CAMPUS/AREA UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
3A
Thursday, April 18, 1996
Entrepreneurs gain from center
Brian Hott / KANSAN
Business school operates project
Ming Cai, Lawrence businessman, looks through the many pamphlets at the Small Business Development Center. 734
By Heather Kirkwood Kansan staff writer
When Lorinda Hartzler wanted to purchase Body Boutique Women's Fitness Center, 925 Iowa St., she already had been managing the health club for five years.
On the recommendation of a friend, Hartzler sought help from the Small Business Development Center, a project run by the School of Business.
"I had the experience necessary to run the business, so I was very confident going into the bank," Hartzler said. "But they help you prepare yourself so that when you walk into the bank, you have good questions to ask and you know how to answer their questions."
The center, nestled in a small suite of offices inside the Chamber of Commerce at 734 Vermont St., is one way the University is sharing its brain trust with the Lawrence community.
Michael O'Donnell, the center's director and professor of business, greets the center's average of 200 visitors a year and tries to help answer questions ranging from get-rich-quick schemes to marketing techniques.
"We often just serve as a sounding board," O'Donnell said. "I've been here seven years, and most of the ideas I see are good ones."
The center's visitors often are those wanting to start a business, students who plan to graduate and return to family businesses or high school students working on projects, O'Donnell said.
"We don't provide legal or tax advice, and we are not trying to compete with the private sector," O'Donnell said. "Our role is to help them develop a relationship with the private sector."
Hartzler is one of those people. She has used the center twice: once when she bought Body Boutique, and again when she and her sister started Step by Step Hair Professionals. 925 Iowa St.
"If you really want to see the big picture before you jump in with both feet, the Development Center helps paint the big picture," Hartzler said. "They help you with the guidelines, and you do the research. The end result is detailed projections of what you need to to do to be successful."
Focus of class is real life
Students trade books for work
By Heather Kirkwood Kansan staff writer
Homework for the Business 497 class doesn't require studying for a midterm, and class doesn't mean sitting in a lecture hall. Instead, homework and lectures are replaced by real world experience.
Students are divided into 12 teams that are assigned to work for 12 different businesses.
Michael Voll, Lenexa senior, and the other members of his team are working as consultants for Joseph Stimac to revise Winning Strategies, Job Interviews in the 90's, a job search program Stimac wrote that is used in placement centers throughout the country.
The team is helping Stimac develop a marketing plan by identifying target markets and their advantages and disadvantages.
"We are working on how we are going to get this product out there." Voll said
"It's a great chance for all of us to grow and learn," Stimac said. "I get the students' perspective on what it is that they want in a program like mine."
"I get their perspective, and they get my experience. Its a win-win situation." Stimac said.
Stimac said the students made suggestions about what he should evaluate, modify, improve or delete.
"Students must exhibit their ability to do a financial business plan, and show that they are capable of doing an analysis of industry trends and threats," O'Donnell said.
O'Donnell said the program worked well for the students and the clients. "They are not on a time clock," he said. "They are there because they want to be, and they do a very thorough analysis."
Kayle McGowan, Overland Park senior, is working on a business plan for a floral, card and gift company. She said the class had taught her how hard it could be to start a small business.
learning in school.
Michael O'Donnell, professor of business, said the class allowed students to put into practice what they had been
"I can't imagine trying to start a business without having background knowledge and tons of support from groups like the Small Business Development Center," she said.
Stained glass is installed in recital hall
Dean of fine arts designed windows for new 'classroom'
By David Teska
Kansan staff writer
Peter Thompson doesn't know who came up with the idea that he should design stained glass.
"I lied and said, 'sure, I'll do it," said Thompson, dean of fine arts, when he was asked to design stained glass windows for the Bales Organ Recital Hall at the Lied Center.
Thompson said the idea for including stained glass in the design came out during planning meetings for the hall in 1993. The group wanted to bring light and color into the space, he said.
"We had such a huge volume of space in here and tried to make it architecturally interesting." Thompson said.
Steven Scannell, the architect who designed the hall, said although the glass added to the character of the hall, it did pose acoustical problems.
"the acoustic hates windows," he said. "They're an acoustical liability if they aren't put in right."
Installing the glass wasn't a problem for the threeman crew that put the glass in this week, said Remy Blanchaer, a glass installer with Hopcroft Stained Glass Studios, Kansas City, Mo.
"You don't know if they're going to be hard until you start." he said.
The windows face southwest to take advantage of the sun as it sweeps across the sky. They are divided into three parts: two 12-foot squares and a tall section that climbs the wall between the two.
Although he knew most people associated stained glass with cathedrals, Thompson said he specifically didn't want that kind of look, so he didn't use any religious motifs in the design.
To make the square windows fit within the frame, Thompson said he used the Fibonacci sequence, a mathematical principle in which the numbers in a series are equal to the sum of the two preceding numbers. He used the same method with the center window and ended up close to the window's height of 37 feet.
"In the end, I just free hand drew it." he said.
"We really didn't want it to look like a church," he said. "It's not a church." it's a classroom."
To create the sectional design for each window, Thompson said he used a more ancient mathematical principle, the golden section. It's the ratio of the long side to the short side of a shape, usually a rectangle, he said. Thompson said he also used the golden section to create the spiral shapes incorporated in the design, a natural shape seen in seashells and pine cones.
Looking at the light that came through the blues, greens, reds and yellows of the stained glass he designed, Thompson, who is a painter, said that although glass wasn't his usual medium, he was pleased with the final result.
"It came out the way I hoped," he said. "It's hard to tell how an artwork will translate into a different medium."
Grant provides studies in Mexican culture
Border business Twelve business professors will spend five weeks in Mexico studying its history, culture, language, and business practices.
Monterrey May 26-June 8
Guadalajara June 9-June 22
Mexico City June 23-June 29
Andy Rohrback/KANSAN
Professors to learn for students' sake
By David Teska
Kansan staff writer
The call has gone out for a dozen professors who want to live and study in Mexico this summer.
The School of Business, in cooperation with the Center of Latin-American Studies, received a $57,000 grant from the Fulbright-Hayes Group Projects Abroad Program to send twelve professors from Kansas institutions to Mexico.
Melissa Birch, visiting professor of business from the University of Virginia, will lead the group when it
departs on Mav 26.
Birch said that once in Mexico, the group would be sponsored by the Instituto Technológico y de Estudios Superiores de Monterrey, a school compared to the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
The goal of the five-week trip is to educate professors about Mexico's business world so that they can bring that knowledge back to their students, she said.
"If they teach a marketing course, they might spend time on entrepreneurial opportunities in Mexico," she said.
Elizabeth Kuzneso, professor of history and director of Latin American studies, said that the group's first stop would be a two-week stay in Monterrey from May 26 to June 8.
There it will visit factories and meet with Mexican business leaders.
Next, the group will travel to Guadalajara from June 9 to June 22 where it will study the history and culture of Mexico and receive language instruction, Kuznesof said. For the final week, the group will travel to Mexico City and meet with Mexican government officials and international business representatives.
She said that the group also would visit the Institute's sites in Monterrey, Guadalajara and Mexico City, and that they would be paired with professors who work in their field.
Kuznesof, who co-wrote the trip's grant proposal, said the center supported the trip because it helped further international contact between the University of Kansas and Latin
America.
"We are interested in internationalizing the University." she said.
Kuzneso said the trip was designed for those professors who planned to use the training, not those with only a casual interest in Mexico.
"We'll be interested in professors interested in incorporating Latin-American material into their own teaching," she said.
This grant is the second of its type awarded to the school. In 1989, eight professors traveled to Japan and South Korea.
Applications were due Monday and were open to faculty from the University, Washburn University, Baker University, Johnson County Community College and Kansas State University, Kuznesof said.
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