State-of-the-Art Investment Center Opened

Allows Students to Trade Using College Funds

College portfolio worth up to $250,000 under student management.
Focus on ‘growth, not greed,’ says Houghton president.

HOUGHTON, NY, October 3, 2008 – With the christening of an electronic, 24-foot-long stock ticker streaming the latest quotes, 46” flat-panel TV screens showing market commentators and their predictions, and four dual-monitor computer stations presenting market research  results, the Business and Economics Department of Houghton College today opened its newly built Business Investment Center.

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The Center is headquarters for the Houghton College Student Investment Group, which consists of students majoring in business or accounting who apply for admission to the financial management program.   The Group, working under the guidance of Houghton business professors, manages a portion of the college’s endowment funds worth $250,000.

“We want to prepare students to meet the challenges of the global financial markets by giving them the opportunity to participate in the rapid-fire world of trading, investing, risk-management and stewardship,” said Professor Kenneth J. Bates, chair of the department of Business and Economics. 

Creation of the Center is the result of $100,000 in donations from persons who support the college’s goals. 

“Our students have access to some very sophisticated and powerful computer-based analytical tools that are part of the Center,” said Richard A. Halberg, professor of Business and Economics. 

“They use these tools to perform market research and analysis and conduct real-time trades.”  To date, Halberg noted, the students have consistently outperformed the S&P 500.

When there is no trading, the Center is used as an instructional classroom for other business topics.  And when classes are not in session, students can casually study in the room or use the computers to conduct their own business research and analysis.
“The generous gifts of our supporters have allowed Houghton to continue to reach our goals of providing top academic training that is undergirded with strong spiritual and ethical mentoring, and the creation of concrete links with the world – in this case, the financial world,” said President Shirley A. Mullen.

Emphasis on growth, not greed

“Financial management is critical to the successful life of an involved citizen, and the Christian spiritual values that we teach help us to keep our moral compasses pointed in the right direction, emphasizing growth and not greed.”

The Business Investment Center is located on the third floor of the Chamberlain Center on the main campus of the college.  Its glass walls open onto a hallway where students and visitors can watch what goes on.  Audio is also available in the hall so onlookers can listen to the commentators on the TV screens inside.  Entrance to the Center is protected through a door lock that reads a person’s fingerprint.

The opening of the Business Investment Center kicked-off the college’s 125th anniversary celebration and its 2008 Homecoming Weekend.