Case Study Offers Extracurricular Insight
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y protecting its policyholders through careful risk evaluation and prudent investment strategies, New York Life continually proves to be “the company you keep.” And by utilizing a case study researched by two School of Business professors, students learned firsthand how the largest mutual insurance company in the United States used “quality tilt” investment strategies and independent thinking to emerge from the most recent financial crisis relatively unscathed. Mary Michel, Ph.D., assistant professor of accounting, and Janet Rovenpor, Ph.D., professor and chair of the management and marketing department, recently wrote the case, “New York
Life: Adjusting the Investment Portfolio to Market Conditions,” which was published in the Case Research Journal, a prestigious and leading academic journal for business and related cases in North America. As a result, this case has become a resource for not only Jaspers but also students at colleges around the country. As part of an extra credit opportunity for finance students taking the Investments (FIN 308) course, authors Rovenpor and Michel offered a New York Life case exercise this fall, held in the College’s finance lab. The exercise was also offered last fall. “We’re trying to tell students, ‘how do you think outside the box? How do you look at a situation and not just assume what
happened in the past is going to happen?,’” Michel explains. The students compared New York Life with competitors MetLife and Prudential, in terms of investment strategies, management decisions, financial statements, and the conflicts of having shareholders versus policyholders. They learned that New York Life stresses the importance of its customers and promises to be a responsible company that makes prudent investments for long-term success, ensuring they are able to meet their obligations to policyholders now and in the future, and withstand financial crisis. While most companies were investing in risky securities, hoping for big returns, New York Life saw the bigger picture, pulled
out of such investments, and concentrated on placing new cash flows into fixed income products. From the students’ perspective, the case exercise offered an invaluable, real-world educational experience. “Working as an intern for New York Life allowed me to experience the culture of the company and how exactly they might carry out their core values of financial strength, integrity and humanity,” says Antonietta Lodato ’14. “I was interested in taking a look at the case on investment decisions before and during the financial crisis because it helps me understand exactly how they put forth these core values through the numbers they reported on their financial statements.”
New Weekend Welcomes Freshmen to Campus The class of 2017 began its college career with Manhattan’s first Opening Weekend, a three-day program in late August designed to build community and teach the incoming students how to be successful and adjust both academically and socially to college life. It was an opportunity for freshmen to be on campus to learn and bond as a class prior to the return of all the other classes. “I think, overall, it was an opportunity that students had on campus, prior to the entire community getting back on campus, to really bond with one another as a first-year class,” says Sonny Ago, Ed.D., assistant vice president for student life. The first day of Opening Weekend focused on academics. Students broke up into groups by their schools to participate in schoolspecific activities and presentations. It was also a chance for current students to give an insider’s point of view to the incoming class.
In addition, the New Student Convocation was wielded into the program, during which students learned about the services that the College offers. A Circle Line boat tour of Manhattan capped off the day. The closing event was centered on this year’s common text, Enrique’s Journey by Sonia Nazario. Students gathered to discuss the book and listen to each other’s ideas and opinions, which allowed them to create a community around a common academic and intellectual endeavor. They would later have the opportunity to meet Nazario at a campus reading in October (see page 15). “A simple goal of the program was to introduce new students to an important work over the summer and to have them engage in a discussion of the book during the first weekend they are on campus,” says Richard Satterlee, Ph.D., vice president for student life. According to the class of 2017, Opening
Incoming freshmen had the chance to meet each other and learn about MC at a new weekend tailored to them.
Weekend was a success. As a program related to overcoming the challenges faced in the first year at college, it served as a developmental model for students to adjust to campus life, while allowing a lot more opportunities for them to bond with each other. “I got a good idea about what to expect at Manhattan College while making fun and intellectually sound friends,” says K-Cee Choy-Ellis ’17, who hails from Hawaii. MANHATTAN.EDU N 11