Brown and White Vol. 106 no. 45

              r | 1 \*% f it wo info managemnt 7 ifb 4 £\ [^ j j ' fmrchild/martindale li9r no.ooba . lc vol 106 no 45 all the lehigh news first friday april 30 1999 lecturer addresses mergers and acquisitions by alex olbrecht managing editor and jennifer o brien associate editor the lehigh community was given the chance to learn about the areas of finance and acquisition from a world-renowned expert in the fields when dr j fred weston came to campus this week as the nasdaq visiting scholar weston met with martindale student associates during a luncheon monday pre viewed his speech during a dinner on monday night and gave a presentation to business professor stephen buell's finance 125 class tuesday buell felt students benefited from weston's expertise especially since they have been using his textbook throughout the semester i think it was fun for students to listen to him since he's so well known and he came to talk to them buell said now they know i've been teaching them the right stuff tuesday evening he presented a lecture entitled implementation of successful acquisitions for strategic growth in perella auditorium weston's presentation which centered upon his view of how mergers and acquisi tions m&a have helped imbue america's economy and job market led his audience through an overview of the research he has garnered on the subject associate professor of business sam weaver was pleased with weston's talk i think it is a good solid consistent message weaver said although acquisi tions may be personally destructive for the economy it can be a positive force you surely must wonder why is all this activity taking place " weston said " is it good or bad for the economy for individu als for the firms involved how will it affect me and my future " weston said mergers driven by fundamen tal economic forces have been mainly benefi cial to united states and world economics weston explained what he considered the change forces of m&a which include tech nological change deregulation changes in industry organization and individual entre preneurship along with the consequences of these forces and their effects on industry weston also provided examples of m&a activity within the u.s using the experi ences of the general electric corporation microsoft and intel to illustrate the number of deals made within the industry annually the major impetus for mergers were also discussed during the lecture which range from the completion of the transcontinental railroad at the turn of the century to the pres sures from the globalization of competition and effects of technology during the 19905 the 90s now represent the world as one common market with transportation and with communication weston said weston drew on a theory of woody allen's that there are only two roads to walk b&wpltotoby lauren ercole visiting lecturer dr j fred weston speaks on how mergers and acquisitions m&a have helped strengthen america's economy and job market as part of his three-day visit civic journalism lecture explores new genre by antonetta stancu news writer pulitzer prize winner discusses motivations and history of relatively new field of journalism jan schaffer executive director of the pew center for civic journalism gave a speech entitled the citizen the journalist wednesday about a new type of journalism schaffer is a well respected journalist and recipient of the pulitzer prize she said a journalist's job is to report the news even though it may not be often read she explained possible causes problems seem to be so big that readers are put off or desensitized schaffer said according to schaffer from 1993 to 1996 there was an 18 percent decrease in the number of 18-29 year-olds who read newspapers schaffer said the role of a civic journal ist is to make the news more readable for the average person this however does not mean that it is a journalist's responsibility to specifically tell people what to think or do about problems in our society civic journalism deals with providing roadmaps for making all kinds of thinking possible schaffer said instead schaffer said a journalist's role is to call problems to people's attention in order to encourage members of the com munity to act civic journalism developed about 10 years ago as an attempt to restore people's trust in the media by conveying knowledge as well as the news schaffer said civic journalism was not a popular concept at its inception change is very unpopular schaffer said but she described that journalists soon realized their readers enjoyed reading this style of writing schaffer said newspapers now tend to concentrate their front-page stories on celebrity and scandals whereas the focus used to be more government-based civic journalism attempts to have a dif ferent focus it requires citizens and journalists to interact as if they're having a conversation rather than an interview schaffer said if journalists do their jobs differently citizens would do their job differently civic journalism has several objectives it deals with the re-framing of stories in a manner in which they portray how issues affect the public redefining the balance of information so that each side of the story has a voice or providing opportunities to help with dealing with the problems of society dennis zehner 99 a journalism student and dina weinstein news director of wdfy-fm were the co-event coordinators for the lecture before describing the importance of civic journalism zehner mentioned how benefi cial communication is and introduced pastor charlie thiel founder of the hope valley fellowship who led the audience in a prayer and moment of silence for the victims of the columbine high school shooting he said that he was inspired to entitle the idea the citizen the journalist as a result of the idea that journalists often have been viewed as separate from society we submit that journalists are citizens too zehner said weinstein agreed that the lecture was a success she said that she found the lecture interesting and beneficial journalism and communications depart ment chairperson jack lule agreed that the lec ture went well jan schaffer is the national authority on civic journalism lule said it is a coup for lehigh to have her here schaffer however said that along with lehigh many schools have played a role in the development of civic journalism schaffer said colleges and universities are emerging as very frequent partners in civic journalism projects see weston page 4 qfflk more monopoly money is printed in a year than real money is printed throughout the world source http://www.fixexpress.com/index.cgi different options for what to do over summer vacation see page 7 lifestyle 7-14 pizza professors 8 astral signs 9 matter of opinion 13 drugs and women in society lecture helps clarify women's roles see page 3 news 1-6 honors convocation 5 lutv dating game 5 police briefs 6