Business Professors on Wall Street

Black Issues in Higher Education, Feb 4, 1999 by Eric St. John

New York -- As the world's financial markets continue their rapid roller-coaster ride over the hills of the bulls and through the valleys of the bears, it becomes increasingly important that the nation's business school faculty stay attuned to the changes in the business world. And according to Harvard University's Dr. Francis J. Aguilar, this is particularly true for the business school faculty at historically Black colleges and universities.

"African [American] and Hispanic American peoples already represent large segments of American society and will grow in relative size and importance over the next decades. Under pressure of growing global competition, U.S. corporations must be able to tap into this vast reservoir of human energy and talent," says Aguilar, executive director of the Management Education Alliance. "Keys to this ability are the creation and proliferation of centers of excellence in management education that can prepare young African Americans and Hispanic Americans for management careers."

To that end, the University of Pennsylvania's Wharton School of Business, with sponsorship from the alliance and the Merrill Lynch Corp., hosted a three-day conference here in January for minority faculty aimed at expanding the business management curriculum of the attending institutions. The highlight of the conference was a tour of the floor of the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE).

Higher education institutions that participated in the three-day workshop included: Bentley College, Clark-Atlanta University, Delaware State University, Florida International University, Hampton University, Howard University, Jackson State University, North Carolina A&T University, North Carolina Central University, South Carolina State University, and Tuskegee University.