CUNY Radio Podcasts » Baruch College

Tweet, Tweet – a Chef’s New Dish Will Fly Out the Door

lmort40 — Tue, 02 Oct 2012 18:08:39 +0000

Along with nosy food bloggers and pesky health inspectors, New York City’s restaurateurs find that they have something else to deal with — social media. “Within seconds, a chef’s new idea is on Twitter,” says Danny Meyer, head of the Union Square Hospitality Group, which includes, along with other restaurants, Union Square Cafe, Gramercy Tavern and the Shake Shack chain. “That’s the shelf life of innovation — two seconds.” At an event sponsored by the Zicklin School of Business at Baruch College, one of the trade tips of his that Meyer served up that wasn’t about recipes: “It’s how you make your customers feel that will set you apart.”

Fears of a Minority

beebong — Tue, 06 Dec 2011 15:49:38 +0000

Dov Waxman, associate professor of political science at Baruch College, says Arab Israelis, a minority in the Jewish state, face opposition from a Jewish majority who see themselves as an “insecure and at risk” minority in the region. The author of Israel’s Palestinians: The Conflict Within, Waxman explains that while Jews represent approximately 80% of the Israel’s population, their anxieties resemble that of a minority “when they are faced with their own minority” of Arab Israelis in an overwhelmingly Arabic region.

Immigrants Replenish, Invigorate Economy

cjedruczek — Thu, 21 Jul 2011 20:58:10 +0000

With approximately 79 million baby boomers facing retirement age, the country should be looking at the immigrant work force as a much-needed boost to the economy. “We need immigrants to help us balance the senior ratio,” says Dowell Myers, a professor of urban planning and demography at the University of Southern California. In a Baruch College lecture, “Finding the Keys to Consensus on Immigration by Looking Ahead: Old Myths and New Realities,” Myers urged lawmakers to help clear a legal path for the estimated 11.2 immigrants living here. “We need to cultivate the people who we’ve been neglecting — especially their kids, the future workers, taxpayers and homebuyers.”
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Madoff Clawbacks

cjedruczek — Wed, 08 Jun 2011 20:24:01 +0000

Seeking compensation for the thousands of victims of Bernard Madoff’s Ponzi scheme, court-appointed trustee Irving Picard, so far has recovered about $11.5 billion — through “clawback suits” — of about $17 billion in principal lost, according to Peter Henning, New York Times White Collar blogger. “No one is getting all their money back,” says Henning, a law professor at Wayne State University School of Law. “The idea is to see that the victims share their losses equally.” At an event at Baruch entitled, “The Madoff Clawbacks: Whose Money Is It?” Hennings was joined by Seth Lipner, professor of law at the Zicklin School of Business.
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Development Heats Up the Earth

beebong — Tue, 15 Feb 2011 15:07:35 +0000

Human population growth has long been linked to global warming, but according to Deborah Balk its impact may be overemphasized. “Future population growth does have a role,” says Balk, the associate director of the CUNY Institute for Demographic Research and professor at Baruch College School of Public Affairs. “But climate change is mainly driven by economic productivity.” In her lecture entitled “The Rising Tide and Climate Change in Our Increasingly Urban World,” part of the Serving Science Cafe Series, Balk explains that the fertility rate actually decreases as an area industrializes and continues to develop. “And it’s that development that will, in fact, keep emissions rising.”
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Earning an Edge at Baruch

cjedruczek — Tue, 04 Jan 2011 17:22:56 +0000

Students at the Zicklin School of Business at Baruch College have an edge when it comes to finding positions, according to Terrence Martell, director of the school’s Weissman Center for International Business. “Baruch has students with multilingual and multicultural capabilities, so we’ve tried to take those characteristics and make them part of a more attractive package to employers,” says Martell, who has been director of the Weissman Center since 2001. In an interview, Martell discussed the evolution of the center since its inception in 1994, and how it prepares students to survive the current sluggish economic climate. “We do this through a study aboard program, the global student certificate, and the international internship program.”
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Ground Zero Mosque: Tolerance and Debate

beebong — Mon, 22 Nov 2010 17:41:41 +0000

Park51, the proposed 13-story Islamic cultural center — dubbed the Ground Zero mosque by the media — has stirred emotions and spawned an ongoing debate over how appropriate it is to have a Muslim center two blocks from the World Trade Center. According to Jonathan Tobin, executive director of Commentary magazine, the controversy has broadened into one that now questions America’s tolerance for Islam in general. “The debate is no longer about what is appropriate or not appropriate,” says Tobin, who participated in a Lillie and Nathan Ackerman Lecture Series panel entitled,” The Ground Zero Mosque: To Build or Not to Build,” sponsored by Baruch College School of Public Affairs. While many of the panelists defended the right to construct the center, Tobin was also concerned about the rights of those who speak out. The debate has “turned into one where virtually anyone who has voiced dissent about this issue has been branded a bigot,” says Tobin.
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Earmarks of Waste

beebong — Tue, 02 Nov 2010 14:51:30 +0000

Earmarks — tax money set aside in budgets for small projects — are a big waste of time and should be eliminated, says Carol Kellerman, head of the Citizens Budget Commission, an agency that tries to make sure New Yorkers’ taxes are spent wisely. “We shouldn’t have earmarks at all,” she says. “Members spend an inordinate amount of time working on these very small earmarks and aren’t spending enough time scrutinizing, asking questions and pressuring the mayor on the $63 million billion budget,” says Kellerman, who participated in a Peter F. Vallone Sr. Lecture Series panel on “Pork Barrel Spending: Are Earmarks Kosher?,” sponsored by Baruch College School of Public Affairs.
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Big Boost for Small Campaign Donors

beebong — Wed, 13 Oct 2010 20:30:07 +0000

More people are contributing to political campaigns since the rate of public funds that match their contributions was increased in 2007, according to Amy Loprest, executive director of the New York City Campaign Finance Board. The effect has been significant, says Loprest, who was part of a panel entitled, “Small Donors, Big Democracy: The Impact of Campaign Finance Regulation on Citizen Partnership,” sponsored by Baruch College School of Public Affairs. “In 2009 there were 34,000 new donors,” Loprest says, “that’s more than half of all the donors.” When the CFB was started two decades ago, one goal was to reduce the influence of big money in elections, and “the purpose of giving matching funds was to make smaller contributors feel that their contributions meant something,” says Loprest.
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What’s Next for Immigration Reform

beebong — Mon, 07 Jun 2010 21:50:56 +0000

The U.S. Census Bureau predicts that by 2042 minorities including the largest-growing group — those of Hispanic origin — will become the majority. Fear of this change is driving renewed resentment towards non-natives, according to Ana Avendano, a special assistant to the president for immigration and community affairs at the AFL-CIO. “The word ‘illegal’ makes it very easy for people to channel their racism,” said Avendano, at an immigration reform forum sponsored by the Murphy Institute and CUNY Citizenship Now! where five community activists gathered to discuss next steps and acceptable tactics. “I believe that some kind of partial reform will allow the American people to see that immigration reform is not a terrible thing and that these people will contribute to society,” said Allan Wernick, Baruch College professor and director of CUNY Citizenship Now!
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