Update 3-23-04


Hi,

A handful of school things, then a lot of really educational filler.

First, from Larry Rugen: Those old homes around South high -- with Mom's passing in 2002, we finally sold that old house at 19 Virginia Place. Well, the address will not ring a bell, but think back. Leave South on Jedwood heading towards Mill Road. Hang a left on Cluett (the first and only street that let out onto Mill, besides Jedwood) and 1/2 way on Cluett on the way to Mill Road was the corner house (Cluett and Virginia place) with that white picket fence -- yes, it was wood and my brother Jim and I were never too enthused when that 350 foot of fence was due for a painting. Next door were the Searings, still there. Then there are the Millers, and Joan Aires across the street. There were so many changes over the years, but much remains the same. Somehow, that house, and those days at South, will always bring back warm memories.

Next, from Marc Jonas: Looking at Stu Borman's pictures sent me foraging, and here's what I found. Throw a party, and you're surrounded by good lookin' women.
     Also, do you still have the cub scout group shot I emailed you some time ago? It might get some smiles.
     By the way, Rich, nice shot of you in Stu's gallery.

[The picture Marc just sent is one he's sent me before, and one I've been trying to squeeze onto the home page. It's of Marc's bar mitzvah, and he's surrounded by eight -- count 'em, 8 -- lovely young women, all from our class.
     The second photo is another I've described: it's of a father-son cub scout dinner, at the Valley Stream Park Inn, around 1958, and the additional problem of squeezing it onto the home page is it needs to be huge, so you can see all the detail. As I've just explained to Marc, I really need to rethink the home page, but I just don't have time right now -- and all this is separate from the fact AOL still hasn't been able to figure out how to fix their jam.
     And the picture of me in Stu's gallery is more interesting for the fact it also documents the early days of the Green Acres Shopping Center. There still weren't enough stores to fill the space, and the management was bringing in touring exhibits. I don't remember this one, though Stu mentioned a while ago that it gave him an early interest in science. The exhibit I remember was a publicity tour for the movie 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea. It was mostly scenery, which may have given me an early interest in that.
     Finally, there are already a dozen shots from Marc's photo scrapbook on the home page, and if you haven't looked at them recently, they're worth the time. Just click on Marc Jonas' Photos on the index, and you'll be suddenly transported back to Andy Dolich's basement, some time in the early 60s.]

Third, from Paul DeMartino: I've been in contact with Robin Feit and Dennis Shapiro, and we are calling a meeting for Sunday, April 4th to begin discussing plans for the 40th Reunion. We will kick around ideas and set up an action plan to contact hotels on Long Island and determine where we can get the best deal. We will also discuss possible dates, a hospitality suite, and the entertainment. This meeting is open to all interested parties who wish to participate, and all are encouraged to attend. For those who wish to help, but cannot participate in the actual planning, we will need volunteers to help locate our still-missing 100-or-so classmates. Anyone needing more information should contact me at: (new e-mail): Pdem070@msn.com, or call: 516-799-1590. Thanks.

Fourth, I just asked Booker Gibson if there was a scholarship in his name at South, honoring all the work he'd done there over thirty years. He said there wasn't, and that he was flattered I'd even asked. But I don't think flattery in this case is enough, and, as I also told Booker, I don't think we need to wait the (I hope) at least twenty more years till he's no longer with us to start a scholarship. What do you all think?

The filler:   A bit of consumer vigilance, condensed from March 20's New York Times:  Last year, of some $200 million lost to online fraud, nearly half the 166,000 complaints were about online auctions, a 130 percent increase from 2001. While the Federal Trade Commission does not break out figures by companies, the vast majority of online auctions are conducted on eBay. "It's gone nuts since November of last year," said Greg Schiller, a computer and network technician in Aztec, New Mexico, who says he reports hundreds of fraudulent listings every day to eBay.
     EBay estimates that of the 20 million or so items that are for sale on its Web site at any given time, only about 2,000 items, or one-hundredth of 1 percent, are fraudulent. But that figure reflects only those cases that are settled through the eBay buyer protection claim process. Mark Seiden, a computer security consultant in Manhattan, says the actual number of fraudulent auctions is considerably higher. "EBay's protections don't apply to many kinds of transactions like Western Union scams, so they go uncounted. Rob Chesnut, eBay's vice-president for rules, trust, and safety, countered that the company frequently warns its members to be wary of traps set to steal their account information. Further, he said, the site is now peppered with various warnings about unsafe practices, like sending money via Western Union and going off eBay to complete a transaction.
     The company also routinely alerts winning bidders of fraudulent auctions, telling them not to complete the transaction. A fraudulent seller almost always asks for payment via Western Union, and often there is no feedback from other users. Further, the seller usually offers to sell the item at a much lower price if the buyer agrees to leave eBay and close the purchase privately. Another common ploy is to set up an auction under the identity of a legitimate eBay user who has received positive responses from buyers in the past. Brad Celmainis, an eBay member in Calgary, Alberta, said that warning signals go up as soon as he sees a seller's history and spots incongruities. "You'll get some lady who was selling teapots and baby clothes and all of a sudden she's an electronics kingpin," said Mr. Celmainis, who alerts bidders and eBay users whose accounts have been hijacked.

A piece for our time, also condensed from the Times, March 21:  As scandals ripple through the corporate world, some business schools have introduced ethics courses and tweaked existing ones. Yet many business school professors, deans, and students say that change is happening gradually. Fred J. Evans, dean of the College of Business and Economics at California State University at Northridge said many business school professors are not yet well prepared to teach the subject. In an informal survey last spring, the Association to Advance Collegiate Schools of Business found that only 35 percent of its member schools required students to take an ethics course. That was virtually unchanged from the results of a more formal study in 1988.
     Some elite schools, like Harvard, have started requiring ethics courses this year. But other business schools have made no changes to their ethics curriculums. Even when an ethics course is required, many students say the material is general or detached from the rest of the graduate curriculum. Dr. Amitai Etzioni, a sociology professor at George Washington University who taught ethics at Harvard Business School in the 1980's, said that while many business schools had begun offering ethics courses, "They ghettoize the class. And most of the time the message to students is, 'Find a good lawyer so you can justify what you're doing.' It doesn't tell you there are some basic values, that certain things are wrong."
     Archie Carroll, a management professor who teaches ethics at the Terry College of Business at the University of Georgia, says that adding ethics training does not appear to be a priority at many schools. Though not long after corporate scandals began unfolding in late 2001 and early 2002, a group of professors and business executives began lobbying the business school accrediting association to require M.B.A. students to take a course in ethics. The Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania, which has required M.B.A. students to take an ethics course since 1975, will begin offering a Ph.D. program in business ethics next fall. The Joseph M. Katz Graduate School of Business at the University of Pittsburgh dropped its ethics requirement last year in favor of steeping every class with ethics. Professors are now required to take a course in ethics training. The Haas School of Business at the University of California at Berkeley recently started the Center for Responsible Business, which includes seven new ethics courses. The program will require first-year students to visit executives in jail.

You'd think I only read the Times, though I also read New York and the New Yorker. Still, a final condensed piece from the 21st's Times, on a subject you probably haven't thought about for a while, unless you have high school-aged kids:  Regents exam scores were released last week. The statewide pass rate for math was 84.5 percent, down slightly from 86 percent the year before. Statewide, 87 percent of students passed the English exam, down from 89 percent in 2002. In a sign of improvement, however, the proportion of graduates receiving Regents diplomas -- meaning they passed at least eight exams, including two each in math and science and one in a foreign language -- grew to 33 percent, from 31.8 percent in 2002 and 28 percent in 2001. The test scores show the final results for the class that entered high school in September 1999 and graduated in June 2003. This is the first class required to pass Regents exams in five subjects: English, math, science, United States history and government, and global history and geography in order to graduate. A minimum score of 55 is needed to graduate with a local diploma. A score of 65 is needed to qualify for a Regents diploma. More detailed figures for all students are available from the state online at www .nysed.gov.

The home page: http://hometown.aol.com/vssouth65

Rich