How SFU Business fared in the news for the week of September 9, 2008

BC News

• Vancouver Sun writer Doug Todd (a former Shadbolt Fellow at SFU) wrote a column that began: “Trust is gone. The collapse of Lehman Brothers and desperate rescue of AIG . . . raises serious questions about the way the business world has become accustomed to what basically amounts to lying by the heads of some of the world’s most powerful corporations.” He quoted SFU business ethicist Mark Wexler as saying there is more lying today because our culture is increasingly impersonal, urban and fleeting.

• The North Shore News carried a big feature on business prof Boyd Cohen and his green website, www.3rdwhale. com. “We’re trying to go a little bit more grassroots bottom up and say, ‘Let’s build a community of globally interested, primarily young, or young at heart people.’” The site is where Cohen is running his “Greenest Person in the World” contest. As the News noted: “The winner will be announced at SFU’s Sustainability Festival Sept. 24 and will be awarded a pod of beluga whales adopted in their name.”

The Province carried an item naming the finalists. The Georgia Straight featured one of them, Vancouver’s Emily Jubenvill. And the Toronto Sun news service offered papers a story in which Jubenvill proposed a dis-incentive tax on paper coffee cups, and Cohen mused about a complete ban on them.

Education

• The Vancouver Sun also examined the shorter 12-month MBA programs now being offered. Among those quoted: Diane Cross, executive director of SFU’s MBA programs at the Segal Graduate School of Business. “Last year we started the 12-month program [and] the feedback we’re getting back is excellent. Before that it was 16 months to two years.” Also quoted and pictured: Amanda Blair, an MBA student at SFU who said: “It’s really great to only be out of the workforce for 12 months.”

Other SFU Releases

• PAMR also sent a promotional plug to media on the sustainability festival at the Burnaby campus next Wednesday, Sept. 24, 10 a.m. – 5 p.m. Boyd Cohen will announce there the winner of his online contest to identify “the greenest person in the world”—and PAMR sent out a news release on that, too. Convocation Mall will have an eco-fashion show, a free-cycle exchange (where one person’s junk is another person’s treasure) and more than 60 vendors showcasing products or services that help reduce our carbon footprint. More information: www.susfest.ca

Second Run

• The Edmonton Journal and the Windsor Star ran a Vancouver Sun feature from two weeks ago on how “green” is the latest trend in niche dating. It noted that business prof Boyd Cohen included a green dating component on his 3rdwhale.com website.

Blogsphere

• Items also seen around the web this week included: A study showing a relationship between political beliefs of corporate stakeholders and the corporate social responsibility (CSR) of their firms. Assistant prof Amir Rubin of SFU Business did the study.