Imagine planning for four months how to spend your paycheck. Officials at the Martin J. Whitman School of Management did just that.

After Chancellor Kenneth A. Shaw approved its budget last week, the school’s officials have announced that they will spend the money from the program’s namesake on research, staff development and a teaching fellowship program.

Perhaps the most direct effect the Whitman money will have on students is through the Whitman Student Fund, which will support undergraduate research in Management.

‘People would present a plan or proposal and, based on that, they would receive some money,’ said Sandra Hurd, the interim dean of Management.

‘The goals would be to take and connect the students and find new ground in developing new knowledge outside the classroom,’ said Clint Tankersley, the associate dean of undergraduate studies.

Tankersley, responsible for spending the Whitman Student Fund’s money, hopes to work with the directors of Management’s current 11 undergraduate research facilities.

‘There’s no need to create another research facility if there are 11 great ones already in existence,’ Tankersley said.

While Hurd wouldn’t specify the amount Whitman donated, the fund is allocated $30,000 per year.

‘We’ll be able to do a lot with that,’ Hurd said.

Fernando Diz, an associate professor in Management who was influential in getting Whitman to donate such a large gift, will create and fill a financial chair. The money will also set up both a Whitman Staff Development Fund, which will allow faculty to take classes and go to conferences, and a Whitman Seminar series, the format of which will pair up an MBA and faculty member to speak about selected topics both at SU and at other venues. The first speakers, Whitman and Diz, will be in New York City sometime in the future.

‘It’s a part of the whole university initiative to challenge students,’ Hurd said.

The money will also go to technological upgrades and the creation of a Whitman Teaching Fellows program, and will fund the redesigning of the school’s Web site, which is set to be completed by this December.

None of the money will go to the construction of the new Management building, scheduled to open in Spring 2005, because of the type of Whitman’s donation.

‘Gifts that name the building will be spent on bricks and mortar,’ Hurd said. ‘Gifts that name a program go to the program.’

While the Management program will eternally be named for Whitman, the new Management building is still looking for a sponsor. Thus far, some of the classrooms and areas of the building have names, but the whole building hasn’t been claimed yet, Hurd said.

Some students trust that Management officials are spending the money efficiently.

‘I’d like to see anything that the student body could benefit from,’ said Lara Leff, a sophomore retail and marketing major. ‘Maybe there could be more one-on-one sessions or tutoring.’

Published on September 9, 2003 at 12:00 pm