School of Business

Students create Web site to help with tax laws pertaining to Katrina

 

Following the devastating affects of Hurricane Katrina and the tax laws that were passed soon after, a group of KU School of Business students went to work.  Prompted by Raquel Alexander, assistant professor in tax, the master’s students dissected the new Katrina tax law piece by piece.  Their goal was to create a Web site that would break down the new provisions into an easy and readable format.

Their creation, www.ku.edu/~katrina, is now live and operational, and with April 15 fast approaching, it comes at a great time.  The Web site focuses on affected taxpayers, affected employers, and donors.

Each student was assigned a section of the tax code pertaining to the new law.  The students condensed and re-wrote their sections and presented their final draft to the class.  After additional suggestions and a few changes, the students combined the disparate parts into one unified Web site, which was produced by a volunteer marketing student.

“It was a great opportunity for the students to read the code, to understand the new law, and then present it in a way that all taxpayers could comprehend,” Alexander said.

Leadership Challenge arms students with priceless skills

A recent KU Leadership Challenge seminar, hosted by the schools of Business and Engineering, armed students with priceless leadership skills that will, in turn, make the students valuable assets for future employers.

The seminar targets sophomores and juniors and grew from a shared vision of the Business and Engineering Career Services Advisory Councils.  The members of the councils, made up of industry representatives, faculty, and career services staff, believe that students should play a proactive role in the leadership development process.
           
Thirty-two business students attended the day-and-a-half long event.  Skip Gast, human resources director at Black & Veatch, was the keynote speaker, and professional presenter Denny Faurote facilitated the seminar.  Both Gast and Faurote emphasized that students must understand the need for leadership in workplace environments and value the career development process.  The event also brought students together with potential employers.
           
Corporate sponsors for the Leadership Challenge included Chevron Phillips Chemical Co., Deloitte, Ernst & Young, Koch Industries/Flint Hills Resources, KPMG, Philip Morris, Raytheon, Target, Aldi, Black & Veatch, Cerner Corp., Cessna, Perceptive Software, Spirit AeroSystems, Sprint, and Waddell & Reed.  School of Business representatives included Jolene Byer, career services assistant director, and Mark Haug, lecturer.

FBI Special agent will present the Sutton Ethics Lecture

Robert Herndon, special agent for the FBI, will speak at the 2006 Sutton Ethics Lecture Series, sponsored by the KU School of Business, at 7p.m. April 17 in Woodruff Auditorium.  Herndon has spent 20 years investigating white-collar crime and is a graduate of the School.

Herndon has been involved in breaking some of the more notorious white-collar criminal cases.  These include the Archer Daniels Midland price-fixing conspiracy, which was documented in a made-for-television movie and the book The Informant.  He also helped break the Robert Courtney case in Kansas City, in which Courtney's pharmacies were found to have sold thousands of diluted drugs to cancer patients.

In his lecture, Herndon will expose the personal flaws and motives that led to these and other white-collar crimes.  He will also describe the methods federal agents use in detecting and solving white-collar cases.  The lecture is free and open to the public.

America’s Global Leadership Imperative Lecture

The Honorable Jack Kemp is the speaker for the 2006 J.A. Vickers, Sr. and Robert F. Vickers, Sr. Memorial Lecture Series, sponsored by the KU School of Business.  Kemp will speak at 7 p.m. March 27 at the Lied Center of Kansas. The title of Kemp’s lecture is “America’s Global Leadership Imperative.”
           
Many Kansans may remember Kemp as the presidential running mate of Robert Dole in the 1996 election.  Prior to that, he represented the state of New York in the House of Representatives for 18 years.  Kemp has also served as Secretary of Housing and Urban Development and chairman of the National Commission on Economic Growth and Tax Reform. 

Today, he is founder and chairman of Kemp Partners, a strategic consulting firm that provides clients strategic counsel, relationship development, and marketing advice.  In addition, he writes a weekly syndicated column for the Copley News Service.

The lecture is free and open to the public.