Monthly Archives: February 2014

Professor Whiteman

Ron Whiteman was my research psychology professor (PSY 5020) last semester.

When I put his name on Google search, this Columbia link below popped out first. http://childpsych.columbia.edu/brainimaging/CV_Whiteman.html

Ron Whiteman was a graduate of Gordon College in 1999 with a BA in Psychology and a double major in Movement Science. From the link, it tells me that his research interests lie in cognitive control, emotion regulation and understanding how these functions help mediate particular social behaviors and interactions. More specifically, he interested in studying the neural mechanisms underlying empathy, compassion and forgiveness. He published 4 journal articles in regard to his cognitive psychology field and he is also highly rated in Baruch.

Accounting – Prof Rong Huang

Professor Rong Huang is currently my Cost Accounting professor at Baruch College. According to the site ‘Rate My Professors’, she has mixed reviews some good and some bad, partly because our grades depend on that of the exams given by the Accounting Department.

Professor Rong Huang got much of her education from China, obtaining her Bachelors degrees in Economics and Computer Science at Dong Hua University (1999), and from the United States, her Masters and PHD in Economics as well as Accountancy at Mississippi State University and University of Texas (2001-2006).

Her areas of expertise are executive compensation, business valuation, as well as cost behavior (according to Zicklin’s website). She also have achieved several publications in ‘The Accounting Review’, ‘Review of Accounting Studies’, and ‘Journal of Accounting Research’ (Zicklin website).

Credibility

I am a new student at Baruch, so I have not quite gotten to know my new professors backgrounds just yet. However at the college I attended before this, I had a biology professor who was known to be very credible. Professor Merit had done research at for various labs and has published work in different books.

In Class Activity (Professor research)

Prof. Gloria Thomas is my BUS 4444H class’s professor, and I have enjoyed the class so much. After I researched on Baruch College’s website, I found out Prof. Thomas’s expertise is in relationship marketing. She holds a PhD in marketing from Temple University. She not only published a book in information and behavior, but also published articles in Journal of Marketing and Journal of Consumer Research. These articles focuses on communication and interaction between people, which are indispensable elements in marketing.

Professor Hagit Levy

According to Professor Levy’s, Baruch page, she is an expert in Financial Accounting, Capital Structure, Information Asymmetry, Financial Reporting,and Earnings Management. Her LinkedIn profile shows that she studied in Tel Aviv University for her undergraduate degree and then went to Columbia business school for her PHD.

professor cheryl smith

According to her biography on the English Department’s website, Professor Smith is a voice of authority in the fields of composition, environmental literature, and early literature. She has produced a number of publications. For example, in terms of environmental literature, she published an essay titled “Giving Voice to the Novice Authority: Silent Spring in the Composition Classroom” in the anthology Teaching North American Environmental Literature. This is her Twitter. Her biography indicates that she is writing another book as well.

Is this english or Philosophy?

I remember professor Lennox pretty well. From what i know about this guy, his area of expertise is English (writing well made essays) and Mostly Philosophy. He would go on for hours explaining the topic of what philosophy Plato, Socrates, Alfred Whitehead and other well known philosophers would represent. He knows how to tell a joke to keep the class interested in the topic and would explain the topic to the best of his knowledge. I couldn’t help but give him a high sense of respect for multiple reasons (even though some of the topics were difficult for me to follow).

About one of my professor

As an Economics major I always had to choose the right classes for my interest and career. I am curious about federal economics which includes monetary systems. Last semester I took my class with professor Parul Jain in Eco 4201 (monetary and banking.) Professor Jain served as  Director in US Credit Strategy at Standard & Poor’s. Her expertise is mostly on federal policies about monetary policy and fiscal budget. Her credentials made me take her class as I always wanted to focus on monetary economics. She was also Chief Economist of Nomura Securities, which also gives her the vast idea of international perspective of economics. Her information can also be found here. As an Economics student I find her very interesting and resourceful.

Professor Stanley Chu

Professor Stanley Chu is currently an Adjunct Accounting Professor at Baruch College and an Associate Accounting Professor at The Touro College. His rich academia background includes teaching the CPA (Certified Public Accountant) examination for over 25 years and instructing at major firms such as AT&T, Johnson and Johnson, and Deloitte. Click here for his full academic profile at The Touro College.

His recent publications in the field of accounting includes:
1) “History of Accounting Education”, Journal of Higher Education Theory and Practice Spring 2012
2) “Student Attitudes Towards Online Homework in Accounting”, Accounting Instructors Report, Fall 2010

Emil Gernert

I had Emil Gernert as a recitation professor for biology and he is an expert in the natural sciences. Even more specifically, he is an expert in the mold Aspergillus because he has written an article on the physiology of the mold Aspergillus. He is highly rated at Baruch, he is a chair in the medical school recommendation committee and is responsible for developing upper level courses in the department.

Link: Emil Gernert

One of my favorite professors….

My psychology professor from almost two years ago has inspired me to become the person I am today. Most of the liberal ideas that shape me have resulted from her lifting a dark sheet of ignorance from above my head. Professor Friedman specializes in environmental issues: particularly how they affect our behaviors, and similarly how our behaviors have negatively affected the environment. Aside from that, Professor Friedman also specializes in the Psychology of Sleep, and she has written numerous articles about the impact on human function and behavior from lack of sleep.
Professor Friedman is also the “Baruch College Ombuds” since fall 2002: she helps faculty staff and students within the Baruch community voice their complaints.

http://www.baruch.cuny.edu/wsas/academics/psychology/mengle-friedman.htm

 

Teacher Expertise

So… despite it being so early into the semester, I can already sense that my management professor is easily an expert on the field he’s teaching to us, which is human resource management.  I can say this because the guy can (and does) just sit there on end, talking about the topic off the top of his head, giving us all the pertinent notes and details we need to learn the subject and prepare ourselves for the exams.  No books necessary.  The first day, he gave us a detailed verbal autobiography about how he’s been a lawyer for over forty decades, and has been in the business/law fields of Equal Employment Opportunities and labor union disputes for all those years.  It is in these ways, through first-hand experience as an advanced player in the topics at hand, that I can confidently surmise that I am acquiring my knowledge of human resource management from a credible and exceptionally able source.

Professor Lutwak

I took a course with Professor Lutwak in Abnormal Psychology. She is a licensed Psychologist and an associate professor at Baruch College. She completed her postdoctoral analytic training in psychotherapy and psychoanalysis at NYU.  She is the Director of the Masters in Mental Health Counseling program at Baruch College where she teaches and supervises graduate students.  She is on the training faculty for the Institute for Psychoanalytic Studies where she teaches and trains candidates in character analysis and has a private practice in NYC. Most of her publications have studied Human Behavior most notably on Shame and Guilt. For example one of her publications is : Shame related social anxiety: Replicating a link with various social science interaction measures.  Anxiety Stress and Coping l0, 335-346. Harwood Academic: International Publishers Distributor. Lutwak, N. , & Ferrari, J R. (1997).

http://www.baruch.cuny.edu/wsas/academics/psychology/nlutwak.htm

 

Importance of Education

When I read the chapter 1, i realized the importance of education at home and school.

In the story, her family members and friends took her side and made excuse to help her.

If someone from shsha’s family or teacher point out her mistake and an apology her part, it should not be big issue.

I attached the link regarding to importance of education in one’s life.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fc7heovgI48

Who Should Filter Our Information?

The challenges with information have changed drastically within the past two decades. In the late 1990’s the main challenge is accessing the information. To retrieve information, one would have to locate the specific book, journal, or newspaper in a library or watch what’s on the news/TV. Today, information is so abundant and easily accessible through internet databases, search engines, social media, and other media outlets, that the biggest challenge we are facing is to learn how to filter out false and/or unreliable information. Having access to valuable information in a timely manner may lead to more informed decisions and profits. On the contrary, the lack of valuable information may lead to a major financial loss that is evident during the 2008 financial crisis.
The issue that now arises is – who should determine what information to filter out and what information to keep? In China, the Chinese government took this matter into their own hands when it censored sensitive word searches on the Google search engine. For example, Google searches related to the Chinese character, “Jiang”, is censored because it is associated to the death rumors of former President Jiang Zemin. However, “Jiang” is also the Chinese character for “river”. Click here to read the full article. 

Do you think it is ethical for the Chinese government to censor searches on search engines like Google? Do you think the US government and US-based companies follow a similar practice (maybe at a lesser degree) but is currently unknown to the general public (think of Yahoo’s and YouTube’s removal of “inappropriate” content in the comment section of its articles and videos)?

Bill Nye Vs. Ken Ham Debate

An interesting video that has been surfacing around the internet lately is the debate that was streamed live on youtube between Ken Ham and Bill Nye. Bill Nye takes the naturalism/darwinistic approach to how the world came to be and still is and Ken ham takes a creationist approach. Personally when i watched this debate I tried to understand the creationist approach and seeing if any of their arguments had any merit. Growing up in the Jewish religion I can understand why many of his followers believe that the world was created by some supernatural power. But now that I am an educated student and a more wiser one for that matter, theres absolutely no scientific evidence to support Ken Hams claims that our world was created within the last 6000 years. To me its absurd but at the same time understanding because when you are raised in a religious setting your trained to believe that not everything is explainable, that god is the only one with such power. On the other hand science takes the approach that many things can be explained, through observational and experimental methods. After listening to both points of view i have a better understanding of each sides position on the matter. Weather either side is correct or not i don’t believe is important. I would like to ask the class one thing. Do you believe that as a student your beliefs have shifted into a more liberal view that questions your existence and questions your religious beliefs? or that education has not affected your views at all. Because personally Im on Bills side on this debate. And i feel like if i had never educated myself and actually learned about these phenomena, both religious and scientific, i would probably be stuck more in the middle then on just one side.

Bill Nye Ken Ham Debate

 

Things to Blog About

I’ve gotten a number of questions from the class about the blogging homework. As noted on the course website, you are expected to write during the semester:

  • 5 original blog posts
  • 10 comments on other people’s blog posts

As noted on the course outline page of the course website, I’d like to make sure that by February 25, everyone has written at least 2 of those 5 posts and 3 of the 10 comments.

Here are some thoughts about the blog posts:

  • They must be substantive (more than a few sentences; a short paragraph or two will do)
  • You can write a post that is meant to ask a really interesting question about information and society. You need not have an answer to the question; it can honestly be a question you’d like to ask the class to answer (which they can do as comments to your post).
  • You can write a post to spotlight something you discovered online that you think we should read/watch/listen to. It could be a scholarly journal article, a tweet, a video, a blog post, a website, an image you found on Instagram; just about anything that somehow relates to our course (you’ll need to explain in your post what that connection is).
  • You’ll see blog posts from me that are my efforts to do this kind of blogging here, too. All those blog posts I write will be assigned to the “Your Prof Recommends” category.
  • When you are writing your blog post, make sure you tick off the checkbox in the “Categories” for “Homework” (this will help us organize all your blog posts).

Here are some thoughts about comments on the blog:

  • They should be more substantial than simply “LOL” or “that’s interesting.” A few sentences or more should do it.
  • On the posts that I write in the “Your Prof Recommends” category, I’ll offer lots of prompts for you to comment. Feel free to comment on my posts as well as those of your classmates.

When Should Spelling Be Standardized on the Web

There was an interesting post on the Atlantic Monthly blog yesterday spotlighting efforts by Buzzfeed’s editors to reign in spelling discrepancies among its stable of authors. The web is an incredible source of new slang and jargon and arguments about how to spell these new additions to our language. Consider your own position on things like:

  • “website” vs. “web site”
  • “email” vs. “e-mail”
  • “LOL” vs “lol”

In much the way that the older media companies–such as the New York Times, the Associated Press, book publishers, etc.–have had to develop rules for its writers to follow over the decades, so too are exclusively online-only media companies like Buzzfeed having to try to come up with some standardization to spelling for the web-centric jargon that they heavily rely on.

Things to think about (and maybe comment on):

  • Can you think of other style guides out there?
  • What are some other places where you see new language and slang being documented or debated?
  • Is spelling ever settled for good? If so or if not, why?

Library

Transferring from York College, the Baruch library is an incredible place to study, relax, and focus. I’m surrounded by students who are equally working hard to study, which really helps me stay concentrated. Plus this library is super resourceful,  any time I need help with anything there is always someone who can help me out.