Congratulations to Chonchol Gupta (MBA '10), who was recently elected president of the Graduate Business Council for 2009-2010. Gupta graduated from University of California, Irvine with a BA in international studies and then earned a BS in civil engineering from West Virginia University. Prior to enrolling at the Freeman School, he was a graduate civil engineer with URS Corp. in Houston.

In addition to Chonchol, all of the candidates aligned with Chonchol's Coalition for a Better Business School were elected as GBC officers, including Stephanie Limberg, vice president of...

After sifting through a record 85 applications, the organizers of the Tulane Business Plan Competition have announced the 20 second-round qualifiers who have been invited to submit full business plans. Those 20 teams-10 in the business innovation track and 10 in the social entrepreneurship track-are vying for the right to present their plans to a panel of judges during the live round of the competition on April 17. Each of the first-place teams will receive a cash prize of $20,000.

In the business innovation division, the second-round qualifiers are Good Fish Farms (Northwestern...

The national economic news may be grim, but Bill Sandefer reports some cautiously optimistic news from graduate admissions. MBA applications are up 34 percent from last year. As of this week, Freeman has received 173 applications for admission to the full-time MBA program. Sandefer says the goal is to receive 400 MBA applications and ultimately to enroll a first-year class of 100.

When Ian Furman started to research MBA programs, he targeted schools with strong international programs, especially in Latin America. In the end, he chose Freeman over larger schools, and his main reason was the Global MBA program.

"I didn't see any other school that offered the same breadth and experience," says Furman, who after graduation hopes to work for a multinational company doing business in Latin America. "The Global MBA is one of the major reasons I decided to apply to Tulane."

Since its launch last year, the Freeman School's Global MBA has quickly become one of...

While drivers nationwide revel in lower gasoline prices, many in Louisiana are anxiously watching the cost of oil fall to its lowest levels in 18 months. In a state whose economy has for more than a half-century been closely linked to the petroleum industry, prosperity has been measured by the barrel, and some fear that as oil goes, so goes Louisiana.

Although Louisiana's economy depends heavily on the petroleum industry, faculty member Eric Smith believes the oil derricks will keep pumping through the economic crisis.

It's a fear that is largely unfounded, says Eric Smith...