SYRACUSE - Students at Syracuse University's Whitman School of Management can train for careers in the world of finance at the school's new Ballentine Investment Institute classroom.
Visitors to the school can peer through large windows into the institute's first-floor classroom where two giant video screens cover the front wall. Market information, and news scroll across the screens, when they're not being used to display class information. The high-tech facility teaches students how to operate computer equipment used in the financial industry. The institute trains 100 students per semester.
SU alumnus Steven W. Ballentine, president and CEO of Ballentine Capital Management, and his wife created the institute through a $500,000 donation 13 years ago, explains Fernando Diz, director of the Ballentine Investment Institute. The Ballentines have supplemented the initial gift with annual donations to help the school prepare students for jobs on Wall Street or other financial centers. Steven Ballentine, a 1983 graduate of the School of Management, started his Connecticut-based investment company in 1989.
The institute's classroom has 30 workstations for students. The school furnished the classroom with the type of workstations used in the financial industry, Diz explains. Flat-panel videoscreens at each workstation are suspended on flexible arms for easy positioning. Each station has connections for students' laptop computers as well.
The institute includes three Bloomberg Professional Terminals for students' use. Financial analysts, stockbrokers, and traders around the world use the Bloomberg terminal to monitor information and make market decisions, explains Diz. The terminals, made and distributed by Bloomberg LP, lease for more than $1,200 per month. The market-information provider has 260,000 subscribers in 125 countries.
The widespread use of Bloomberg terminals in the financial industry,, Diz explains, makes the institute's training an attractive prospect for students planning their careers.
"All of our students become certified on the Bloomberg," he adds.
Being certified helps make a student more attractive to employers since they won't need costly, time-consuming training later.
A separate room holds the three Bloomberg terminals, including one dual-screen model.
The Ballentine classroom is equipped to allow students to receive instruction from anywhere. Video links allow instructors to teach via videoconference. Microphones mounted on each desk feature a button used for asking questions during a videoconference class, Diz explains. When a student presses the button, it activates a microphone and automatically aims a robotic camera on the questioner. The classroom has other cameras mounted on the walls for capturing lectures.
The Ballentine classroom features an assortment of computer, projection, and video devices for teaching investing techniques. The instructor controls the classroom's cameras and projectors, via a touchscreen monitor mounted on a desk in the front of the room. A bank of video equipment is hidden in a closet behind the instructor's desk.
Whitman School and other investment-oriented SU students put their skills to use for the school's Investment Club. The club has $100,000 in real investments selected by the members. The stock quotes displayed on the classroom's screen also include a separate line for the club's holdings.
© 2005 Central New York Business Journal Provided by ProQuest LLC. All Rights Reserved.
