the office quotes

By Gina Vergel

Fordham University's Graduate School of Business Administration (GBA) has acquired 8,500 square feet of space in a building at 1790 Broadway near 58th Street in midtown Manhattan that now houses more than two dozen faculty offices and features a financial trading floor for students.

The renovation of the 13th floor of the office building was completed in August and faculty members relocated from the sixth and fourth floors of the Lowenstein Center at the Lincoln Center campus, where the business school is headquartered, before the start of the academic year.

Howard Tuckman, Ph.D., dean of GBA, said that the ability to expand to new offices that feature advanced technology is essential for the business school.

"Our location in the cultural mecca of New York City has created opportunities for Fordham business to work with some of the top business schools and business leaders in the world," Tuckman said. "As we continue to grow, both in size and program offerings, we look forward to becoming a major platform for business education throughout the world. Our new space in 1790 Broadway is an important step toward achieving this goal."

A centerpiece of the new location is the trading floor, which has 28 double-display computers that have a live Reuters news feed. A Bloomberg Financial monitor station will be available elsewhere on the floor.

The trading floor is also outfitted with executive-style wireless access points, high-tech projectors and a live feed that relays up-to-the-minute stock quotes.

"The top flight business schools seek to create an environment in which students use their theory and education to master state of the art technologies and ideas," Tuckman said. "Our new facility will offer our students a unique opportunity to learn by doing. This is especially important given that the modern use of 'quants' in the trading room requires students with strong analytic and mathematical skills who can also learn the culture and the trading mores of Wall Street."

Sris Chatterjee, Ph.D., associate professor and area chair of finance for the Schools of Business Administration, settles into his new office at 1790 Broadway.

Sris Chatterjee, Ph.D., associate professor and area chair of finance for the Schools of Business Administration, said that 10 GBA students who are enrolled in the Master of Science in Quantitative Finance program are the first to use the high-tech classroom.

As part of the quantitative finance program, students must complete a six-credit internship, so Chatterjee is hopeful that the trading-floor experience will give them a "leg up" on the competition.

"We're building the future," Chatterjee said. "Students will be able to work with data that they would use if they were out in the finance world. They get to see exactly what they'll be using in the banks on Wall Street. They'll test models using real-live data."

GBA is not the only school to make a move to new space.

Several of Fordham Law School's administrative offices have also relocated. The Law's School enrollment services operation, which includes admissions, financial aid and the registrar's office, is now located on the 9th floor at 33 West 60th St., a block from the Lowenstein Center.

In addition, the Feerick Center for Social Justice and Dispute Resolution has moved into new office space on the 9th floor of 33 W. 60th St. The Law School has also converted its Moot Court Room into two classrooms.

Overall, Fordham now leases 150,000 square feet of academic and residential space at various locations in Manhattan. In addition to the 33 West 60th St. and 1790 Broadway locations, the University also leases two floors at 888 Seventh Ave. in midtown Manhattan. That location houses the development, alumni relations and marketing and communications operationsThe Office" kicked off its fourth season with a bang -- and I'm not just talking about the sound that came from Michael's car as he ran over Meredith.

That's right; Michael ran over Meredith with his car. The entire office was sad, except for Dwight, who thought it could be a workman's comp ploy, and Angela, who was preoccupied with Sprinkles the cat.

Everyone made a plan to visit Meredith during lunch. Angela didn't want to go. After all, Sprinkles was sick. She was sicker than sick -- she was dead in Angela's freezer. Dwight wasn't exactly sympathetic. Maybe because he's a cat killer?

Sensing this personality flaw, Angela went to Pam for relationship advice, since she's "always having problems." The evidence, which included several bags of clawed French fries, didn't look good. Did Pam have advice? It didn't matter... she's a dog lover.

During the hospital visit, Michael proceeded to pull out Meredith's IV tube, beg for forgiveness and then re-crushed her pelvis by crawling on top of her. Creed also revealed his frightening knowledge of painkillers. However, what Creed knowledge is not frightening? Certainly not the fact that in his 82 years, he has been both a cult leader and follower...

After the visit, Michael started to believe the office was cursed. However, it sounds like Meredith was the one that had the hex on her. She had been bitten by a bat, a rat, and a raccoon -- all recently. Shouldn't she have some type of superpowers by now?

Michael started to believe that the rabies cancelled out the curse -- but not the cause, so he organized a fun run to "support the rabid."

Kevin didn't want to run (since he had to do so in a suit), Andy needed to protect his nipples, and Daryl wanted to feed squirrels peanuts and flirt with the "nurse." Michael did a carbo-load with Fettuccine Alfredo. If you didn't see the results, lucky you. Creed, Oscar and Stanley took a cab to a bar. Jim and Pam hung back to hold hands.

Pam is looking very foxy this year. She's single in real life, she's a movie star ("Blades of Glory"), and she finally has her Jim. She also got to see Michael naked -- which is a plus or a minus, depending on how you look at it.

Big surprise, Jim and Karen broke up, but not because of Pam -- which sounded a lot like the Brangelina defense. No one in the office knows the two are together, but Jim and Pam did fess up about their relationship for the cameras. Do you think those two getting together will make the show jump the shark? I don't think so. In fact, it's about damn time.

Not too much of Ryan in this episode. So far all we know is that he crushed Kelly (much like Meredith's pelvis), moved to the corporate office, has a beard-in-training and is now the female Jan, sans boob job. Looks like we'll see more of him next week. I'd like to see more of Michael and Jan's "domestic" life as well...

Good start to the season. Glad they are doing hour-long episodes. There's a lot to cover! -- Rachel Cericola

Just another reminder: You have until 11:59 p.m. (EST) TONIGHT to get in on our "Office" swag giveaway. Drop me an email with your favorites moments and/or quotes.

As Head of Media for Oxfam, the party conference season is an important place to go and spend time with Britain's most senior and influential journalists, to discuss issues of the day. There is a rich cast of characters who either are there hunting in the margins for something new, or for new ways to present old problems (Darfur being a classic head-scratcher for many), while others use it as an annual sojourn to keep up appearances.

Most of the newspaper editors come down and join their foot soldiers in the bunker of the carpark under the conference centre. Here, everyone from Jon Snow to Nick Robinson are crammed into a grey jungle of wires and tape, planning their verdicts on Brown's speech.

One floor up, it was good to see old friends like Ros Wynne-Jones from The Mirror and Dave Wooding from The Sun who have both helped get Oxfam's issues out in their respective but very different papers. At the same time, you also bump into the Head of Comms for the Premier League, Marketing Directors of Newspapers or Comment Editors who are all interested to hear how they can support Oxfam's work.

We have been building up for the conference with our Go Gordon campaign which has been aiming to challenge him on having a fairer foreign policy, taking more drastic action on climate change and ensuring that they keep their aid commitments from two years ago.

From a campaigns and political perspective this has been very successful with some 11,000 people signing up in support of the campaign

The speeches on Darfur suggest this may be about to change, as this crisis was a dominant theme in the conference hall and fringe events. This was very positive to see. However, this is a conflict that still rages and 4 million people need the statements made in Dorset to turn into protection and safety. News from New York at the UN suggests that, sadly, the deployment of troops still looks like being a long way away.

At the event itself, we did manage to get a couple of good bits out on ITV regional news, and should make it into a package for the BBC politics show this weekend. But the real value from these events comes in the follow up conversations back in Westminster or with national newspaper editors, one of whom has agreed to travel with us to Darfur to give further publicity to the crisis, as we reach critical decision points in the coming weeks.

Despite the late nights, long walks and dashing around we have had a good conference with ministers being very receptive to our ideas, relationships with new outlets being developed and lots of food for thought for next year.

I am back in the office tomorrow to deal with Burma, Gaza, 4 Oxjam concerts, 4 recruitments and a potential office move. In comparison to the Labour Party Conference, it should be a nice relaxing day.

Irma Hart and three dozen other New Englanders were excited last April about escaping the cold and spending five sunny days in San Antonio.

They didn't get much sleep, arriving early for the scheduled 4:30 a.m. bus pickup for Newark Airport, where they would catch a flight that would get them to Texas before noon.

But there was a mix-up between the tour operator, Collette Vacations of Pawtucket, R.I., and the bus company. The bus arrived at 6 a.m., and the tour, sponsored by the United Churches of Durham, missed its 8:15 a.m. flight.



The only flight available was 12 hours later, and the group finally arrived in San Antonio after 1 a.m.

Hart of East Hartford was furious. She had missed a day of her $1,169 trip, plus $60 for cancellation insurance.

The $50 check she and the others each received in compensation from the tour operator only rubbed salt into her wound.

She wrote to Collette saying the check did not sufficiently compensate her. The tour agency then sent out $50 vouchers to everyone in the group good for any future trip.

"I can't use Collette's vouchers because at this point I'm not sure I will ever travel with them again," she wrote, saying it was a brazen attempt by the company to make even more money off them.

I called Collette - a large travel agency with a clean record with the Better Business Bureau - and suggested it could have done a little more to compensate the passengers considering the inconvenience they endured because the company couldn't get them to their flight on time.

Susan Giesler, guest relations representative, was not impressed.

Hart, she said, was making much too much of the delay.

"This was considered a travel day," Giesler said, adding that the guests didn't really miss anything.

Others, she said, were happy about the refund and appreciated the vouchers, which she claimed were not prompted by Hart's complaints.

That is not the kind of attitude the Watchdog would expect from a first-rate company. These travelers missed out on a day of their vacation, and instead of getting to their hotel in time for lunch, they arrived in the early morning and were dead tired for the next day.

MEDICAL RECORDS

Enfield Family Medicine could use a little refresher course on customer service.

Roberta Shanley of Manchester learned recently that doctors can charge a fee to copy your records if you switch physicians. Not only the medical records they generate, but any records you might have brought with you from your previous doctor.

She recently asked for all her medical records because she was planning to switch doctors. The office manager for Enfield Family Medicine told her she would have to pay about $30 for them - 45 cents a page.

Shanley said she could swallow paying for the six years' worth of records written while she was there, but she was not about to pay for the previous 30 years' worth of records that she hand-carried from her previous doctor, who did not charge her a copying fee.

She said she made several requests for the old records but was refused. One secretary, she said, even made fun of her request.

Shanley wrote to me and to the state attorney general's office looking for help to obtain the records that she said were being held hostage.

"It's a matter of principle," she said.

The doctors refused to talk to me, but their attorney, Richard Tynan of Hartford, said the issue of charging for patient records is confusing to many doctors in Connecticut because of the way the state statute is written. The statute - which allows doctors to charge a copying fee - does not distinguish between records generated by the doctor and records the patient already had.

Eventually, Shanley got her old set of records without paying a fee. Apparently, the day before I called the doctors office, they changed their minds and released her records for free.



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