Amid the stock market rout and federal bailouts, it's not just geopolitical economics on the minds of two deans of area business schools. In interviews, both Tampa's USF College of Business dean Robert Forsythe and University of Tampa Sykes School of Business dean Frank Ghannadian both echoed two impacts here of the current financial turmoil. First, more students are struggling to pay their tuition and living expenses because of tighter credit conditions and — more painfully — the increasing likelihood that a mom or dad has lost their job recently. Forsythe mentions USF's recent "Don't Stop, Don't Drop" campaign to encourage students to talk to the university about financial pressures. And Ghannadian says a packed meeting last week in the Vaughn Center revealed concern from students who will soon be entering the job market. The silver lining for business schools, say Forsythe and Ghannadian, is it is countercyclical. When the economy is tougher, more people apply to business schools to hone their skills. Demand at both USF and UT programs is up this fall.
Institute to bring state's innovations to the world
Researchers at Florida universities make plenty of new discoveries. The trick is commercializing those breakthroughs and creating thousands of jobs for Floridians. Enter Gary N. Keller, who was named the first executive director of the recently formed Florida Institute for Commercialization of Public Research, a partnership of state universities that scouts out entrepreneurs and investors to bring their work to market. Keller's expertise is biotechnology. He founded Xomix Ltd., a Chicago-based company, and ZelleRx, a San Diego company specializing in cancer treatments. He'll work out of the Florida Atlantic University Research & Development Park in Boca Raton.
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