Academe briefs

Child development major added

Beginning this fall, TCU students can earn a bachelor's degree in child development.

Previously offered only as a minor, the degree has a multidisciplinary approach and is designed for students who wish to go into jobs or areas such as children's mental health, preschools or Head Start.
Child development majors will utilize the university's partnership with theTCU Institute of Child Development and the opportunity to work with the Institute's director, Karyn Purvis, a renowned expert and speaker in the fields of child development and child advocacy.

For more information on the major or minor, visit www.psy.tcu.edu. For more information on the Institute of Child Development, visit www.child.tcu.edu. — KH

Women on boards

Why aren't more women breaking into the "old boys club" of corporate boards?

That's the question Siri Terjesen, assistant professor of management, explored in recent research with Val Singh of Cranfield University in the United Kingdom, and published in the Journal of Business Ethics.

Women comprise less than 15 percent of corporate board members in the United States, United Kingdom, Canada and several Western European countries. In some Asian countries, women account for a scant 0.2 percent of board seats.

The study examined these numbers in a larger context of the national environment to identify trends of women's participation on corporate boards.

"The countries where women have made it to the board room are those with women in senior management levels, smaller pay gaps and a shorter period of women's political representation," Terjesen and Singh wrote.

Why would countries where women have enjoyed greater political power have fewer women on boards? Researchers identified several possible reasons including complacency, greater career prospects in government siphoning away women from the corporate world, and the "Queen Bee Syndrome."

"Older women in powerful positions may resent their younger colleagues and sometimes deliberately hold them back," the study said. — KH

High school challenge

The High School Investor Challenge, which began five years ago with just eight area students participating, grew this year to a record 52 participants, including high school seniors from Louisiana, Kansas, Colorado, Missouri and other states.

The program, run by the Neeley School of Business, is designed to introduce top high school students who are interested in a career in finance to the stock market. Participants spent a week on campus in the summer of 2007 learning about the market and the Investor Challenge program, then each student managed a virtual portfolio of $100,000 throughout the fall semester of 2007 and the spring semester of 2008. On April 26, they gathered to present their results.

The top-performing portfolio managers were rewarded with scholarships, with a total of $178,500 being divided among 15 students.

The program is also designed to be an introduction to the Neeley School, and 26 of the high school seniors who participated in the Investor Challenge will be attending TCU in the fall. Those students will receive three "finance seminar" credit hours. — CF

Students explore the Fourth Amendment.

This year's Common Reading titled "The Fourth Amendment and the Reasonable Expectation of Privacy" explores how the right to privacy works in a world of surveillance cameras and DNA data banks.

Every member of the incoming freshmen class is required to complete the reading, write a 400- to 500-word paper and participate in a small group discussion as part of the First Year Experience.
This year's collection includes a variety of literary forms, from a poem titled "Skunk Hour" by Robert Lowell to an excerpt of an essay by Ben Quarmby titled "The Case for National DNA Identification Cards."

The text of the Common Reading compilation is available online at: http://www.core.tcu.edu/documents/TCU2008CommonReading.pdf.

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