Campus Happenings Blog


Graduation, Commencement, Celebration and Satisfaction

It is that time of year: graduation, commencement, celebration and satisfaction.  At UConn, we find myriad ways to celebrate our students, by engaging graduates, their families and friends, our alumni, our faculty and staff.  As dean, I find I pay attention to what others say in these settings and invariably learn in the process.

This year, Professor Robert Shiller, 2013 Nobel Laureate in Economics and a Professor at Yale, spoke at our undergraduate commencement and received an honorary degree from UConn.  His message was powerful and important and dealt with “Business and the Good Society.”  He chose to remind our business graduates, that while some give business a bad rap, it is an engine of growth and promise.  Good business propels a rising tide that lifts all boats.  He found a nice balance between engaging our thoughts and our emotions.  He challenged all of us to engage with our world and to better it.  His talk is worth a read.

Let me share three other speeches that I consider landmarks: Continue Reading


Attending the 2015 Spring Career Fair from a Different Aspect

After working for the Daily Campus in the Photo Department, I have started to discover more things that are happening around the campus. About a week before, I found that the 2015 Spring career Fair was going to be on Thursday, April 2, 2015 at the Student Union Ballroom, so I was required to do the grabs on Thursday during a weekly meeting with the Daily Campus staff to make sure that we could cover this event.  (“Grabs” is whatever events we are photographing for the Daily Campus that are not in the budget.  So we don’t have to cover it, but if I am interested in covering it, I can do it as a “grabs.”)Continue Reading


The Final Applications Are In

The final applications are in. The iQ judges will be sifting through over 50 applications to find the top 16 innovations. Those winners will then be asked to give presentations on their ideas, and eight of them will be invited to iQ’s summer incubator. The top three get prizes of $15,000, $10,000, and $5,000.

In the past few workshops, iQ focused on understanding innovation and commercial potential of products. Innovation can be defined as an invention plus its distribution. The invention itself needs to bring something to the market that is different than what is already out there. As Professor Rich Dino would say, how is it cheaper, better, or faster? Continue Reading


MSFRM Spring Festival Gala with UConn CSSA

Happy Chinese New Year! Spring Festival is the most important holiday in Chinese culture. Last Friday the MSFRM program joined the UConn CSSA (Chinese Student and Scholar Association) for the UConn 2015 Spring Festival Gala. The free event for UConn students included a buffet, performance from UConn students and scholars, and a lot of fun games and gifts!Continue Reading


Have a Million Dollar Idea?

Have a million dollar idea? You can now get an opportunity to turn that idea into a reality through UConn’s Innovation Quest (iQ) competition. On February 16th the first iQ seminar kicked off and the attendance was bigger than we’ve ever seen. Students interested in joining still can as there are two iQ workshop seminars left on March 9th and March 23rd before a final application is due on March 30th. In these workshops students are able to learn tips on starting a business. They focus on key entrepreneurial skills that allow students to develop their ideas and think about the future of their product.  There are also a number of experienced entrepreneurs that act as personal mentors to students.Continue Reading


Leading Through Tough Times

“If all you’ve got in your toolbox is a hammer, all problems would look like a nail” – Abraham Maslow; quoted General Martin Dempsey during his speech on Leadership at the Geno Auriemma conference.

There we were, a team of 5 accompanied by the lead for our Financial accelerator program – Prof. Mary Caravella; sitting proudly amidst all the action at the Mohegan Sun convention center listening to General Dempsey share his life experiences on leadership. Continue Reading


What Can a UConn MBA Learn About Leadership From Geno?

Here at UConn we’re pretty proud of our womens’ basketball team.  Led by Head Coach Geno Auriemma, they’ve won 90 games in a row along the way to 9 national titles.  So you can figure that Geno knows a little bit about leadership—in fact a Harvard Business School management professor profiled him in her research about how leaders create winning streaks.Continue Reading