for
the Amherst campus of the University of Massachusetts
October
18 , 2002
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Gift bolsters business ties to Germany by Sarah R. Buchholz, Chronicle staff  n
alumnus of the Department of Germanic Languages and Literatures donated
5,000 Euros, approximately $5,000, to the department at the beginning
of the school year to promote connections between German and U.S.
businesses.David Knower, '83, president of the American German Business Club in Frankfurt, Germany, said he made the contribution in order to support the joint efforts of the Isenberg School of Management and the German department to integrate the study of German language and culture in a way that prepares graduates in both areas for international business opportunities. Knower works with a German supermarket chain that is expanding to the United States and sees the need for U.S. business people who are fluent in the language and culture of Germany. The gift to a Massachusetts school is appropriate, German professor James Cathey noted, because of the economic ties between the Bay State and Germany. Germany is the third largest export partner of Massachusetts, after Canada and Mexico, he said. Massachusetts is one of approximately half of the U.S. states that have trade offices in Europe, and the commonwealth's is in Berlin, he added. Knower decided to make the contribution after learning of a Commonwealth College course, taught jointly by Ray Pfeiffer, associate professor of Accounting and Information Systems, and Robert Sullivan, assistant professor of Germanic Languages and Literatures. The modular course, "Global Culture and Business: An Introduction to Germany and its Role in the World Marketplace," takes place over an entire academic year. In its inaugural offering last year, the course had 23 students. In the fall, they studied the connection between German government and German business practices, which is somewhat different than U.S. government-business relations, Cathey said. Then the class traveled to Germany in January to see German business in action before returning to campus for a spring seminar in which they wrote a handbook for doing business in Germany. During the January term, students visited businesses in Stuttgart, Mannheim, Berlin and Frankfurt. Knower is the principal of an international executive search company in Germany. He said there is a great deal of concern in the international business world about the lack of training for careers in managing international business. As someone who recruits entry-level managers for German business, he said he's familiar with the difficulty in finding graduates who are prepared for such positions. "So the Commonwealth College program attracted his attention," Cathey said. |
