By: Liz Farmer

When Maryland guard Greivis Vasquez announced he was withdrawing from the NBA draft this week, it undoubtedly elicited an emotional response from him teammates, as Tuesday’s Washington Post article points out.

But for Vasquez, who became the first Terrapin to finish a season as the team leader in scoring, rebounding and assists and other categories last year, the decision to stay for a fourth year was ultimately a business call.

With a guard-loaded draft coming up at the end of the month, Vasquez was projected as a second-round pick at best. Unlike the NFL,  the NBA has a structured salary system for its draftees. (Salaries are awarded according to their draft position: the first overall pick receives more than the second pick, the second more than the third, and so on.)

Last year’s ninth through 21st overall selections, for example, made between $1.8 million and $1 million for their first year salary, respectively. The bottom third of the first rounders made between roughly $800,000 and $980,000.

Salaries for picks one through eight have an even greater variance, with about $4 million for the first overall pick to about $2 million for the eighth.

By waiting until next year, Vasquez not only can improve his game with a Terrapin squad hoping to make it past the second round of the NCAA Tournament, but can be a standout guard with more experience next year vs. a talented guard among a sea of others this year.

Both would increase his value. With the salary for second-round picks being negotiable and with Vasquez’s shooting accuracy and defensive skills still needing a tune-up, waiting until next year could make a difference to the tune of millions of dollars.

But as always, there’s the risk-reward factor in business.  If he gets seriously injured, his value would go down, and — depending on the injury — his ability to grow in the NBA could be in jeopardy and he’ll have less money to show for it. But if the Terps have a monster season led by Vasquez, his value goes up immensely.

Do you think waiting another year to go pro was the right bet to take?

By: Liz Farmer

Maybe a bunch of college students getting together to watch porn is not the craziest thing you ever heard of. But how about when a university hosts the event?

Saturday Hoff Theater at University of Maryland will air a midnight showing of “Pirates II: Stagnetti’s Revenge.” School officials have said the showing offers students an alternative to late night drinking.

Here’s a description of the film from Hoff’s Web site: “Pirate hunter Captain Edward Reynolds and his blond first mate, Jules Steel, return where they are recruited by a shady governor general to find a darkly sinister Chinese empress pirate, named Xifing, and her group of Arab cutthroats, whom are trying to resurrect the late Victor Stagnetti, the world’s most feared pirate, from the grave to bring on world domination. Planned Parenthood will provide a brief introduction.”

In a radio interview this morning, Lisa Cunningham, program coordinator for Hoff, defending the theater’s choice to air the film saying it was the student committee’s unanimous choice to show the XXX-rated film. She also assured that taxpayer dollars, contrary to some protester’s beliefs, were not paying for the film. Instead, the university gets the films for free and the ticket sales cover wages and the cost of keeping the building open.

What are your thought on the choice? Is this just allowing free speech and freedom of expression at a public university? Or has the theater crossed a line?

By: jackie.sauter

A Washington Post story that hints of potential NCAA violations by the University of Maryland and Under Armour (the school’s athletic apparel outfitter) is stirring up a lot of discontent since its publication Sunday.

The story says basketball recruit Lance Stephenson’s offer from the school may have included a deal with Under Armour to become part of its planned basketball shoe marketing effort if Stephenson reaches the NBA – a deal that could be worth millions of dollars.

The university posted a statement in response to the Post story, saying it was beginning an investigation Monday into the Stephenson-Under Armour connection and that school officials would be unable to comment further while it was still open.

Meanwhile, comments on the Post’s site about the story have centered on not so much the notion of a violation but whether the reporters should have written the story at all.

“To most observers it does appear that both of the Terps reporters are trying to make a name for themselves at the expense of the Maryland basketball program… This is a collective effort to go after MD,” wrote Barno1 on Sunday evening.

A later response from another reader: Read the rest of this entry »

By: jackie.sauter

The University of Maryland’s Smith School of Business has come out with a timely answer to the question, “What is the future of the U.S. finance industry?”

It’s launching a new master’s program that specializes in finance business, to “prepare students to lead in a financial industry that is being reshaped by greater government regulation and intervention.”

Now laid off Wall Street financiers have a viable option — that’s not interning on the set of Tina Fey’s fictitious comedy show TGS (for you 30 Rock fans).

From the release:

“The global financial crisis has changed the way we think about finance,” said G. “Anand” Anandalingam, dean of the Robert H. Smith School of Business. “Now more than ever there is a need for industry professionals with a solid understanding of evolving financial models for banking and debt management, corporate governance and management.”

Classes begin this fall at the university’s Washington, D.C. campus; the program is designed for part-time students to complete in 15 months, but a year-long accelerated program is also offered. Click here for more information.

JACKIE SAUTER, Web Editor

By: jackie.sauter

Why would you want to take a winter vacation in crummy old Pasadena or stale old Miami when you could whisk away to Boise, Idaho for the weekend?

It sounds crazy, but that’s the tone (part tongue-and-cheek, part serious) of an e-mail I received this week promoting Roady’s Humanitarian Bowl, which pits the University of Maryland against the University of Nevada on Dec. 30.

It seems Idaho at the end of December is not first on a lot of people’s travel lists, something that the bowl committee is keenly aware of this year with the economy forcing many to be choosier about their expenses. According some media reports, Maryland has sold less than 30 tickets to the game and Nevada has sold even less, although a spokesman for Maryland’s athletics department said those numbers were not accurate.

Seeking to counteract the apparent lack of travel interest to the game (which will be televised on ESPN) the bowl’s promoters say there’s plenty of winter fun to be had in Idaho, from snowmobiling to tubing to seeing the Rocky Mountains.

It also notes that “many” athletes in Maryland’s Atlantic Coast Conference who come to the bowl each year get to experience snow for the first time. (I’m assuming they are talking about kids who play at the three ACC schools in Florida and Georgia.)
It even quotes an unnamed “veteran ACC bowl game attendee” saying after his first Humanitarian Bowl trip, “The whole town is awesome. My expectations weren’t that high. But this is the best bowl trip ever.”
I don’t know about you but my journalistic instincts have taught me not to trust any endorsement when I don’t know where it’s coming from.
I applaud the effort that implores fans to think “outside the icebox” but really — would anything short of free plane tickets get more Maryland folks to travel to the game?

LIZ FARMER, Business Writer

By: jackie.sauter

A University of Maryland media economist is predicting that television and radio use will likely increase during a prolonged recession, based on his study of current audience behavior and Great Depression era trends.

“U.S. households spend six to eight hours with the TV on. It is cheap and Americans will not give up TV. Why? Because this is where they can see movies and other entertainment!” wrote Douglas Gomery, a professor emeritus of journalism. Gomery noted that home viewing represents 90 percent of a movie’s gross, adding, “Folks can and will use TV for news and entertainment.”

He also said broadcast radio will do well because it’s used by many commuters at no extra cost. However a myth, according to Gomery, is that movies did well during the Great Depression. Attendance fell by one-third in 1935 from its previous high in 1929, and hit bottom in 1937, Gomery said. World War II helped pump cash back into the economy, and by 1942 the industry had regained its 1929 attendance levels.

On a sour note — for those in my industry, anyway — is that according to Great Depression trends, newspaper sales and advertising also suffered financially during that time. But if you’ve been reading the headlines this summer, you’ll also know that that’s not exactly news at this point.

Gomery’s comments leave out one medium that didn’t exist during the Great Depression — the Internet. The hybrid medium is mostly print-based, but it enjoys the bonuses of radio and television in that it offers sound and video clips, and is cheap if you have a computer or free at the library and other Wi-Fi spots common in major cities.

How do you think Internet use will be affected by the economy, based on Gomery’s predictions?

LIZ FARMER, Business Writer 

By: jackie.sauter

I came across an op-ed piece today in the University of Maryland’s Diamondback student newspaper that makes an interesting accusation about the school’s defense of Under Armour becoming the official outfitter of its 27 varsity sports teams in a $17.5 million deal.

The author, Malcolm Harris, says a letter to the editor that was written by the university’s basketball and football coaches and the director of athletics in response to a former student’s letter wasn’t as much a defense of the Baltimore-based sports apparel company as it was a press release for Under Armour.

Read the rest of this entry »

By: jackie.sauter

None of Maryland’s colleges and universities made the Sierra Club’s list of “Cool Schools” – recognizing the higher ed institutions with the best environmental initiatives – but one university system did get a nod in Sierra magazine’s “bright ideas” section:

“Thanks to a coalition of students, all 15 institutions in the University System of Maryland are conducting greenhouse-gas inventories. Some are converting buses to biodiesel and starting green building projects, with the goal of eliminating carbon emissions.”

Some other area schools got a less shining review. Listed in the “five that fail” section are Virginia’s College of William and Mary, and D.C. schools George Washington University and Howard University.

Sierra slams G.W. for being the most expensive school in the country, arguing that it should have policies on climate change and green building standards. WAMU, NPR’s station in the District, reported Tuesday that reps from G.W. dispute Sierra’s ranking, and say the school was the first in Washington to codify green building standards.

Regardless of policies at G.W., environmental guidelines seem to be taking hold at larger schools. Last year, the Sierra Club’s magazine ran its first list of “Cool Schools” and only two of the top 10 were big, state schools.

This year’s list is more well rounded, with five of the top 10 being state schools of the largest kind. Here, Arizona State University at Tempe (51,500 students) and University of Florida at Gainesville (50,000 students) share space with Vermont’s Middlebury College (2,350 students) and North Carolina’s Warren Wilson College (850 students).

DANIELLE ULMAN, Business Reporter

By: jackie.sauter

The U.S. News & World Report’s 2009 college rankings are out, and Maryland schools performed pretty well.

Hopkins is 15th overall among national universities — no great surprise there. The University of Maryland at College Park came in at No. 53.

Maryland’s liberal arts colleges should be proud. In the Liberal Arts Rankings, we had: the U.S. Naval Academy, 22; St. Mary’s College of Maryland, 84; Washington College, 94; and Goucher, 111. I know my dad will be pleased for the state. “It’s important to have a good liberal arts education,” he always says.

Take a look at the various ranking categories and see where your alma mater fell. And be sure to use the info to start arguments throughout your office for the rest of the day.

JOE BACCHUS, Web Specialist (graduate of No. 18)

By: jackie.sauter

As a (proud) graduate of the University of Maryland, College Park, I’ll admit: I went to more than a few parties while I was there. I’m still surprised that the campus made Princeton Review’s list of “Top 20 Party Schools” last year – but, hey, I wasn’t involved in Greek life, so maybe my perception’s skewed.

Regardless, I’m pleased to read today in a PayScale report on graduates’ salaries that UMD ranks second on the list of party schools with “salary potential.” Supposedly, by mid-career (PayScale says typically, age 42 with 15.5 years of experience) a UMD graduate can expect to be earning $95K. (Obviously, this is highly dependent on area of expertise.)

UMD also scored well (No. 14) on the “Top State Universities” list, a broader category. (And if you squint and ignore all the schools based on the left coast, we’re easily inside the top 10!)

I nosed around for other local schools that were ranked but didn’t find any. If you see one I missed, let us know.

Data for the report was gathered from employees who completed a survey. Only employees who have a Bachelor’s degree and no higher degree were included.

JACKIE SAUTER, Web Editor

Top Party Colleges By Salary Potential

Methodology
Annual pay for Bachelors graduates without higher degrees. Typical starting graduates have 3 years of experience; mid-career have 15.5 years. See full methodology for more.