserve and served with the Americal Division in the Republic of Viet Nam. His military decorations include the Bronze Star Medal with two oak leaf clusters and the Purple Heart.

The University of Texas Libraries presents

“Got Debt? The Importance of Being Financially Literate” featuring Distinguished Senior Lecturer Robert Duvic of the McCombs School of Business.

1pm, Thursday, February 16

Perry-Castañeda Library (PCL), 2.370A (Learning Lab 1A)

Services, Staff, Technology

Sharing Tech Resources with Campus

November 30, 2015 Texlibris Leave a comment

One of the Libraries' many computer labs. — One of the Libraries’ many computer labs.

We talk much about the collections (physical and digital) and spaces at the UT Libraries, but there’s a significant technology infrastructure in place to facilitate access and digitally preserve the Libraries’ massive assemblage of electronic resources. To maintain those important tools, a highly-trained cadre of technology professionals is constantly on call to respond to issues, discover and implement technological innovations and provide for the support needs of staff.

As the Libraries have continued to explore ways to expand services to address the needs of campus, we’ve considered how we might leverage this technical expertise to provide support beyond the Libraries.

Chris Carter — the Libraries’ Director of Planning and Operations — was approached by representatives of the McCombs School of Business after they heard a description of the cost model for supporting UT Libraries labs. McCombs Director David Burns wondered if that support could be scaled to provide lab support in the Business School. Carter and his staff ran the numbers and took the proposal to Libraries administration, who roundly backed the evaluative project, and after a pilot period in Summer 2015, Libraries’ IT Infrastructure staff took over the tech support of a lab at the McCombs School.

Under the terms of service, the Business School purchases the hardware and secures licensing of specialized software, and the Libraries provides installation and support of operating systems, applications and updates for the computers; when there’s a problem with a PC, Libraries IT staff respond to address it. Fees charged per computer by the Libraries was determined to allow for the accommodation of additional IT staff should growth of the lab make it necessary.

Along with the branches, this brings the support coverage area maintained by Libraries staff to 14 locations, and Carter feels that there is room to expand to provide the service to other interested parties on campus.

“We structure the service so that it fits into our current, lean and efficient desktop support approach,” says Carter. “The cost per PC for support is intended to allow us to add an FTE if we increase the service so much that it needs an extra person. For now, we just rely on the excellent and efficient people we currently have. In particular, the excellent systems administration skills of David Roberts makes this possible.”

The College of Natural Sciences recently contributed 20 additional units to the Mallet Chemistry Library — bringing the number of computers to 32 — and provided specialized software, but, in this case, the Libraries simply took ownership of the expanded lab. The opportunities for growth in the third-party support model for campus computer labs, though, is extensive thanks to an ever-present need for technology.

Carter thinks the Libraries are well-suited to play the support role for other campus partners by virtue of what we’ve learned from internal efforts.

“We see the service from the perspective of supporting a high volume 24/7 kind of operation in PCL and extend the same service offering to anyone who wants to have a library lab in their space,” Carter says. “The McCombs lab is a 24/7 facility for business students and we’ve been able to both replicate what is available in PCL and customize it for their needs. It’s a good model of a basic, replicable service that will both scale and also allow for local customization depending on the discipline.”

Instruction, News, Outreach, Staff

Rallying the Next Generation of African Leaders

September 3, 2014 Texlibris

As the Business Librarian at UT Libraries I frequently work with entrepreneurs from the McCombs School of Business and sometimes from the Cockrell School of Engineering. For the first time this summer I had the honor of working with a group of young entrepreneurs from Africa.

The 25 attendees here at UT Austin were part of the 500 Mandela Washington Fellows for Young African Leaders Institute (YALI) selected from over 40,000 applications for this prestigious program. President Obama invited the group to the U.S. from Sub-Saharan Africa as part of his signature effort to invest in the next generation of global leaders. Twenty universities were selected to host the fellows. UT Austin chose the theme of Business & Entrepreneurship for its institute.

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The UT Austin YALI Fellows are creating and/or growing businesses back home. Their interests are broad; women’s and children’s health initiatives, farming, training computer scientists, and translation services. One of the most inspirational companies is one that trains women incarcerated for prostitution to become fashion designers and tailors. The fashion company hires these women upon their release thereby improving the women’s situations and helping them stay out of prison.

Just like I would for students on our campus, I provided a business research workshop to the YALI group and coordinated with the UT Austin International Office to develop a course guide and a hands-on research workshop for these entrepreneurs. In the workshop we practiced search strategies and I introduced them to resources containing market research, economic, and demographic data.

At the end of their UT visit, the Fellows participated in a pitch competition in front of a three-judge panel of successful Austin entrepreneurs. I saw first-hand how they incorporated their research into their pitch for future funding. The judges asked tough questions about growth and sustainability. The Fellows handled the inquiry with aplomb and you could see the passion they all had for their projects.

To cap off the 6-week event all 500 Fellows attended a summit in Washington, D.C. where they met with Secretary of State John Kerry and President Obama. At the summit President Obama announced the program was to be renamed the Mandela Washington Fellowship for Young African Leaders to honor Nelson Mandela. Not only is the program going to continue next year, but the President has also committed to double the number of participants to 1000 for the summer of 2016.

I hope that the University of Texas will be hosting again next year and that I have the opportunity and privilege to work with these global entrepreneurs as they go out and change the world!

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