THE UNIVERSITY DARY KANSAN
WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 12, 2007
NEWS
5A
>> SCHOOL OF BUSINESS
Finance majors gain advantage
BY MANDY EARLES editor@kansan.com
University of Kansas finance majors are one step closer to gaining a Certified Financial Analyst Charter. By becoming a CFA program partner the University can offer finance students the option to sit for the first level of the CFA exam, a three-year program that has a level exam each year. Each exam is 250 hours of study. The CFA exam benefits students interested in finance, portfolio management, investment research, advisory services or investment banking.
Greg Green, a double-major in accounting and finance, said he hopes to pass the CFA exam and become a portfolio manager.
"The CFA Institute is the most recognized and respected name for highly competitive jobs in the investment and banking industry," Green said.
Universities wanting to become a CFA program partner must be an
accredited school and have 15 credits of coursework available that cover the Candidate Body of Knowledge topics. The CBOK is a book that helps students test their knowledge and skills and ultimately, prepares them for the CFA exam.
Some of the perks to being a CFA program partner include having access to CFA's custom curricul
lum, samples of model programs, webcasts, and course syllabi samples. Mark Hirschey, the director of the University of Kansas' CFA program said, a student in the program can receive a scholarship for the Fort Smith School
ment companies, mutual funds insurance companies, broker-dealer investment banks, consulting firms, and even research and academic institutions. The biggest percentage of charterholders, 25 percent, chose investment companies, and 16 percent chose broker-dealer investment banks.
"Once you obtain the CFA
"The CFA Institute is the most recognized and respected name for highly competitive jobs in the investment and banking industry."
first level of the CFA exam.
GREG GREEN Accounting and finance major
Besides being qualified charterholders have an advantage for the future.
Those who pass the exam become CFA Charterholders, many career options are available. Charterholders can choose from careers in invest-
"If one reaches
if one reaches the CFA Charterholder title, they will have a competitive advantage over other students with just a degree in finance", Hirschey said.
Charter, you will have the groundwork to be qualified to work in almost any job in banking or investments." Green said.
According to the Bureau Labor
of Statistics, the finance industry is growing and demand for financial advisers is increasing, which means achieving a CFA Charter may be the only thing that sets someone above the rest.
The overall employment for certain jobs in the finance industry will increase over the years, according to the Bureau. The increase is partly because baby boomers are starting to retire and an overall wealthier population.
As the industry grows, so does the demand on universities to have the highest quality of education for students to progress in the field. Only 35 universities meet the CFA's standards, and they are listed on its Web site, www.CFAinstitute.com.
"Having CFA is an advantage because it levels the playing field between candidates who might have otherwise had an advantage because of which school they attended," Green said.
- Edited by Ashlee Kieler
CRIME
Woman sexually abused, held captive for days
BY TOM BREEN ASSOCIATED PRESS
CHARLESTON, W.Va. Authorities said Tuesday they are considering hate crime charges in the case of a woman who was tortured while being held captive for at least a week, and they are investigating the possibility that she was lured by a man she met on the Internet.
year-old black woman.
The victim was repeatedly called a racial slur while her captors sexually abused, beat and stabbed her, her mother said.
Six people, all white, including a mother and son and a mother and daughter, were arrested in connection with the alleged abduction of the 20-
Megan Williams, with a cast on her arm, spoke barely above a whisper.
"I don't understand a human being doing another human being the way they did my daughter," Carmen Williams said Tuesday from her daughter's room at Charleston Area Medical Center General Hospital. "I didn't know there were people like that out here."
"I'm better," she said.
A prosecutor said police are investigating the possibility that the victim was lured to the house where she
The Associated Press generally does not identify suspected victims of sexual assault, but Williams and her mother agreed to release her name.
was attacked by a man she met on the internet, but Carmen Williams insisted that wasn't the case. "This wasn't from the Internet," she said.
Deputies interviewed the victim Tuesday morning. State, local and federal officials planned to meet later in the day to decide whether to file hate crime charges, Logan County sheriff's sgt. Sonya Porter said. An FBI spokesman in Pittsburgh, Bill Crowley, confirmed that the agency is looking into possible civil rights violations.
The woman's abductors called her the N-word "every time they stabbed her." Carmen Williams told The Charleston Gazette earlier.
The case is "something that would have come out of a horror movie," Logan County Sheriff W.E. Hunter said.
people they believe drove the woman to the house where she was abused, said Logan County Chief Deputy V.K. Dingess.
Deputies found Williams on Saturday in Big Creek, about 35 miles southwest of Charleston, to investigate an anonymous tip from someone who had witnessed the abuse, Porter said.
Irina and Andriel Kartuzov drive away in their new UAZ-Patriot SUV, after they won the car as a grand prize in a regional contest titled "Give Birth to a Patriot on Russia's Independence Day." Ulyanovsk Gov. Sergel Monozov declared Sept. 12 a Day of Conception.
CONTEST
Holiday rewards conception
BY MASHA STROMOVA ASSOCIATED PRESS
ULYANOVSK, Russia — Don't be surprised if the streets are empty and curtains drawn in this central Russian region Wednesday as residents take up an offer by the regional governor to help stem Russia's demographic crisis.
"If there's a good, healthy atmosphere at home within the family, if the husband and wife both love each other and their child, they will be in good spirits and that will extend to the workplace. So there will be a healthy atmosphere throughout the country," he told AP Television News. "The leadership [of the country] is interested in the family."
Ulyanovsk Gov. Sergei Morozov has decreed Sept. 12 a Day of Conception and is giving couples time off from work to procreate. Couples who give birth nine months later on Russia's national day — June 12 — will receive money, cars, refrigerators and other prizes.
It's the third year that the Volga River region, about 550 miles east of Moscow, has held the contest. Since then, the number of competitors — and the number of babies born — has been on the rise.
Russia's population has dropped since the 1991 Soviet collapse, fed by declining birth rates, a low life expectancy, a spike in emigration, a frayed health care system and other factors. The country — the world's largest — now has just 141.4 million citizens, making it one of the most sparsely settled nations. And experts estimate the population could fall below 100 million by 2050.
Just 311 women signed up to take part in the first competition, in 2005, and qualified for a halfday off from work.