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Niemi: College of Business faculty tops
Professor attributes good faculty to ‘a strong emphasis on merit’
Albert Niemi, dean of the University's Terry College of
Business, thinks that President Bush's economic plan
is more feasible than that of either Perot or Clinton.
By LORI WIECHMAN
Staff Writer
Albert Niemi is the dean of the
University’s Terry College of
Business and has worked at the
University for 25 years. In the col
lege, Niemi has been responsible
for remolding the business gradu
ate program. In an interview, he
expressed his opinions about the
current economic situation, the eco
nomic plans of the presidential
candidates and his future plans for
the college.
Q: The College of Business has
been named in BusinessWeek for
providing the “most bang for the
buck" and most people say one of
the reasons is its the top faculty.
What do you think makes top fac
ulty?
A: When I came into this job,
the faculty was really in good
shape. It’s better now than it was
back in the 80’s when I became
dean. If it was a good faculty then
and is a better faculty now, that’s
because there has been a strong
emphasis on merit. Not across the
board, but to promote and give re
wards to the best people. One of
the things I have done in my ex
ternal fundraising is to try to raise
money for salary supplements for
faculty. We give quite a few of
those out during the year. But, you
build up the faculty by creating in
centives for them to stand. It takes
money. Just like anything, if
you’ve got money, it’s easier. I get
a lot of feedback about the faculty
from my sons, since one graduated
from the University last year and
one is a senior this year. I think
the business school faculty has a
very strong reputation on campus
because of the emphasis on teach
ing. Students in the business
school are concerned with their
class rank and the faculty are
very, very concerned about how
they perform before students.
Students are more demanding and
they bring the best out of the fac
ulty. I’ve taught here for 25 years
and you don’t want to go into a
classroom and look at a hundred
pairs of eyes and not put out your
very best. If you look back at the
people who win outstanding teach
ing awards, most of those people
are also our best researchers.
Good people are good people and
they really put their heart and
soul into everything they do, if it is
serving on a committee or writing
a research paper or teaching un
dergraduate classes.
Q: You are talking about money
as an incentive for faculty. But
with the current University bud
get situation, how are you able to
raise the funds for these incen
tives?
■ INTERVIEW
A: Money is the incentive be
cause if you don’t pay them, there’s
an external marketplace to hire
the good away. Compared to oth
er states, Georgia is not bad. I
have friends in other states, such
as Alabama, etc., who don’t even
have long-distance telephone priv
ileges. They’re paying for their
own xeroxes. When you look at the
University, we’re in a relative
privileged position. I think we
should be because we’re better
than them. But state funding
hasn’t been adequate, so we’ve had
to turn to outside sources. I spend
a good deal of my time trying to
raise private money. When I came
into this job our endowment was
about $1.6 million. Now we’ve
passed $20 million. I’ve spent a lot
of time on the road trying to raise
money and then turning that mon
ey into supporting our program.
We use the money to support our
faculty so that we retain the best
teachers.
Q: Is it tough to get people to
support the college financially?
A It’s always hard. If it’s worth
getting, it’s probably going to be a
chore to get it. It’s like getting an
A in a class. It’s never easy, but
it’s been a lot of fun. It’s fun when
you bring something back, because
you know it’s going to be there in
gratuity to make this a better
University. I’ve had a few fall my
way, but most you just kind of
have to sweat bullets, blood, sweat
and tears and it finally leads to
something good.
Q: A lot of people at the
University are predicting and fear
ing another state budget cut.
What do the state’s finances look
like to you, with your expertise as
an economic forecaster?
A I think we’re right on the
bubble whether we’re going to see
another budget cut. I’ve talked to
a lot of business people. The econ
omy is real weird. We aren’t in as
bad as shape as a lot of the press
releases would have us believe.
You read some reporters’ com
ments and it’s almost like we’re in
the great depression. The econo
my this year will grow by about 2
percent in real terms. Over the
last 30 years, the historical long
term rate of growth is about 3 per
cent. So, the answer is yes, we’re
growing more slowly than we have
in the past, but we’re not going
downhill. We’re still going up. The
collective growth in the European
economic community is going to
grow at 1.3 percent this year,
Japan is barely going to grow at
all, and the U.S. is going to grow
at 2 percent. We’re doing better
than any country in the industri
alized world. The reason the state
budgets are in trouble is because
we’re not creating jobs at a fast
enough pace. I don’t think it mat
ters who wins the presidential
race, no one is going to be able to
create jobs without putting the
U.S. in isolation from the rest of
the world. I think that the rest of
the decade for the U.S. economy
doesn’t look bad, it’s kinda like the
1950s. We were going through a
massive technological revolution
then and this is another wave of it
in the decade of the 90s. It’s going
to be a lot better in Georgia than it
is in Michigan, New Jersey,
Pennsylvania or California. With
the people in the Northeast, the in
dustrial heartland, that’s where
job production has really slowed
down.
Q: Of the three presidential
candidates, which one do you feel
has the best economic plan?
A I think Ross Perot would get
the deficit down faster, and cause
the most disruption and probably
send this economy into shock. The
fifty cent gasoline tax - think of
students and poor people who com
mute. I’m basically a strong be
liever in private enterprise sys
tem. I just tend to be one who’s in
favor of limited government. The
problem with the Democrats are
that they put too much govern
ment in the economic policy. Then
my problem with the government
is they believe in very limited gov
ernment on economic issues, but
then they want the government in
your bedroom. If I had to choose
between one of the platforms, I
would take George Bush’s. I think
it will keep the economy moving
forward and more directed to the
private enterprise system. It
doesn’t raise taxes. I wish some
one would really go in there and
gut government spending instead
of thinking of ways to increase our
taxes.
Q: What advice do you have to
graduating students who are
wanting to enter a career in busi
ness?
A It’s tougher now to get a job
than it’s been in my 25 years at the
University. I always encourage
students to have a very broad idea
of where they are willing to work
and willing to go. In the next 15 to
20 years, you are going to see mi
gration into Mexico. More jobs are
going to be created in Mexico than
in any other economy in the world.
Try to have some skills that go be
yond your major, like a second lan
guage or computer skills. I think
firms are increasingly looking at
involvement in the community.
Q: What future projects are you
working on in the College of
Business?
A The big project is my class
room building. My goal is to raise
$5 million. I started that this
spring and have pledges right now
of $2.3 million. &>, I’m well on the
way. My guess is that it will take
probably take 12 to 18 months to
raise the money, to work with the
architects and then to watch it
come out of the ground. It will be
exciting to be at the ribbon cutting.
Probably early next year, we’ll get
some architects in, plan the site
and have a decision made by
spring, that’s tentative planning.
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