Center for Insurance & Risk Management Director Cindi Burleson was on a recent episode of the .
Burleson spoke with co-hosts Matt Haas and David Sims about the development and growth of the program — the only of its kind in Arkansas — and how 2020 has changed the way we view risk management.
Burleson is a lecturer in the Department of Economics, Finance, and Insurance & Risk Management. Listen to the full episode and catch a video recap above.
Issue 1 on Arkansas ballots this November considers an amendment to the Arkansas Constitution that would continue a 0.5% sales tax for highways, roads and bridges.
BTĚěĚĂCollege of Business professors Jeremy Horpedahl, Ph.D., assistant professor of economics, and Doug Voss, Ph.D., professor of logistics and supply chain management, recently presented both sides of the argument in op-eds published in the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette.
To read the argument in favor of Issue 1, presented by Voss, click . For the argument against Issue 1, presented by Horpedahl, click . The views expressed in the op-eds are the authors’ own and not an official position of BTĚěĚĂor the College of Business.
The University of Central Arkansas Master of Business Administration program was named among the most affordable online programs in the country by Best Value Schools.
BTĚěĚĂwas the highest-rated Arkansas school named to the list and the second-highest Southland Conference school.
“Enrolling in the online MBA program at the University of Central Arkansas is more than just enrolling in an academic program, it is opening the doors to new opportunities,” . “Students collaborate and with faculty to learn the intricacies of decision making and risk-taking. Students learn how to meet challenges from within the classroom, or in this case the online course and in their personal lives. Students learn from faculty who are experts in their field and dedicated to each student’s success. Students can attend anytime, day or evening and enroll in courses in the fall, spring, or summer terms.”
The BTĚěĚĂMBA program offers four concentrations — Finance, Health Care Administration, Information Management and International Business — to meet a wide variety of needs for our students. Those who do not wish to select a concentration may earn a general MBA. The program also allows students to complete a 12-hour Graduate Certificate in Data Analytics while enrolled in the MBA program.
Learn more about the BTĚěĚĂMBA here.
Three BTĚěĚĂCollege of Business alumni were 20 In Their 20s List. (BBA ’16, MBA ’18),  (BBA ’14), and (BBA ’12).
Each year, the list recognizes young, talented leaders in Arkansas’ business and nonprofit community.
Parks earned his bachelor’s in Insurance & Risk Management in 2016, and his master’s in Business Administration in 2018. He serves as vice president of economic development for the Conway Chamber of Commerce & Conway Development Corp.
Christopher Diaz earned his bachelor’s in Business Administration with an emphasis in Innovation & Entrepreneurship in 2014. He serves as a commercial loan officer at First Security Bank in Benton.
William Jones earned his bachelor’s in Finance in 2012. He is vice president of operations at Sissy’s Log Cabin in Pine Bluff.
Acxiom’s most recent gift to the College of Business and College of Natural Sciences and Mathematics pushes the company’s total support provided to BTĚěĚĂpast $1 million.
The University of Central Arkansas College of Business has received a $100,000 gift from Acxiom to support several initiatives.
The gift is part of a larger $120,000 gift from Acxiom to UCA to support the College of Natural Sciences and Mathematics and College of Business. The gift takes Acxiom’s support of BTĚěĚĂto $1.1 million across a 30-year partnership.
In the College of Business, Acxiom’s gift will support the Acxiom IT Careers Camp, a yearly, two-day camp held on UCA’s campus for high school students interested in careers in information technology. The camp began in 2007 and has welcomed more than 400 students to UCA.
The gift will also support the Acxiom Scholarship, open to qualifying juniors and seniors majoring in Management Information Systems, and the Acxiom Information Systems Student Award, given each year to the top Information Systems major.
“Acxiom has played a vital role to our college, especially in our Department of Management Information Systems, where IT and analytics education is the primary focus,” said BTĚěĚĂCollege of Business Dean Michael Hargis. “Acxiom has provided more internships for MIS and other business students than any other company, more full-time positions for our MIS graduates than any other company, and has been crucial to curriculum enhancements we have made to keep our courses relevant and current.”
“Central Arkansas is home for Acxiom, and we’re delighted to continue to support our community,” said Acxiom’s Chief Customer Officer Drew May, who also serves on the BTĚěĚĂCollege of Business Advisory Board. “Investment in education and in future talent is so important, both in good and in challenging times, as it ultimately benefits everyone.”
For more information on the impact Acxiom’s gift will have on the entire BTĚěĚĂcampus, click here.
Meet The Firms looked a bit different than usual this year. There were masks, social distancing and virtual meet-and-greets, but the meaningful interactions were the same.
Nearly four dozen BTĚěĚĂaccounting students met and discussed their futures with 16 firms from across the state and region Sept. 17.
Students shared their stories, talked about what attracted them to accounting, discussed their aspirations were. Firms shared career and internship opportunities, gave insight into their company cultures and quizzed students on what areas of accounting interested them for their careers.
The event is open to all accounting majors and members of Beta Alpha Psi and the Accounting Club. It is a crucial event for students to secure internships and explore career opportunities following graduation.
Participating firms included: Hudson Cisne & Co., Landmark, ArcBest, Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis, Inuvo, Erwin & Co., Dassault Falcon Jet, HoganTaylor, Bell & Co., Onyx Brands, Arkansas Department of Finance & Administration, Acxiom, PwC, Windstream, Frost, EGP and BKD.
Landmark PLC, Certified Public Accountants has given $50,000 to the University of Central Arkansas College of Business Enhancement Fund.
The enhancement fund supports student programming, enhanced learning opportunities, as well as professional development opportunities for students, faculty, and staff in the College of Business.
“This gift from Landmark makes our college stronger in a number of important ways,” said Michael B. Hargis, dean of the BTĚěĚĂCollege of Business. “Our students will have greater access to learning opportunities outside the classroom as well as enhanced professional development opportunities for students. Learning inside the classroom will improve as well, as our faculty will have more funding to attend professional development opportunities and additional training to ensure our curriculum remains current and rigorous.”
Landmark is a full-service public accounting and business advisory firm with four offices throughout Arkansas in Little Rock, Rogers, Fort Smith and Russellville.
In addition to the gift to support the BTĚěĚĂCollege of Business Enhancement Fund, Landmark supports the Department of Accounting through the Blake Payne Memorial Endowed Scholarship, available to juniors and seniors majoring in accounting. The scholarship honors the memory of Payne, who was a BTĚěĚĂCollege of Business alumnus and worked at Landmark.
The BTĚěĚĂCollege of Business has more than 1,600 undergraduate and graduate students. It offers 14 baccalaureate degrees, two master’s, one graduate certificate and one technical certificate across four academic departments and houses the state’s only insurance and risk management program. The BTĚěĚĂCollege of Business is accredited by the  (AACSB). Visit uca.edu/business for more.
The University of Central Arkansas College of Business has hired two faculty members in its Department of Accounting.
Mengyu Ma, Ph.D., and Qifeng Wu, Ph.D., were both hired as assistant professors of accounting.
Ma was an instructor of accounting at Florida International University. Her research interests include financial reporting quality, information environment, equity markets, debt contracting and financial analysts. She earned a bachelor’s and master’s in accounting from the Max M. Fisher College of Business at Ohio State University and a doctorate in business administration from Florida International University.
Wu was previously an assistant instructor at the University of Texas at El Paso. He conducts research on financial reporting quality, corporate governance and auditing. He earned a bachelor’s in computer information systems from Idaho State University, his master’s in accounting from the University of Idaho and a doctorate in accounting from the University of Texas at El Paso.
The BTĚěĚĂCollege of Business has more than 1,600 undergraduate and graduate students. It offers 14 baccalaureate degrees, two master’s, one graduate certificate and one technical certificate across four academic departments and houses the state’s only insurance and risk management program. The BTĚěĚĂCollege of Business is accredited by the .
MBA Director Mark McMurtrey, Ph.D.
Mark McMurtrey, Ph.D., professor of management information systems and Master of Business Administration program director, has been awarded the Southwest Decision Sciences Institute Outstanding Educator Award.
The SWDSI is a division of the , a professional organization made up of those interested in sharing research on the study of decision processes and the application of quantitative and behavioral methods to the problems of society. The Outstanding Educator Award is one of the most prestigious honors presented by the Federation of Business Disciplines and SWDSI.
“Knowing that my name will be forever linked with these other winners is absolutely humbling and quite an honor. I know my family is proud of me, and my late parents as well,” McMurtrey said.
McMurtrey has served as program chair for the SWDSI’s 2017 conference and served as the organization’s president from 2019-20. He is in his 19th year as professor at BTĚěĚĂand fifth year as MBA director.
Read more here.
By Jeremy Horpedahl, Ph.D.
Jeremy Horpedahl, Ph.D.
We all know that we are going through one of the worst economic downturns in US history. But how bad exactly is the downturn? The recently released Gross Domestic Product data for the second quarter of 2020 paint a very grim picture, with the headline number suggesting that the economy contracted by -32.9%.
GDP is a measure of all economic activity that takes place in a quarter or a year. Was there really one-third less activity in the second quarter compared with the first quarter? No there was not. The actual number is about a 7% decline. I’ll explain more how I came up with that number, but let me stress this is still a very bad number. It’s the worst we have on record, possibly the worst in US history, probably even worse than any one quarter of the Great Depression (if we had directly comparable data). Still, a number like -32.9% is not a very helpful number in the current context.
Interpreting economic data is challenging during the current economic crisis. My intent is not to downplay the harm, but to give it proper context. For example, I have previously written that the unemployment rate understates how much pain there is in the labor market right now. In contrast, the recently released GDP data overstate the economic pain.
Read more at .
Horpedahl also recently appeared on The Cato Institute’s Daily Podcast to give a quick rundown of the numbers. Listen or anywhere you get podcasts.
