Table of Contents
 News You Can Use
Parents, Did you Know?
Upcoming Events
Community Bulletin
Kudos
Articles of Interest
Trivia

The Link: Olin’s Campus-Wide E-Bulletin February 2, 2007

This newsletter includes news and information that will keep you informed of campus happenings.

If you have information you would like distributed to the Olin community, please send it to Announcements@olin.edu

The next edition of the Link will be
available on February 16th.

News You Can UsE
Phoenix Net – Did You Know?
Did you know that Phoenix Net (https://my.olin.edu), the Olin portal, now contains the financial services and human resources forms (including the new staff manual) you're looking for. Just sign onto the portal using your Olin network credentials and click on the Financial-Purchasing tab or the Human Resources tab to find the information you need.

Additionally, the Ad Astra Scheduler has been made available through the portal, via single sign-on. Campus Services is taking over administration of room scheduling on campus, maintaining the use of the Ad Astra system. Accessing the system via the portal is the preferred method of requesting rooms. However if you need a room at the last minute, please e-mail Room.Scheduling@olin.edu and Campus Services will attempt to accommodate your request.

Student Volunteers Needed!
Ignite Clean Energy Competition to be Held at Olin on April 5th
Student volunteers are needed to help with the Ignite Clean Energy (ICE) competition which will be held at Olin on April 5th. Volunteer opportunities include: Hosting/serving as a guide to guests; providing room support during presentations; or videotaping some of the various presentations (which will be held from 3:00-7:00p.m.). If you are interested and available to volunteer, please contact Joanne Kossuth.

With just one Olin team currently scheduled to compete, we would also like to encourage additional students to enter! The idea behind the ICE is to build the clean energy business cluster in Massachusetts and regionally by working with entrepreneurs to crystallize their business concepts and helping them produce a compelling ten-minute investor pitch. By getting entrepreneurs in front of investors and others in the sector, the ten finalists get very broad exposure. In the first two years of the competition, there have been 79 teams to go through the competition and, of the top ten finalists, nine are still in business.

The process starts with a 3–5 page executive summary that must be submitted by March 5th. Contestants receive written feedback on their summaries from the judging committee. The top 30 teams are asked to develop a ten to fifteen minute pitch for the semifinals, which they give in private, individually, on April 5th. They then get about 15–20 minutes of verbal feedback from a judging panel (including investors, IP attorneys, etc.). The top ten of the semifinalists return on May 1st to give a public ten-minute investor pitch and five teams (one grand prize, plus second and third prizes for both student and professional teams) win awards that night. Mentors are provided to the teams, as is access to boot camps and seminars with lots of how-to content, and individual coaching to help them hone the best pitch possible.

From the President's Desk...
As most of you know, fund raising is a now a very important and increasing need at Olin College. In order to better support this need, and the implications it has for the demands on my time and that of the Board of Trustees, I have made some changes to staffing in the President's Office. 

Christine Kelly is assuming a new role as Manager of Trustee Affairs and Assistant Clerk of the Board. In her new role she will devote most of her time to administrative support for our growing Board of Trustees, as well as the President's Council and other external boards that the Trustees may create.  In addition, she will continue to provide support for me on special projects from time to time. Christine has developed excellent working relationships with all members of both constituencies which is essential for this position. She has also done a wonderful job of providing administrative support for the Board. 

Nancy Sullivan has been selected for the position of Assistant to the President. Nancy has been a very valuable and integral part of the Administration and Finance organization over the years and most recently served in the role as Steve Hannabury's assistant. Her level of professionalism and service oriented style will be great assets in handling the daily operations in my office. She will transition into her new role within the month of February. Very shortly the College will post the position of assistant to Steve Hannabury.

Joe Hunter Elevated to Assistant VP -- A Message from VP Charles Nolan
I am pleased to announce that Joe Hunter, Director of Communication, has been promoted to Assistant Vice President for External Relations and Director of Communication, effective February 1st.

Since 1999, Joe has been on the forefront of promoting Olin College to the world. He has done a remarkable job in that role. Through Joe and his colleagues' efforts, Olin has garnered meaningful exposure nationally and internationally in Newsweek, the Wall Street Journal, the New York Times, USA Today, the Boston Globe, IEEE Spectrum, National Public Radio and other national media outlets.

This high level visibility has helped Olin attract outstanding students, faculty and friends to the College. Joe has developed wonderful relationships with the print and electronic media. At the same time, he has worked collegially with Olin constituencies to improve internal communication. It is fair to say that Joe's skill, perseverance and team orientation have played a major role in helping Olin College get where it is today. This promotion is in recognition of his hard work and results. We are fortunate to have Joe and his talents at Olin.

Joe will continue to serve as the primary spokesperson for the College and serve as supervisor of External Relations and Admission in my absence.

Please join me in congratulating this deserving member of our community!

Curriculum Review Task Forces Seek Staff, Student Reps
As part of the ongoing curriculum review, the faculty are in the
process of creating five task forces that will operate during the
spring semester to investigate various curricular topics and possibly
to recommend policy changes.

Several of these task forces are currently recruiting student and
staff representatives. If you are interested in working with one
of these groups, please send email to the contact person, indicated
with an asterisk below.

Task Force on the Sophomore and Junior Years:
Chang*, Yim, Stein, Somerville, Bingham

Task Force on Curriculum Trade-offs:
Pratt (Gill)*, Minch, Seiminski, Dabby, Lee

Task Force on Global Engagement:
Linder*, Pratt (Joanne), Schiffman, Lynch

Task Force on Pedagogical Innovation:
Chachra*, Stolk, Kerns (Sherra), Zastavker, Christianson, Geddes

Task Force on the Senior Year:
Barrett*, Townsend, Adams, Epstein

The curriculum review process is being managed by the ARB. If
you have any questions, please send email to arb@lists.olin.edu.

Submit Your Entries for Inc. Magazine's 5,000 list of Fastest-Growing Companies
For the first time, Inc. is encouraging all independent, U.S.-based, privately held companies to fill out qualification forms for the Inc. 5,000 (an expansion of it's well-known annual Inc. 500 list), even though many may not yet be eligible for the list. "We want to make sure all growing private companies are on our radar screen," said Inc. 5,000 Project Manager Jim Melloan. Although they focus on companies that have several years of revenue figures, they do make allowances for younger companies that might make the list in the future. We'd like to encourage qualified students and alumni to submit an entry. Click here to read Inc. Magazine's press release and get additional details.

Nominate Outstanding Students for the Simon Early Leaders Award Program
The Simon Graduate School of Business, University of Rochester, is offering special scholarships to recent college graduates who are nominated by key administrators/faculty/staff at selected undergraduate institutions and who are accepted to the Simon School. This award is given to current college juniors, seniors and recent graduates (5 years or less) who are interested in seeking entry into a M.B.A. or M.S. program. All nominated students will receive a fee waived application and a congratulatory letter. If the student then applies and is accepted into the program he/she will receive a scholarship of at least $5000/year for up to 5 years from the award date. Exceptional students will receive at least $30,000 for the duration of their MBA program or at least $20,000 for the duration of their M.S. program. Using the password: rochesterearlyleader, faculty and staff members are encouraged to nominate any student that has demonstrated outstanding leadership potential and is interested in business school after Olin. The deadline for submission is March 15th, however they strongly encourage nominators to submit by February 14th.

Wellesley-Olin Shuttle
Click here to see the Wellesley-Olin shuttle schedule, brought to you by the Office of Student Life at Olin and the Office of Housing and Transportation at Wellesley.

• Visit Community Calendar for upcoming Olin community-wide events
• Visit CORe Public Calendar for upcoming Olin student activities
• Click Wellesley Campus Calendar for upcoming Wellesley College events
• Visit Babson Online Calendar for upcoming Babson College events

Kudos
President Miller and Steve Hannabury Elected to Serve As Chairman and Treasurer of the AITU
The Association of Independent Technological Universities, AITU, (a group of 20 independent technological schools) met recently in Southern California and have elected President Rick Miller as Chairman of the AITU for the next 2 years, and Steve Hannabury as Treasurer of the AITU and Chair the council of CFOs. This association -- which includes MIT, Caltech, RPI, Carnegie Mellon, Case Western, WPI, Harvey Mudd, Rose-Hulman, and Cooper Union -- meets only once each year in January. Their major project is the production of an annual comprehensive benchmarking databook.

"Who Should Pay for College," WBZ NewsRadio1030, January 23, 2007

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Trivia
In the last issue we asked "Which Olin alum's product made the front page of the Boston Globe on Friday, January 19th?" Ryan Hubbard was the first to respond with the correct answer, Jeff Satwicz.

Trivia buffs, do you know.....

Q: What SCOPE project appeared on last Sunday's edition of 2057 on the Discovery Channel?

A: First person to correctly respond to Alyson Goodrow receives a prize.