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Students Garner Bloomberg for Colorado State. The
goal was simply this: to obtain within the College of Business a
Bloomberg System Global Database for students to use. Bloomberg is the
world’s fastest growing, real-time financial information network,
combining news, data, and analytics for more than 3.7 million securities
worldwide. It offers historical pricing and stock charts from as far
back as 1978. But its greatest value is its analytical capabilities:
Bloomberg takes the data you request, analyzes it in myriad ways, and
presents it in consistent, usable, easy-to-understand formats. With
Bloomberg, students can create fast, tailored analyses from across
market sections. They are able to research markets, track competition,
consider security alternatives, and conduct “what if” scenarios, such as
what would happen to a particular security if interest rates rose. All
this information from one source – Bloomberg.
The College didn’t own, and could not afford, a Bloomberg System. Two
years ago in Fort Collins, there was only one Bloomberg system, and
thanks to the city’s then Treasury Manager Bob Eichem, ’79 (Eichem is
now Treasury Manager for the City of Westminster, Colo.), some finance
students were trained on the system. “We had $200 million worth of bonds
and investments, and we analyzed the securities that were proposed to
us,” Eichem explains. “This gave a few students a chance to learn how to
work in fixed-income portfolios using Bloomberg.”
A challenge is born. Finance instructor Glory Burns tells how students in her class
approached her one day asking, “Why don’t we have Bloomberg?” Burns
explained to them how incredibly expensive it is. And the students
responded, “We’ll raise the money.”
The students explored Plan A, a golf tournament, and saw its potential
flaws, the biggest being Colorado’s unpredictable weather. They
initiated Plan B: to work in concert with the College to approach
corporations individually. “So they went to the finance classes and the
department’s advisory board to gain support.”
Janelle Kelly, ’97 finance and real estate, was one of the students
who’d initiated the idea. The student committee, which consisted of
Kelly, Jay Marquis, and Stephen Waguespack, learned how to approach
companies. Kelly spoke with her mother, a StorageTek employee, and that
conversation led her to the Storage Technology Foundation, which agreed
to support the Bloomberg project. “That was our first donation,” Kelly
says.
The $2,000 gift was a start, but not nearly enough to lease the system,
and time was running out for Kelly, Marquis, and Waguespack, who were
about to graduate. “We were constantly talking about the Bloomberg
project and we got other students excited about it,” Kelly recalls.
“When the three of us left, we were discouraged that it hadn’t happened,
but we were glad others were interested in keeping the project going.”
The power of asking. Kara Bell, a spring ’97 graduate, became aware of the student project
when she went to work for OppenheimerFunds in Denver. “Oppenheimer has a
good donation program,” says Bell, who approached George Bowen, the
company’s Senior Vice President of Finance. “‘I’d like to see a
Bloomberg at the school I just graduated from,’ I told him. He said
Oppenheimer was interested and asked the CSU students to put together a
proposal. The department chair, Tim Gallagher, Glory Burns, and two
students presented the case to George. He thought Oppenheimer could help
out a little.
At the same time, Art Zimmer, senior vice president and portfolio
manager of OppenheimerFunds’ Denver office and a long-time supporter of
Colorado State students, had heard about the request. Says Bell, “Art’s
the one who really recognized the value of having Bloomberg at CSU and
who said OppenheimerFunds could provide the majority of funding needed.
He could see the advantage it would give CSU students.”
After the students made their presentation, Oppenheimer responded with a
challenge: “See what other donations you can round up. Then come back
and talk to us.”
Building momentum. The students continued their quest, and with assistance from Fort
Collins vice president and manager Clayton Hartman, they received a
donation from Salomon Smith Barney. They then went back to Oppenheimer.
In the meantime, Art Zimmer had been doing his homework, exploring the
feasibility and value of such a gift. He knew that he and the other
portfolio managers at OppenheimerFunds used the Bloomberg System daily.
He knew that OppenheimerFunds hired a significant number of Colorado
State graduates, but he didn’t know if students could, or would,
maximize the use of a system as sophisticated as Bloomberg. He made a
point to find out.
On one of his Colorado State visits, he spoke to a number of finance
students. “I came to realize how important a Bloomberg system at the
College could be and how it could benefit them to be exposed to and able
to use it,” he says. “After that meeting I was convinced it would be
very beneficial and would be widely used.”
Getting to yes. Zimmer got in touch with Bloomberg to discuss the project. The numbers
jived, decisions were made, agreements signed, and, in January, a
Bloomberg system was installed in the College’s student computer lab.
Everyone wins. The Bloomberg System is a gift with numerous payoffs, not only for the
students, but for everyone involved in the project.
Students enrolled in investment classes now prepare realistic
projections, gathering pertinent background and statistics about a
company and determining, for example, when to buy or sell a stock, who’s
recommending a particular stock, how the stock compares to others like
it and to the rest of the market.
Burns sees the addition of Bloomberg to the College as an asset to
finance students when they graduate. “Even before we had a Bloomberg
System,” she says, “we had two students with Bloomberg experience who
wanted to go to work for Bloomberg.” The students interviewed and both
were hired. This was no small coup, Burns points out. “Bloomberg has
their choice of people from Harvard, Yale, and other Ivy League
schools.”
With offices in nearly 50 foreign cities, Bloomberg also offers
employment possibilities to foreign students studying at Colorado State.
“We now have a student applying to Bloomberg in Bogota and another in
Jakarta,” says Burns.
The end is just the beginning. The Bloomberg System was installed in January, and immediately, finance
professors altered their Spring Semester curriculums to include
assignments that give students experience using the system.
To help professors develop relevant assignments for their classes,
teaching assistant Lori Jansen is developing a manual for the College’s
use. The goal, says Jansen, is to have each professor design at least
one unique project using Bloomberg.
Students are learning how to use the system, thanks in part to their
attendance at Bloomberg’s annual “Big B” seminar in Denver. The seminar
attracts Denver-area financial experts who want to learn how to use the
system more effectively. This year, 45 Colorado State business students
and Department Chair Tim Gallagher attended. He recalls Bloomberg’s reps
commenting, “We’ve never seen anything like this. We have virtually no
college students ever come to these. We’re impressed!”
On April 28, finance students staged a demonstration of the College’s
new Bloomberg System. They prepared a multimedia presentation for donors
and guests in appreciation for their support and to show what students
are learning from Bloomberg.
Janelle Kelly, who secured the first gift from Storage Technology
Foundation, attended. “I’m just speechless,” she remarked after it was
over. “It was phenomenal. They did such an awesome presentation. To see
the excitement in the students makes me feel really, really good. That
was my payback – to see how much they’re learning and how they’re using
it. I was in tears.” |
