Congratulations to student Jesse Vargas from Professor John Murphy’s Fall ’23 INFO 460 Cybersecurity class! Jesse Vargas passed his certification. He passed both the TestOut Security Pro and the CompTIA Security+!

Several INFO students from the class will take the CompTIA Security+ before June, when their vouchers expire. If you’re interested in cybersecurity, consider a double major in INFO with a focus on networking, contact Dr. Jing Quan.

The Department of Economics and Finance hosted 22 students and 3 teachers from Parkside High School on Friday, April 19. These Stock Market Club students got investment advice from Dr. Asli Eksi, followed by a campus tour and lunch at the Commons.

The Department of Economics and Finance hosted 24 students and 3 teachers from Westside Intermediate School on Friday, April 26. The middle school students learned about investing from Dr. Leonard Arvi, followed by a campus tour and lunch at the Commons.

Guest speaker Gregg Lampf recently shared how AI is transforming the practice of IR in Dr. Quan’s class. A Wall Street veteran with nearly 30 years in Investor Relations (IR) he was hosted by Perdue School and the Information Systems Department. As a VP of IR at Ciena, he was an early adopter of AI. He delved into how tech drives efficiencies. He connected the dots between the fundamentals at business school and applications for solving complex business challenges.

INFO Chair Dr. Jing Quan, with Adjunct Prof. Kyle Waggoner of Perdue Farms and Adjunct Prof. J. Murphy, journeyed down College Avenue and visited in person with local high school students in Parkside High’s Career Technology Education (CTE) “Cisco Networking Academy” on Tuesday, April 16, 2024. Students observed two PowerPoint presentations and afterwards engaged with all three professors to ask questions about cybersecurity, our major, minors, the IS field in general and life in the business school.

Dustin Chambers, Memo Diriker, and Irina Piatselchyts

Dustin Chambers, Memo Diriker, and Irina Piatselchyts were joined by their colleague Dr. Colin O’Reilly of Creighton University to make a presentation to the Board of Directors of the Colorado Chamber of Commerce. Their topic was “The Impacts of Labor Relations and Environmental Regulations on Colorado Businesses.”  

Jessica Iacona among 40 selected as inaugural members of the Leadership Maryland Emerging Leader Program.

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This semester, Dr. E. Patrick McDermott joined with Jim Rosenberg, shareholder of the law firm of Abato, Rubenstein, and Abato, a leading Baltimore firm representing organized labor throughout the United States.  They redesigned the MGMT 452 Employee-Management Relations class into a team-taught experiential-based class where students engaged in a union organizing simulation where they had to prepare strategy and tactics based on their assigned side in the organizing campaign; a collective bargaining simulation; and an arbitration case where opening and closing statements were made by the students followed by the writing of an Arbitration Award and Opinion. The students learned of the impact of the Key Bridge collapse from Counsel Rosenberg, who represents the Baltimore Longshoremen and Teamsters who woke up without work on that fateful day. 

Dr. E. Patrick McDermott

On April 12, 2024, Dr. E. Patrick McDermott organized and also presented a paper for a panel at the American Bar Association Section of Dispute Resolution Annual Conference in San Diego.  The panel’s topic was Evidence, Anecdote and Application – The Future Use of Technology In Workplace Dispute Resolution. The panelists included leading experts from the Federal Mediation and Conciliation Service, Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, Mitchell-Hamline School of Law, and NextLevel Mediation. At the conference, Dr. McDermott ran into his future colleague at the U.S. Air Force Academy, Lt. Colonel Tarren Wellman, who leads the Academy’s Negotiation curriculum. Lt. Col. Wellman was speaking across the hall from Dr. McDermott’s panel on her personal experience in “speed negotiation” with detainees at Guantanamo Bay.  They had an opportunity to talk about new curriculum ideas and how the Academy hopes to leverage Dr. McDermott’s skills for the Negotiation program. 

On April 19, 2024, Dr. McDermott spoke via Zoom at the University of Bucharest School of Law’s International Conference on the use of AI in Law and Legal Education.  He addressed the use of AI for legal research and problem-solving.

On Monday May 20, 2024 Dr. McDermott will join virtually with New Hampshire-based Labor Arbitrator Kevin O’Leary to teach a class of union shop stewards enrolled in a Labor Guild program educating future workplace leaders. They will cover the topic of discipline for off-duty misconduct and the course’s capstone labor arbitration exercise.  

This summer, at the Inaugural Labor and Employment Relations Association, Federal Mediation and Conciliation Service, and International Labor and Employment Relations Association TRIAD conference in New York City, Dr. McDermott will speak on two panels about AI in workplace dispute resolution and also present a “Best Paper”.

On July 1, 2024 Dr. McDermott joins the Air Force Academy for the academic year.

Dr. David P. Weber was appointed in March 2024 to serve on the Virginia State Bar Lawyer Population Study Committee (the “Committee”).  As with the accounting profession, fewer lawyers are entering practice, and many senior lawyers will leave practice in the coming decade, resulting in an overall reduction in lawyers available to serve the needs of residents and businesses, particularly on the Eastern Shore. This issue has implications related to access to legal services and the health of the business market, particularly on the Eastern Shores of Virginia and Maryland, which are defined as “legal deserts,” areas in which far less than the needed amount of licensed professionals are available to meet the needs of the communities for which they offer services.  During its 15-month tenure, the Committee is charged with increasing the legal profession’s awareness of this issue and making specific recommendations to address the declining population and mitigate impacts of the same.

David Weber was notified that he is to be awarded the 2024 Certified Fraud Examiner of the Year by the Association of Certified Fraud Examiners at its June 2024 global fraud conference.    The ACFE is the 94,000-person professional association that leads the forensic accounting and fraud examination field, including the administration of the four-part Certified Fraud Examiner examination and licensure process.  “The Certified Fraud Examiner of the Year Award is presented to a CFE who has demonstrated outstanding achievement in the field of fraud examination. Nominees are evaluated based on their contributions to the ACFE, to the profession and to the community.”  For 2024, David is being honored as CFE of the year for his creation and directing of the Perdue School’s fraud examination experiential learning program, which, using a U.S. government grant of $2.6 million, has allowed fraud students to work with law enforcement throughout the Delmarva to combat elder financial exploitation and high-tech crime.

Staff and Faculty Service Awards were presented to the following:

5 years of service

Amanda Liang
Simbarashe Pasirayi
Nitya Singh

10 years of service

David Emerson
Michael Schuldt

15 years of service

Leonard Arvi
Tammy Donaway
Jamie Emerson

20 years of service

Jing Quan
Hong Yao

25 years of service

Jill Caviglia-Harris
Ying Wu