Reference at Newman Library

An article in Crain’s New York Business, Can New York Afford Its Higher Education, quotes President Wallerstein and has several references to Baruch and CUNY.

In case you didn’t see Arthur Downing’s email message yesterday, I’m republishing it here with his permission:

Due to essential work on the electrical system in the Newman Vertical Campus computer room, the campus network and all local Baruch College computer systems will be unavailable on Friday, November 26 from 9:00 a.m. until 1:00 p.m. There will be no access to faculty/staff e-mail, Baruch College web pages, the wireless network, or Degreeworks from on-site or off-site.

Please note that within the Newman Vertical Campus building ONLY, there will be no telephone service during this period. Telephone service in the Library building and South Campus will not be affected.

From off campus there will be access to systems that are hosted outside the Baruch network, such as Blackboard, eSIMS, BOSS, and student e-mail.

Blackboard, eSIMS, and ePermit are available via the CUNY Portal http://www.cuny.edu/
Student Email – Live @ Baruch http://mail.live.com

Graduate tax students in Tax 9862 (Prof. Egan) and 9863 (Prof. Korman) have group assignments that they are working on.  I have posted in the Subject Guides guides for the two classes.  (There is a link to the handout I had prepared for Prof. Korman’s class and one for Prof. Egan’s class from last semester that has some screen shots.)

Prof. Egan’s students will either be representing the IRS or a taxpayer who is being audited.  The taxpayer, a university professor who teaches the history of theatre, begins writing plays and is audited after three years as her expenses are greater than her income as a playwright.  The issues include whether the professor is engaged in a business or a hobby.  Searching CCH Intelliconnect, limited to federal taxation, and RIA Checkpoint should enable the students to find the cases that they need.  Calarco v.  Commissioner is factually probably the closest case to the facts that the students are dealing with.  The judge makes references to the 5,000 years of theatre productions dealing with tax problems, and references to Shakespeare in the opinion, which is interesting to read.

Prof. Korman’s students are considering whether strike benefits (money payments, food, etc.) are gifts or taxable income under different factual situations (one being a union member, another a non-union member whose has suffered due to a strike).   Searching RIA Checkpoint or CCH Intelliconnect for cases, and IRS rulings and publications should help the students find the answers.   There are some articles on ABI Inform Global too that address these questions.  I have done presentations to both classes so I hope that most students will be able to find the materials.  (strike benefits and gift or taxable are possible keywords to use.)

Interesting post on publishing and distributing an e-book from Chamber Four,  a site concerned with reading, the publishing industry and e-reader technology.

To follow up on Randy Hensley’s emails regarding the forms we use this week to track reference interactions, I’ve uploaded the form to the reference wiki on the page for “reference desk statistics sheet.” You can also find copies of the same form at the reference desk.

The Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA) has posted a news release about upcoming Initial Public Offering for  the new GM (General Motors Company.)

I thought this would be important for us to know for two reasons: when we are helping students research General Motors, it will be important to remember that this new General Motors Company is a separate and distinct company from the former General Motors Corporation, which  filed for bankruptcy.

Sometimes people invest in  Chapter 11 bankrupt companies thinking that they will receive stock when, and if, the “company” comes out of bankruptcy.  But if the new company is distinct from the old company, investors may or may not receive stock in the new company.  (Whether they will or not is part of the reorganization plan.)  In GM’s case, investors will not.

The FINRA news release explains the GM situation:

Investors holding “old GM” shares—shares issued before the company filed Chapter 11 in June 2009—are not entitled to receive the newly issued shares.

FINRA halted trading in old GM on July 10, 2009, and issued a new ticker symbol for the old GM stock—MTLQQ—to avoid confusion. The bankrupt company, now known as Motors Liquidation Company, and the new General Motors are separate and distinct.

Investors should understand that buying common stock of companies in Chapter 11 bankruptcy is extremely risky and can lead to financial loss. (FINRA used the boldface.)

FINRA suggests:

If you own shares in a company that has filed, or may be filing, for bankruptcy, or are considering purchasing shares of a bankrupt company, check the company’s website for information about the bankruptcy. Also check the company’s SEC filings, available through the SEC’s EDGAR database or on the company’s website, and other publicly available information for company statements about its reorganization plan as well as a copy of the reorganization plan itself.

I also checked the GM website and their FAQs covers the  situation.

Baruch students working with floppy disks can ask for an external floppy disk drive at the BCTC front desk, for use with the BCTC 6th floor lab computers. Although this request doesn’t come up often, I wanted to share this information. I added this to the wiki, as well.  This was confirmed by calling the BCTC Help Desk. (A student is doing work for her instructor. He gave her a floppy disk and she didn’t know if any computers on campus had a floppy drive.)

I received an alert announcing the annual  Educause study and thought I would pass it along.

Abstract:” …a longitudinal extension of the annual 2004 through 2009 studies. It is based on quantitative data from a spring 2010 survey of 36,950 freshmen and seniors at 100 four-year institutions and students at 27 two-year institutions; student focus groups that included input from 84 students at 4 institutions; and review of qualitative data from written responses to open-ended questions. In addition to exploring student ownership, experience, behaviors, preferences, and skills with respect to information technologies, including ownership and use of Internet-capable handheld devices, the 2010 study also includes a special focus on student use of social networking websites and web-based applications.”