When asked about the impact this new center will have on the Boise Valley, Ron Galloway, Boise Center director, said, “The new Boise Center, located across the street from both Boise State and the University of Idaho in the Washington Group Plaza, gives NNU greater visibility in the Boise Metro area. As academic offerings and student numbers increase in Boise, the importance of this new location will become evident.”

The new facility includes four classrooms with ample room for 125 students. A student computer lab with 20 laptops as well as three desktop computers are available for student use. The new Boise Center has breakout rooms both inside and outside of the suite as well as a conference room and an on-site cafeteria.

See Nazarene Communication Network for more on this story.

Students in Dr. Chaplin’s STEP Microeconomic Analysis class got a treat the evening of February 28th, as Idaho boxing legend, Cleveland “The Christian Warrior” Corder (from nearby Kuna), came to give his Christian Testimony and discuss the discipline and sacrifices necessary to become the 1997 National Golden Gloves Champion (beating 2000 Olympic Bronze Medalist and future Middleweight Champion of the World, Jermain Taylor, in the final to win the title). Cleveland remains the only boxer from Idaho to win a National Golden Gloves Title in the 88-year history of the franchise.  He wrapped-up the evening with a question-and-answer session about his work as Antonio Banderas’ body double in the film Play it to the Bone (2000), the business side of professional boxing (as both boxer and promoter) and his recent philanthropic efforts with the Duck Valley Reservation.

Story and picture by David Chaplin

“Technology is a wonderful thing!  It allowed four online students living in different states to present to a face to face audience their business plan.  In addition four students living in the Treasure Valley were able to present face to face while their fifth member joined via Adobe Connect.  Presenting their business plans via Adobe Connect gave the online students from Cohort 36 an opportunity to participate in the final culminating experience of the STEP program.  While sometimes experiencing a feeling of disconnect since the courses they take are always online, this presentation opportunity allowed them to not only participate but to enjoy presentations of their fellow students who they never see in class.  Many thanks to Media Services, especially Margie Watson, for assisting us in facilitating this experience!”            -Brenda Johnson

“The NNU STEP program was proud to present Senior Seminar presentations last night.  My three groups from Cohort 37, Mountain View Properties, E-Receipts, and Leader of the Pack, were excited to present projects that they had been working on since last May.  The night opened with an innovative video starring student Jennifer Hoppins as an overworked housewife drowning in receipt paper.  It was an original opening, and the evening was great fun from there!  The second group taught the audience about the broker/agent relationship in real estate, and the evening wrapped up with a tug at all our hearts as the final group moved us in the realm of the pet industry and the opportunities for growth there.  All the groups did a great job, and were very relieved to finally be done with their projects.  They are all to be congratulated for their hard work!”                     – Teri Whilden

“As a professor teaching in both the daytime and STEP programs, I noticed something after teaching Business Ethics in both programs.   Although all of our students seemed very ethical, our STEP students seemed to approach dealing with Ethics in a different way from our daytime students. I wasn’t sure if this was because our STEP students were a bit older, or because they came from different backgrounds, or maybe some other factor.  But something was different when discussing Business Ethics with our STEP students.

“I mentioned the difference to two of my colleagues, Dr. Jones and Dr. Emerson, and we decided to conduct a survey and gather some data.  We submitted a proposal for our research to an Ethics symposium that was to be held at Washington State University and were accepted.  Now all we had to do was gather the data and write a paper!

“We developed a survey and deployed it to about 80 students, a mix of traditional and STEP. The results were different than we thought.  We found that there was very little difference in the way traditional and STEP students approached Business Ethics, but that there were some significant differences in the way men and women approached them.  For instance, men and woman value money and business quite differently.
We were pleased to go to Washington State University last weekend to present our findings.  We had a great time on the road together, and had fun representing NNU to another institution.  We intend to redeploy our survey to a larger group of students in the future and see if the results come back any different. We hope to publish our findings in the future.”

Contributed by Karen Jones and Teri Whilden

Dr. Bill Russell

Dr. David Alexander, president, announced recently that Professor Bill Russell, J.D., received the 2010 International Teaching Excellence Award given by the Accreditation Council of Business Schools and Programs (ACBSP).  ACBSP is an international accrediting body that represents over 650 higher education business schools and programs in over 40 countries reaching from Argentina to Kazakhstan and Mongolia.  Each year, ACBSP undertakes a rigorous process to select one baccalaureate/graduate-level professor as the recipient of the award.

Dr. Bill Russell, professor of business law and ethics, received this prestigious award at the annual conference of the ACBSP in June.  Dr. Ronald Galloway, associate dean of the NNU School of Business, recommended Russell.  Following his selection as the Western U.S. Region finalist, he competed with finalists from the seven other regions around the world.  Other finalists included business faculty members from universities in India, Paraguay, Pennsylvania, Oklahoma, Indiana, Tennessee and Missouri.  The International Committee selected Dr. Russell unanimously as this year’s recipient.

Dr. Alexander said, “This award is exceedingly prestigious and is indicative of the level of faculty that we have teaching at NNU. We are proud to have this year’s recipient on our faculty.  Dr. Samuel Dunn, vice president for academic affairs, added, “Dr. Russell’s enthusiasm for teaching and other scholarly activities is contagious.  He is also making an outstanding contribution to the business community of the Treasure Valley as he represents the University while serving on a number of boards and in many venues.”

The Accreditation Council of Business Schools and Programs is the leading specialized accreditation association for business education supporting, celebrating and rewarding teaching excellence.  The association embraces the virtues of teaching excellence and emphasizes to students that it is essential to learn how to learn.  ACBSP acknowledges the importance of scholarly research and inquiry and believes that such activities facilitate improved teaching. Institutions are strongly encouraged to pursue a reasonable mutually beneficial balance between teaching and research.  Further, ACBSP encourages faculty involvement within the contemporary business world to enhance the quality of classroom instruction and to contribute to student learning.

Tentative itinerary plans include three days in Johannesburg with visits to the Chamber of Mines of South Africa and the Johannesburg Stock Exchange.  Students will also go on safari while in the area.  A two day trip to Swaziland will include a visit to the U.S. Embassy and one of the largest hospitals in the region.  Three days in Cape Town will include visits to the Cape of Good Hope and the Simons Town penguins.

For more information, please contact Maureen Matlock at MMatlock@nnu.edu

Traditional undergraduate honorees

Twenty-seven NNU Business students were recently inducted into the Delta Mu Delta Honor Society for their scholarship and academic excellence.  Students who scored in the top 20 percent of their class were selected.  The purpose of Delta Mu Delta is to promote higher scholarship in training for business and to recognize and reward scholastic attainment in business subjects.

Master of Business Administration (MBA)  students who received the honor were D. Matthew Blue, Nicole A. Bradshaw, Andrew Husted, Kevin Patrick Moran, Patricia Mwove, Mark J. Rogers, Rachel M. Scott, Michael David Spiedel, Thron Baker Van Komen, and Ronald H. Wismer.

ABA undergraduate honorees

Traditional and Accelerated Business Administration (ABA) Undergraduate students were Linnea Raeann Hanson, David D. Reimer, Justin David Kellerer, Julie Carmine, Cortnee Margaret Crane, Todd E. Fischer, Elizabeth Michelle Gross, Delia E. McCormick, Michele Nelsen, Judy A. Olson, Loren David Pounds, Austin M. Rains, Neva A. Santos, Thomas Jerold Schreiber, Katelyn Renee Shaw, Russ Van Paepeghem, and William Adam Wittkopf.

Drs. Stephen C. Mountjoy and Mark D. Emerson were also inducted as honorary members of Delta Mu Delta.

MBA graduate students

Family and friends, as well as all honorees, attended a dessert reception before the Delta Mu Delta oath was administered and honor cords and pins were awarded.  Dr. Jeffrey Lineman, Faculty Advisor of Delta Mu Delta was the Master of Ceremonies, and Dean of the School of Business Dr. Steven Mountjoy was the special speaker.

“At about noon on Sunday, March 21, 2010, I was standing outside the Central Train Station at Geneva, waiting for a bus to take me back to my hotel. Switzerland has a great train system, and Geneva has a really useful bus system. I was just getting comfortable with using these mass-transit systems. Bus No. 8, the bus that went past my hotel, pulled up and stopped. After riders had exited, I stepped onto the bus. I had just gotten both feet onto the threshold of the bus, when a man in front of me dropped a few coins on the floor in front of me. My first thought was that he had accidentally dropped the coins. He kneeled down (I thought at the time to pick up his coins) so I stopped to allow him to recover the money. (He never did actually pick up the coins: they were left behind and were still on the floor when I eventually got off the bus.) I started to step around him, when I realized that he had grabbed hold of the cuffs of my pants, one cuff in each of his hands. He was looking down at the floor, so I never saw his face. I tried to move, and realized that he was putting his full weight downward so as to pin me in place. After a moment to register what was happening, I leaned over to shove his shoulders and try to get him away from me. After a very brief moment, he let loose of my cuffs and disappeared. The doors to the bus quickly shut and I sat down. It took me about 30 seconds to realize that none of this made sense. I then felt my back trouser pocket and found that my wallet was gone. I had become the victim of a pick-pocket. Obviously, an accomplice was standing behind me and he pulled the wallet out of the my pocket while I was leaned over trying to push the first man away. I had carried my wallet in a buttoned pocket, but they were not stopped by that.”

Dr. Russell did not carry any cash in his wallet, but did have credit cards, and perhaps most importantly, his passport. He returned directly to his hotel room (on the No. 8 bus) and called his wife, Nancy, who quickly called the credit card companies. Within an hour of the crime, his credit cards were canceled. He then returned to the train station to make a police report, and obtained a copy of the police report for the US Embassy and for his insurance company. Then came the challenge of getting a new passport so that he could return to the U.S. on Tuesday: without a new passport, he would not have been allowed back into the U.S. The emergency passport service was available only at the U.S. Embassy in Bern, a two-hour train ride away from Geneva. Dr. Russell has always made it a practice to carry copies of his birth certificate and his passport in separate places (briefcase, backpack, suitcase–he says that you can never carry too many copies of these two items). This proved to be critical. With the police report in hand, together with the copies of the former passport and the birth certificate, he obtained two 5cm X 5cm passport photos at a photo store, and went to the Embassy in Bern. The new passport cost $100 and there were a couple of forms to fill out. In all, it the process of getting an emergency passport was relatively easy but only because Dr. Russell went to the Embassy fully prepared and with the photocopies of the two key documents. He was out of the Embassy in less than two hours with a new emergency passport. He was able to make his business meeting (which had been postponed to Monday afternoon) and leave for home as planned on Tuesday.

There are risks to international travel. Be prepared. Carry multiple copies of key documents. Carry extra passport photos. Carry money in several places so that a theft might not take all of your cash. Carry an extra credit card in a separate location. And remember, there are very, very clever and skilled thieves everywhere. Be aware of all that is going around you. Dr. Russell’s story is a great lesson for all NNU students, faculty and alumni.

Story contributed by Bill Russell

March 13
We arrived safely in Lisbon this afternoon to beautiful sunshine and 60-degree weather.
The view from my hotel window provides a wonderful glimpse of the gray-stone aqueducts utilized in years past to provide water for the city.

Our bus drove up and down the streets of Lisbon for views of the downtown and the River Tejo.  From there we headed to Jerinomos Monastery and a rush to Pasteis de Belem (famous custard shop), followed by visits to the Tower of Belem and then the Discovery Monument.  We finished our first day at the Rossio in downtown Lisbon for dinner where the group could experience the nightlife during the dinner hour.  I ate bachalau abras, delicious codfish baked with onions and potatoes. So filling I could not eat it all.

Sunday, March 14
Today is Sunday and some of us attended the Lisbon Church of the Nazarene.  This afternoon, our first business visit was to a local tile factory to view the creation and beauty of hand painted tiles.  Later we were off to Sintra and then a tour of the coast.  We visited Cabo da Rocha, the western-most point of Europe (continental Europe) where several of the group purchased certificates indicating “I went to the end of the world.”  From this point along the coast, we drove “in traffic” to Boca do Inferno (mouth of hell), again along the coast near Cascais. I understand that people used to lean over to take pictures of the water rushing up…………..and when they did, it came in geyser form and tossed them into the water, where they perished.  Our day also included views of the Palacio de Pena (pictured) and the National Palace in Sintra.

March 15
We visited the Viuva Lamego Tile Factory (now known as Aleleuia Ceramica) near Sintra. The plant, founded 100 years ago, produces white body ceramic wall and floor tiles.  Students were intrigued at the manual labor detail in creating the tiles, glazing processes, and painting the tiles by hand for each detail.

The next stop was Obidos, surrounded by a 14th-century wall. Driving into town you see the aqueducts connecting to the city. Some of us lunched in a little cafe nestled inside the wall, and ate “toasta mista” (toasted ham and cheese sandwich) with a salad of lettuce, tomatoes, and carrots.  Others in the group ate at a different restaurant, also ordering “toasta mistas,” but there was no “mista”……….only cheese.  At least it provided laughter at their table and later throughout the bus.  Touring today included Nazare, a fishing village on the Atlantic Ocean coast where fishermen row their boats out to sea for the daily catches.

We were to spend the night in Nazare, and as we drove into town to Hotel Miramar, something was actually going on. When I called the hotel earlier in the afternoon, I was told we needed to arrive before 6:00 pm. Otherwise our bus could not get in. Fact was, there was a “festa” at the Catholic Church last night, so the streets were closed nearby. However, Ruis, the bus driver, managed to get permission to park the bus in the church parking lot for an hour or so………….we bumped our luggage (on wheels) down the cobblestone street to the hotel, not sure what we were in for.

However, to discover the view from everyone’s windows was quite a treat or perhaps even a re-treat. Even at this moment on Tuesday morning, the palm tree leaves are bristling in the cool breeze with the brown tile rooftops gleaming in the sun and the ocean blue facade. Wow…………wonder what God was thinking when he created the earth to provide such a dramatic backdrop.

March 16
Today we continued to Marinha Grande to visit the Alegre Crystal Factory, which provided insight into manual labor.  Our tour guide was Fernando (Magellan – in English).  His family has owned the company since the 1940s or 50s. His father started the business, so Fernando talked about two hours regarding company history, exporting to US, Australia, and other parts of Europe. He was fascinating.  He no longer is officially employed there at 72 years of age but said he comes in about every day. So then he gave the group the tour of the factory and was certainly in his element.

From there we traveled to Coimbra to visit the University of Coimbra Library, one of the oldest in Europe.  We toured the ornate 18th century Joanine Library and the Chapel of St. Michael.

March 17
This was a day of travel and visiting the 19th century Palacio da Bolsa (Stock Exchange Palace) in Porto.  The merchanges of the city began building the Palacio in 1842 as the seat of the Commerical Association for business interests in the area.

March 18-20
Flight to Madrid, Spain for individual exploration, and then return to the United States.

The United States has over 3,000 registered amateur boxing officials, but only 21 possess the AIBA certification awarded Dr. Chaplin.  He is the only Idaho official qualified to referee or judge international matches.

“I got started while attending the Western Boxing Trials (one of the final Olympic Qualifying Tournaments) in Casper, Wyoming in March, 1996. I casually commented to my friend that it would be great to referee amateur boxing. Moments later, I saw in the program that USA Boxing was encouraging interested officials to contact their headquarters in Colorado Springs to inquire about getting involved. The next officials’ certification clinic was scheduled for August, 1996 at the Olympic Training Center in Colorado Springs. Since I was living in Fort Collins, CO at the time, it was no trouble to attend. I became certified at that time and refereed my first bout in Pueblo, Colorado the next month.”        

He has since officiated over 1,600 bouts.  Most recently, he both judged and refereed Feb. 10-13 at the Under-19 National Amateur Boxing Championships in Cincinnati, and this month at a regional boxing match in the Treasure Valley.