Breaking New Ground

The Kelley School of Business formally dedicated the Graduate and Executive Education Center, its new state-of-the-art addition at a ceremony held at the Business School Friday.\nThe new building, which offers over 180,000 square feet of classroom space, is historic for IU, as the first addition to Kelley School since its construction in 1966.\n"We are very proud of the Kelley School of Business," IUB Chancellor Sharon Brehm said. "We know the new facilities will allow a great school of business to excel even further."\nIt was also an emotional event for some because it was the last dedication ceremony IU President Myles Brand will preside over for IU. \nChair of the MBA program James Wimbush, who spoke on behalf of the faculty at the event, said the ceremony was an event of opportunity, noting how the new building has far greater technology and space than the previous MBA facilities.\n"The building, with all its technological capabilities, can provide great opportunities for students," Wimbush said. "With our video conference room, they can watch an inspiring lecture from a CEO of a major company, miles away. Or teams of students can work in one of our 29 different breakout rooms to analyze a case or discuss a lecture. Finally, they have a comfortable place to chat with other students about class, a football game or an opera."\nDue to its advances, the Kelley School is now the most wired building on campus, providing both wireless and wired internet connections. \nMBA Student Michele Liew, who spoke on behalf of students, said its Internet capabilities make it a comfortable place for all.\n"The best part is the wireless Internet connection allows students to be mobile at all times," Liew said. "It lets me e-mail my family back in Singapore in a courtyard outside, when the weather permits."\nThe more than 600 MBA students at the School of Business can also partake in stock trading in a professional stock trading room filled with 12 new Dell computers and flat screen televisions to monitor prices, all arranged in a group-like setting. \nIt was an event of relief as Brehm noted the construction on 10th Street inconvenienced many, but has finally come to an end. \n"As many of you know, I live right up the street in the Chancellor's house and I have endured two summers of blown up streets," Brehm said. "I have never endured a summer without construction since I've been here at IU."\nBrehm then added that the construction, which started over 30 months ago at a formal groundbreaking ceremony on June 14, 2000, was well worth it because of its end product.\nThe ceremony was also one of recognition. During many of the speeches, the Kelley School was honored with compliments and references to its accomplishments thus far.\nRecently, it ranked 14th among business schools, according to the Wall Street Journal and was placed in the top ten for its undergraduate program, according to U.S. News and World Report. \nBrand attributed many of these achievements to strong leadership. Another quality Brand praised the Kelley School for was its diversity in students. \n"Nearly 40 percent of the MBA students are women," Brand said. "And it has the largest percentage of African American MBA students, larger than any of the other top business schools in the nation."\nIn addition, Brehm spoke about the many different partnerships with other schools on campus and their degrees offered through the Kelley School.\nThe keynote speaker of the event was Ford Motor Co. President Sir Nick Scheele, who was recently knighted by Queen Elizabeth II. \nScheele spoke about how Ford searches for its employees from the Kelley School and went on to speak about what qualities Ford looks for in students. The speech took an interesting turn as he said the most important quality in the business world is ethics.\nHe went on to quote Michael Douglas' character Gordon Gekko from the 1987 film "Wall Street" who said, "The point is, ladies and gentlemen, that greed, for lack of a better word, is good. Greed is right. Greed works." \nHe then compared this to stock speculator Ivan F. Boesky who said in his 1985 commencement speech at the University of California-Berkeley's School of Business Administration, "Greed is all right, by the way. I want you to know that. I think greed is healthy. You can be greedy and still feel good about yourself."\nScheele noted the significance given the modern corporate scandals with both Enron and Worldcom. \n"I just want to say once and for all, greed is not good," Scheele said. "It hurts corporations. It hurts shareholders. It hurts each and every one of us."\nScheele also said that according to a Charles Schwab poll, 77 percent of investors questioned the reliability of their corporate financial statements. He said that in a practical sense, this hurts business and that a smart businessperson will not worry about quarterly earnings if it means hurting one's long term reputation.\n"A strong sense of ethics is crucial to being a good leader," Scheele said. "The unscrupulous leader will sooner or later fall. A good leader has the conviction to do what is right, no matter what."\nScheele concluded by saying the new business leaders of America will come out the Graduate and Executive Education Center and many of them may work at Ford. \nPresident of the Kelley School of Business Alumni Association Jim Voris echoed Scheele's opinions earlier in the ceremony.\n"I see myself as a shareholder in this school," Voris said. "I see my degrees as my shares. I look to all of the faculty to keep my shares promising. I also advise the students to take an interest as well. You too will own a share in this establishment and keeping involved will make sure that it grows"