COB Lecture Series

Crisis Presentation

Financial Crisis: Insights and Reflections

On October 7th, the College of Business at Western Carolina University held a symposium to discuss the ongoing global financial crisis. In the first of four presentations, Dr. William (Tilt) Thompkins traces the origins of the crisis from its beginnings in the sub-prime housing market to its final, fateful fruition in collateralized debt obligations and credit default swaps. Professor Louis Buck follows with a discussion of the government bailout plan. The third presentation is delivered by the Dean of the College of Business, Dr. Ron Johnson, who draws on his experience at the IMF to predict probable future outcomes and outline the dramatic steps necessary to put the economy back on track. The symposium concludes with a talk from Dr. Steve Henson who puts the crisis in perspective by recommending actions at the personal level to increase financial security in a volatile market.

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New Content

New from Dean Johnson: Economic Outlook Report

Dean Ron Johnson has written a comprehensive report outlining future economic conditions for the United States in general - and the state of North Carolina in particular.

How deep and how long will the recession be?
What types of stimuli are best suited to speed up recovery?
How large will the North Carolina budget shortfall be?

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College of Business: Lecture Series

Welcome to our site!

Here, our goal is to showcase rich media content from the various presentations and talks given by members of the College of Business faculty or their distinguished guests so that those unable to attend can still access these valuable and informative lectures. This site also contains a Forums page, so that interaction, commentary and debate can continue long after the original presentation has ended. Finally, our site also showcases talks given as part of Dr. William (Tilt) Thompkins' Research Seminar Series.

The Research Seminar Series allows educators from WCU's College of Business to present their research to colleagues in an informal setting designed to maximize interaction and the exchange of ideas. This year we kicked off the COB Research Seminar Series with presentations from Professors Inhyuck “Steve” Ha and Vittal Anantatmula. These presentations provided each of us a great opportunity to gain a better understanding of their research. And as usual, a sandwich lunch was provided!

Please bookmark this page and check back for updates on upcoming lectures. For more information regarding the Research Seminar Series, contact Tilt Thompkins.

New Presentations

On November 18, Dr. Paul Jacques presented "The Role of Student Personality and Leadership on Outcomes of College-level Service Learning Projects". This study examined the relatedness of student personality, leadership behavior, and time commitment in the service learning context to students' outcomes. A sample of 241 undergraduates from 18 courses led by 15 professors responded to a questionnaire capturing a subset of “the Big 5” and MLQ. Analysis of these responses suggests that transformational leadership and moderate hours invested by students was associated with a variety of positive student outcomes of service learning projects.

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