News and Notes

ON CAMPUS Professor wins award for distinguished teaching Solomon Friedberg, chair of the mathematics department at Boston College, has won the 2009 Northeastern Section Award for Distinguished College or University Teaching from the Mathematical Association of America. Friedberg, who has been teaching at BC since 1996, has been commended by students and faculty alike for "his enthusiasm and skill in the classroom," as well as "his commitment to his students and accessibility outside the classroom." Friedberg is also known for his initiative to organize nationwide effort to improve the manner in which current graduate students are taught through the use of creative innovative materials to promote effective teaching.

Climate changes affect flooding on East Coast Climate changes are causing significant upsets of Atlantic currents, which may boost the threat of flooding along the U.S. East Coast more than glacial melting alone. New York, Boston, and Washington, D.C. are anticipated to experience more shoreline encroachment and have higher risk of storm surges as changing currents push more water toward the eastern seaboard than toward Europe. The Atlantic Ocean, which consists of a system of hot and cold circulating waters, will rise in depth in certain places as glaciers continue to melt. This glacial water, which is less dense than the Atlantic's salty surface water, will thus slow down the overall overturn of water.

UNIVERSITIES Blame for economic crisis shifted to MBA professors While much of corporate America is struggling under the weight of the failing state of the economy, the question has been raised as to how much blame should be placed on the education that these executives received at their respective business schools. Many of the problems that stimulated the economic crash, such as focusing on short-term gains in stock price or placing too much faith in ultra-complex financial instruments, are concepts that should be explored in business schools as to their effects and ethical connotations. "In a way, finance professors caused this problem - I'm not bragging about this," said Charles Trzcinka, the finance chair of the business school at Indiana University. Trzcinka further stated that professors taught training executives about mortgage-backed securities and credit default swaps without a full understanding of how the instruments could fail.