Schulich’s MBA a global calling card

Canada’s multicultural welcome mat is paying off for the country’s business schools in an era in which global adaptability is the successful executive’s most persuasive calling card, reported the National Post Sept. 27. The growing international cachet of the Canadian MBA brand is clearly visible in the student body at York’s Schulich School of Business. “Seventy per cent of our full-time [International MBA] students hold a passport other than Canadian. Of those, 10 per cent hold dual citizenship,” said Dezsö Horváth, dean of the globally ranked Schulich, which boasts about 18,000 alumni working in more than 80 countries, including Canada.

A global orientation now is one of the most sought-after attributes of an MBA, agree deans at other business schools. “We have done that better than anyone else,” insisted Horváth, noting that Schulich’s International MBA Program requires students to study a second language and supports students of various nationalities in eight languages, including Mandarin, Japanese, Russian, Spanish, German, French and English.

Business schools, such as Schulich, are increasingly partnering with international universities to offer an unprecedented choice of global-degree, executive-non-degree and exchange programs. Schulich is currently negotiating several dual-degree programs with European and Asian schools, Horváth said. Schulich has recently opened offices in Beijing, Mumbai and Seoul.

In related coverage:

• The Wall Street Journal ranked Schulich No. 15 on the list of best international business schools released last week, reported the National Post Sept. 27. One other Canadian school made the list: the University of Western Ontario’s Richard Ivey School of Business was No. 6. The Tuck School of Business at Dartmouth College led the list of the best business schools in the United States. The schools were judged mainly on “how appealing they are to recruiters – the buyers of MBA talent,” the journal said on its Web site.

Acting is a demanding and unique talent and for students learning the craft, it helps to have a unique building, reported Daily Commercial News and Construction Record Sept. 22. As the East Accolade building at York University nears completion, it appears from the outside to be a fairly standard design and construction. However, appearances are sometimes deceiving. “In essence, it’s two buildings. One inside the other, for sound insulation,” said Phillip Silver, dean of York’s Faculty of Fine Arts. “The idea is any sound generated in the outer building shouldn’t get transferred to the inner building, where the performance spaces are.” Unique to the East Accolade building, which opens for classes this January, is a two-inch gap extending from the basement slab right up to the steel roof deck and roof membrane. This gap divides the whole into two sections: the inner building is all structural steel while the outer building has a concrete and steel structural system.

Too often, we try to live rich too fast. So it’s no surprise then that youth bankruptcies are on the rise, reported the Toronto Star Sept. 27 in a story about credit card debt. A study published in the Osgoode Hall Law Journal by Professor Iain Ramsay in 1999 included a demographic breakdown by age of who filed for bankruptcy in Toronto over a one-year period: 23.5 per cent were 18 to 29; and another 23.5 per cent were 30 to 39. The two were by far the largest groups.

Alexandra Rutherford, coordinator at York of one of only two graduate-level programs dealing with the history of psychology, said she and many of her students had often visited the Archives of the History of American Psychology, reported The New York Times Sept. 27 in a story about psychology’s little known “attic” in Akron, Ohio. “AHAP is a world-class resource for any historian of psychology or the social sciences,” Rutherford said, adding that many articles published by psychology journals were based on research there.

Three York University theatre program graduates – Charlene Carroll (BA in theatre, ’03), Betony Main (BFA in theatre, ’02) and Ann McDougall (BA in theatre, ’03) — created Tinderbox Theatre last year after realizing that their everyday jobs — Carroll a waitress, Main a museum employee and McDougall a theatre office administrator — didn’t satisfy their creative callings, reported Metro Sept. 27. “In 2004 after working on a very emotionally draining dark theatre piece for the Toronto Fringe Festival, I spoke with Ann about beginning to focus on more joyous children’s pieces that would truly connect with the audience,” Carroll said. Tinderbox is dedicated to producing children’s theatre shows using a range of styles and techniques from puppetry mask to music mime and dance to create audience interactive shows. While geared to children, Tinderbox productions are also relevant to adults as they tackle social issues like diversity, tolerance and community sharing.