Monday, May 25, 2020

Brown V. Board At 60 Why Have We Been So Disappointed

Despite its flaws, there were ways in which Brown was also successful. A way in which the Brown verdict was successful is that it paved the road to key legislation and court rulings that helped African-Americans find their place in society. In essence, the verdict in Brown resulted in African-Americans taking increased leaps of initiative to improve their circumstance. According to Richard Rothstein in his report â€Å"Brown v. Board at 60: Why Have We Been So Disappointed? What Have We Learned?† Brown’s 1954 success in highlighting the nation’s racial caste system gave encouragement to a wave of freedom rides to desegregate interstate transportation, to national support for Rosa Parks’ determination to desegregate local buses and other public facilities, to lunch counter sit-ins to desegregate restaurants and other public accommodations, to heroic efforts to register African Americans in the Deep South to vote, and to confrontations over admission of African Americans to southern universities. It also spurred civil rights legislation in 1957, 1960, 1964, 1965, and 1968 that, in combination, undid the nation’s legal support for race-based status. None of this would have taken place without Brown (2). From this quote, the positive influence of the Brown ruling is clear. From Rothstein’s words, it can be interpreted that the Brown verdict became precedence for all other racial cases and civil rights legislation. Furthermore, it can be concluded that it was the source ofShow MoreRelatedProj587 Course Project rough draft b Essay7672 Words   |  31 Pagescall. The main advertising theme has been that Carnival cruises are â€Å"Fun Ships† as its current slogan says â€Å"FUN FOR ALL - ALL FOR FUN†. Carnival prides itself on delivering fun, memorable vacations to their guest by offering a wide array of quality cruises, which present outstanding value for the money. The current economic landscape is impacted by an aging population with disposable income as well as many external and environmental forces. For instance, over 60% of the worldwide cruise passengersRead MoreR.K.Narayan and Swami and Friends7399 Words   |  30 Pages the flavor of the SEASON is buzzing with Harry Potter Mania, still I am glued up reading R.K. Narayan’s First Novel â€Å"Swami and friends† (which was published in 1935) so enthusiastically Even my parents were not born at that time, but theINNOCENCE that I find in this book makes is itrefreshingly different from what we have nowadays. Yes, as I kid I too loved to read about magic, mystery, adventures, and detective stuff. There are plenty of books which can take u totally to a differentRead MoreMt Whitney6367 Words   |  26 Pagesorganisation and its customer. The unit builds on a range of concepts and techniques that should already be familiar to you and develops an understanding of service excellence within a service environment. ï  ® Your learning outcomes When you have studied this unit and completed the assignments, you will be able to: ï‚ · ï‚ · ï‚ · ï‚ · ï‚ · ï‚ · describe the service encounter experience understand customer expectations linked to service levels develop an understanding of the issues involved in the implementationRead MoreStrategy Management18281 Words   |  74 Pagesmhhe.com rot12737_fm_i-xlvi.indd iv 17/11/11 7:37 PM Confirming Pages Dedication To my eternal family for their love, support, and sacrifice: Kelleyn, Harris, Winston, Roman, and Adelaide —Frank T. Rothaermel rot12737_fm_i-xlvi.indd v 17/11/11 7:37 PM Confirming Pages ABOUT THE AUTHOR FRANK T. ROTHAERMEL Georgia Institute of Technology Frank T. Rothaermel (PhD) is the Angel and Stephen M. Deedy Professor in the College of Management at the Georgia Institute of TechnologyRead MoreFACEBOOK case study Essay11495 Words   |  46 Pagesthe way we look for answers from the Internet. It could also be a great tool for advertisers—and a way to deliver on the expectations of shareholders.† Zuckerberg answered immediately, â€Å"I don’t like seeing my vision for a connected world smothered with logos and slogans! But that is why you’re here—to try to convince me otherwise.† Sandberg responded, â€Å"There are options for demonstrating the value of our data. Ways that can be a win for everyone—you, advertisers, shareholders, and users!† â€Å"So, whatRead MoreAcca F5111177 Words   |  445 Pages PAPER F5 PERFORMANCE MANAGEMENT P R A C T I C E R E V I S I O N K I T In this January 2010 new edition We discuss the best strategies for revising and taking your ACCA exams We show you how to be well prepared for your exam We give you lots of great guidance on tackling questions We show you how you can build your own exams We provide you with three mock exams including the December 2009 exam We provide the ACCA examiner s answers as well as our own to the June and December 2009 examsRead MoreStephen P. Robbins Timothy A. Judge (2011) Organizational Behaviour 15th Edition New Jersey: Prentice Hall393164 Words   |  1573 Pagesrequest to 201-236-3290. Many of the designations by manufacturers and sellers to distinguish their products are claimed as trademarks. Where those designations appear in this book, and the publisher was aware of a trademark claim, the designations have been printed in initial caps or all caps. Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Robbins, Stephen P. Organizational behavior / Stephen P. Robbins, Timothy A. Judge. — 15th ed. p. cm. Includes indexes. ISBN-13: 978-0-13-283487-2 ISBN-10:Read MoreAnne of Green Gables: Personality and Destiny9447 Words   |  38 Pages rebellion,precocity, imagination,love for nature and life. These personalities are considered fixed and invariable .But there is few studies comprehensively exploring the development of Anne’s personality and destiny as well as their interactions. So this topic is new to us and worthy of thorough study. The thesis will be divided into three chapters. Chapter one: Introduction. A brief introduction of the author, the work Anne of Green Gables, its influences and related research status atRead MoreAn Investigation of Customer’s Perception and Expectation of Services in Pension Fund Administration (Pfa) in Nigeria (a Study of Pfa Customers in Enugu)21541 Words   |  87 PagesSocial Insurance Trust Fund. However, the systems were grossly mismanaged, unregulated, unfunded and uncompetitive thus, the need for the reform. Following the reform, the Pension industry has become ‘passively’ competitive and more recently there has been overt agitations and clamour for regulatory authorities (PENCOM) to provide the modalities for the transfer of RSA from one PFA to another as evidence of switching behaviour has started to emerge. With the expectations of transfer window opening upRead MoreExploring Corporate Strategy - Case164366 Words   |  658 Pages CASE STUDIES ECS8C_C01.qxd 22/10/2007 11:54 Page 598 ECS8C_C01.qxd 22/10/2007 11:54 Page 599 Guide to using the case studies The main text of this book includes 87 short illustrations and 15 case examples which have been chosen to enlarge speciï ¬ c issues in the text and/or provide practical examples of how business and public sector organisations are managing strategic issues. The case studies which follow allow the reader to extend this linking of theory and practice

Thursday, May 14, 2020

Finance and Debt Tax Shields - 2147 Words

Case Discussion: The Wm. Wrigley Jr. Company: Capital Structure, Valuation and Cost of Capital 1. Dobrynin plays the role of the financial entrepreneur, exploiting inefficiencies in investment valuation and corporate finance. She seeks to profit by restructuring firms with â€Å"lazy financing† or too much cash and unused debt capacity relative to the (low) risks faced by the firms. By pressuring directors and managers to adopt more efficient policies, she hopes to reap an investment gain. The larger issue is whether or not Wrigley is inefficiently financed. If so, how much capital structure change will bring it to more efficient operation? 2a. A recapitalization based on a dividend will have no effect on the number of shares†¦show more content†¦Equity accounts for 89% of Wrigley’s book value of capital before the recapitalization. But the book value per share is $5.49,[1] less than one-tenth of Wrigley’s current share price of $56.37. This huge disparity is the possibility that book values are backward-looking and ignore important economic considerations, such as the value of brands, intellectual property, and customer franchise as well as the debt tax shields. In contrast, finance theory and best practice rely on the firm’s current market value as a guide to compute the capital weights. Before the recapitalization, Wrigley’s market value of equity accounted for 99% of its capital. And, after the recapitalization, that ratio fell to 78%. The increase in leverage will imply a change in Wrigley’s cost of capital. WACC before recapitalization Wrigley’s prerecapitalization WACC is 10.9%. The cost of equity assumes a risk-free rate of 5.65% for 20-year U.S. Treasuries (case Exhibit 7), a risk premium is assumed 7% (or 5%), and uses Wrigley’s current beta of 0.75 (case Exhibit 5). 4. WACC after recapitalization The increase in leverage will affect Wrigley’s WACC in at least three ways: 1. Cost of debt: Wrigley’s debt rating will change from AAA (consistent with no debt) to a BB/B rating reflecting the higher risk. The postrecapitalization credit rating is a matter of judgment. It is highly instructive to guide students through a rating exercise for Wrigley’s pro forma recapitalization. ThisShow MoreRelatedWeek 13 Solutions1215 Words   |  5 PagesWACC – Table 19.4 shows a simplified balance sheet for Rensselaer Felt. Calculate this company’s weighted-average cost of capital. The debt has just been refinanced at an interest rate of 6% (short term) and 8% (long term). The expected rate of return on the company’s shares is 15%. There are 7.46 million shares outstanding, and the shares are trading at $46. The tax rate is 35%. We make three adjustments to the balance sheet: Ignore deferred taxes; this is an accounting entry and represents neitherRead MoreFin316 Final Exam Practice1236 Words   |  5 PagesFinance 316 practice problems for final exam 1. True or False: According to the CAPM, a stock s expected return is positively related to its beta. True 2. In practice, the market portfolio is often represented by: A. a portfolio of U.S. Treasury securities. B. a diversified stock market index. C. an investor s mutual fund portfolio. D. the historic record of stock market returns. 3. A stock s beta measures the: A. average return on the stock. B. variability in the stock s returns comparedRead MoreWrigley Junior Case Study1629 Words   |  7 Pagesfirm was achieved when the weighted average cost of capital was minimized. Thus she intended to estimate what the cost of equity and the wacc might be if wrigley pursued this capital structure change. The projected cost of debt would depend on her assessement of wrigley’s debt rating after recapitali zation and on current capital market rates. WACC before recapitalization Wrigley’s pre recapitalization WACC is 10.9%, the cost of equity assumes a risk free rate of 5.65% for 20 years US treasuriesRead Morecase Bed, Bath Beyond1202 Words   |  5 Pagesï » ¿Advance Corporate Finance - Bed Bath and Beyond Case Questions: You are BBBY’s CEO, Steven Temares. It is April 2004 and you are about to decide what to do with the company’s excess cash: - Keep it? - Pay it out and issue debt? You structure your analysis by answering the following questions: 1. What is wrong with building up cash? Provide (at least two) reasons in favor and against keeping cash in the firm. Against: By paying out excess cash and issuing debt, BBBY could improveRead MoreFinancial Leverage And The Performance Of Firms Essay923 Words   |  4 Pages Date Leverage refers to the strategy whereby a company uses debt financing or borrowed funds to finance its operations and generate higher returns. Research conducted indicates that there is a positive relationship between financial leverage and the performance of firms. Use of financial leverage is one of the factors that contribute heavily in the success or failure of companies. Use of debt in financing the operations of a company enables the company to generate more returnsRead MoreWrigley Jr. Company1520 Words   |  7 Pagesa managing director of Aurora Borealis hedge fund, considers the possible gains from increasing the debt capitalization of The Wm. Wrigley Jr. Company. Blanka suggests Wrigley raise the amount of $3 billion in debt of the capitalization while Wrigley has been conservatively financed and remained no debt at the end of 2001. This report is aiming to analyze whether Wrigley should use $3 billion debt recapitalization to either pay dividends or to repurchase shares. 2.0 Current Capital Structure Read MoreBlaine Kitchware Essay1190 Words   |  5 PagesQuestion 1: The investment banker commented that Blaine was â€Å"over-liquid and under-levered† due to the fact that Blaine was debt-free and also held $231 million in cash, a 39% of its total assets. The pros of this type of capital structure are that it gives the company more freedom when making business decision and disturbing its cash. And the company with more liquidity reacts quicker under an economic or industry hardship. The cons of this type of capital structure are that it is wasting the potentialRead MoreCapital Strength Of A Business Organization1114 Words   |  5 Pagesthe risk of bankruptcy. Therefore the debt ratio in a business organisation where the focus is on gaining control the debt levels in the capital tends to be low (Gordon and Barton 1988). The critical aspect to consider in this factor is that more the capital strength of the business, the need for more debt arises due to the high costs, and this proves out to be advantageous at the same time due to the vast a vailability of the fixed assets for the long -term debt. So the conclusion can be drawn thatRead MoreCase Study1262 Words   |  6 PagesDUKE UNIVERSITY Fuqua School of Business FINANCE 351 - CORPORATE FINANCE Hint Sheet: Congoleum Corporation Prof. Simon Gervais Fall 2011 – Term 2 This case illustrates a leveraged buyout and highlights some of its value-creating aspects. You are invited to combine the valuation principles and methods discussed in the course to evaluate a complex transaction from the perspectives of the various participants. Here are some guidelines for your valuation analysis. †¢ Overview of the Valuation ProcessRead MoreBw/Ip International, Inc Case1736 Words   |  7 PagesValuation of Corporate Finance BUFN 750 BW/IP International, Inc 1〠BW/IP is a good candidate for the leverage buyout. * Steady cash flow (around 30 million per year). * Strong management team. * Positive NPV (about 61.5 million) The NPV of BW/IP is 61.5million(301-239.5).Thus, we are quite optimistic about this BW/IP’s project. Calculating the NPV. Method: APV: VL=VU+PV (ITS). We can get the interest paid schedule from the BW/IP’s projected operating performance, which means

Wednesday, May 6, 2020

America s History Review Questions - 973 Words

Arnav Velaparthi Period 4 2/8/15 APUSH Chapter 16 America’s History Review Questions 1. During the Civil War and Reconstruction period, Republicans made vast efforts in improving domestic economic growth. A transcontinental railroad was first enacted to not only increase the speed of travelling from the Atlantic to the Pacific, but to also increase trade with other nations, and bolster the farming and tourism of the West. The railroad would help populate areas in the West, which would help make America the highway of nations. Private companies were called upon by Republicans to help fund the railroad, even though they were still provided with loans, public grants of land, and various subsidies. These railroad companies had a significant†¦show more content†¦While Democrats argued that protective tariffs would be detrimental to consumers, especially from the South, tariff revenues were able to give America an edge over other nations in the market. Even though tariffs would result in more jobs, help eliminate poverty, and protect workers, corporations failed t o pass their benefits to workers, and gained monopolistic power. Furthermore, adhering to the gold standard was another critical economic decision for Republicans. In effort to replace â€Å"bimettalism,† Republicans adopted the gold standard. While it did attract investment capital from European nations, and led to the exchange of U.S. bonds and currency, the gold standard plummeted the nation’s money supply as silver was more abundant. Thus, the national policies implemented by the Republicans during the Civil War and Reconstruction were able to stimulate economic growth, but also at times hinder growth. 2. The trans-Mississppi west area saw a period of significant economic growth following the Civil War. The transcontinental road played a critical role in trade, tourism, and farming in the West. The Homestead Act, which granted 160 acres of federal land to anyone who could improve the property, was a mere effort to help build the interior West and attract farming. However, farmers soon saw themselves struggling as the land granted was not suitable for farming, and would require larger plots of land for

Tuesday, May 5, 2020

University and Research free essay sample

Changes that started during the second half of the 20th century and that have continued into the 21 SST threaten to bring about monumental changes in the nature of universities. Some of the changes are commendable, for example, the large expansion in the proportion of the population attending universities, at least in the richer nations. Other trends are disturbing, especially the increasing tendency Of governments and industry to view universities as engines for short-term economic gain.While universities certainly cannot ignore the context in which they function and the needs of society, responding purely to short-term economic considerations threatens to subvert the very nature of universities and some of the benefits hey provide to society. So what exactly is a university and what is its purpose? Much prefer the Oxford English Dictionary definition of the word university to some of the more utilitarian definitions in other dictionaries. The Oxford definition reads, in part, body of teachers and scholars engaged in the higher branches of learning. Thus, it is the community of faculty and students that is the essence of a university. The higher branches of learning in which teachers and scholars engage have 2 important products: the educated minds that are essential for the well-being of society, and new knowledge and ideas. Some of that new knowledge will enrich society by producing economic growth, directly or indirectly, but the benefits of new knowledge go far beyond economic gain. Universities have always been subjected to outside influences.The oldest European university, the university of Bologna, has existed at least since the sass. Some time before 1222, about 1000 students left Bologna and founded a new university in Pad because of the grievous offence that was brought to bear on their academic liberties and the failure to acknowledge the privileges solemnly granted to teachers and students. 1 The outside interference came from the Roman Catholic Church, and, for several centuries, Pad was home to the only university in Europe where non-Catholics could get a university education. Both Bologna and Pad were student-controlled universities with students electing the professors and fixing their salaries. However, in spite of marked differences, there are similarities between what happened then and what is happening today, with important outside influences ? then the dogma Of religion, now the dogma of business threatening to change the activities of the community of teachers and scholars. The seeds of what is appending now were sown in the years following World War II.Before the war the most important influence on a faculty member was probably the departmental chair, who in those days had power to influence in an important way what went on in the department. Nonetheless, a faculty member would have had access to departmental resources and would not necessarily have required outside research funding (although such funding was sometimes available from private foundations). The mechanism of funding research, and the amount of money available for research, changed gr eatly in the postwar years. In 1 945, Vainer Bushs landmark report toPresident Harry Truman, Science the Endless Frontier, 2 had an important influence on university research. In this report, Bush stated, The publicly and privately supported colleges, universities, and research institutes are the centers of basic research. They are the wellsprings of knowledge and understanding. As long as they are vigorous and healthy and their scientists are free to pursue the truth wherever it may lead, there will be a flow of new scientific knowledge to those who can apply it to practical problems in Government, in industry, or elsewhere. Bush supported the idea that the US overspent should provide strong financial support for university research, but also supported the idea that the individual investigator should be the main determinant of the topics for investigation, with statements such as Scientific progress on a broad front results from the free play of free intellects, working on subjects of their own choice, in the manner dictated by their curiosity for exploration of the unknown. 2 In the latter half of the last century, many countries adopted the model of gr anting councils, which used a system based on peer review to distribute money for investigator-initiated search. This model has been a great success, but it has also contributed to important changes in universities. Much more money has been available to support medical research, basic science research and engineering research than has been available for the social sciences or arts. Thus, decisions about support for different disciplines devolved from the universities to governments, who decided on the budgets of their various grant-giving bodies.Also, individual researchers who were successful in obtaining grants no longer depended as much on departmental facilities. In my opinion, this to only weakened the power of departmental chairs but also decreased collegiality within departments. With increased enrolments, as a university education became accessible to a greater proportion of the population, and an increased need for infrastructure for the larger student population and for complex research equipment, administrators became more concerned about sources of funding and consequently more detached from the faculty.There is always a tendency for senior academic administrators to speak and behave as though they were the university (when of course they are there to serve he community of teachers and scholars). This is of course a normal human trait, no different from the tendency of politicians to forget that they are elected to serve the people. However, this increasing detachment of senior university administrators from the faculty has facilitated the erosion of collegiality within departments and universities. The individual personalities of university faculty probably also facilitated this change. Learned recently, when looking at the literature on personality, that an inverse correlation between intelligence and conscientiousness has been demonstrated in a umber of studies (see, for example, Mountain et AAA). Thus, it might be more than just my paranoia leading me to believe that the small proportion of university faculty who lack conscientiousness and collegiality is larger than in some other walks of life.The erosion of collegiality is not a matter of great significance, except that it probably played a role in making researchers more open to the efforts of governments to transform them into entrepreneurs. The most recent and possibly the most important change in university research resulted from the push by governments to commercialism the results f such research. In the United States, the Bay-Dole Act of 1 980 encouraged universities to license to private industry discoveries made wi th federal funds. The push by governments for centralization of new knowledge grew during the 1 9805 and sass and continues to have an important influence on universities. Recently, Lord Ginsburg, the science and innovation minister in the United Kingdom, boasted that there had been a cultural change in universities there, which has resulted in a substantial increase in university spin-offs. 5 In 2002 the Association of Universities and Colleges of Canada entered an agreement with the government to double the amount of research performed by these institutions and to triple their centralization performance by 2010. Although this agreement was reached in the absence of any broad consultation with the faculty who are supposed to commercialism their work, the universities seem to be well on track to achieve this objective, with a 126% increase in revenues from license royalties between 1999 and 2001. Most major universities now have a technology transfer office, and at many universities success in centralization is taken into account when faculty are considered for tenure. Will there come a time when success in centralization carries the same weight as (o r more weight than) teaching and research in the awarding of tenure?The end result of all the changes discussed above is that individual faculty members have become much more like entrepreneurs whose main allegiance is to the maintenance or growth of their own research programs and not infrequently to the centralization of their research. The researcher exploring Vainer Bushs endless frontier could be considered the modern equivalent of the homesteader taming the seemingly endless frontier of the 9th century American West-8 This is not necessarily detrimental if a new generation of university research entrepreneurs provides the new knowledge that will benefit patients and society.However, the change in culture that made university faculty more like entrepreneurs also made them more open to the desire of governments to make them entrepreneurs in the economic sense. Although the nature of universities has been changing, there was no threat to the fundamental nature of universities until the drive for centralization began. A recent report of the Canadian Association of university Teachers states that university administrators have been building increasingly hierarchical management structures that place the future of academic medicine in danger. The reports main concern is that incentives to create commercialese products push economic concerns, rather than scientific and ethical considerations, to the forefront. non the fields of biologic psychiatry and behavioral neuroscience the emphasis on commercial applications has already, to some extent, moved research priorities away from an emphasis on mental well-being to an emphasis on commercial reduces. There are many examples of this shift.For example, more research is being carried out on antidepressant drugs than on psychotherapy, even though in mild to moderate depression (the majority of cases) drugs and psychotherapy are approximately equal in efficacy. There is increasing evidence for the efficacy of exercisers,11 and fish oils,13 in the treatment and prevention of depression. However, these strategies receive much less attention than antidepressant drugs. Even an established antidepressant treatment such as S-denominationally (SAMe)14 receives little attention.Searching the abstracts of the 2004 meeting of the Society for Neuroscience, I found 179 with the key word antidepressant and only 4 with the key word S-denominationally, and none of those 4 was concerned with the antidepressant action of SAMe. SAMe is a major methyl donor and seems to work in a fundamentally different way from any product being investigated by drug companies. Surely we could expect that an antidepressant acting through a different mechanism would be a popular topic of investigation. However, SAMe is a natural product and not of commercial interest.Similarly, insights into what exercise or fish oils do to the brain may provide important insights into the pathologically of depression and its treatment, but these subjects receive little attention. Many basic science researchers investigating the mechanisms of antidepressants produced by drug companies do not receive funding from those companies. However, enough are lured by drug company research funds into working on topics of interest to the companies to significantly influence what are fashionable topics of research.Laboratories with funding from industry can often afford more trainees, who ay then adopt a more industry-centered approach in their own research. While the availability of funds from industry has certainly influenced research, the pressure on university faculty to commercialism the results of their research will undoubtedly cause even greater distortion in the areas of research that are most popular. Granting agencies have increasingly tried to foster research in neglected areas by allocating funds to specific areas Of research and requesting applications in those areas.Although this approach is certainly necessary, it has not done much to alter the effects of drug many money on research output. Also, in some ways it moves research even further away from the ideal in Vainer Bushs report that Scientific progress on a broad front results from the free play of free intellects, working on subjects oftener own choice, in the manner dictated by their curiosity for exploration of the unknown. 2 This model was notably successful in the last half of the 20th century, but it may not survive the pressure to commercialism.While there is still much scope for curiosity-driven research, the curiosity of researchers is likely to be aligned increasingly with the interests of drug impasse. As mentioned above, a cultural change has accompanied the increasing centralization of university research. The pressure to commercialism has been critiqued in some quarters, but many university faculty have nonetheless embraced centralization, or at least remained unconcerned about it. Are we far from a time when a researcher without a patent that is being commercialese will be regarded in the same way as those who do not publish regularly in the top journals?And how long will it be before governments make centralization a mandate of granting councils and a requirement for the majority Of grants? A fascination with the workings of the brain and how it can malfunction in mental illness is the usu al motivator for researchers in neuroscience and psychiatry research. As a result, curiosity-driven research will always tend to serve the best interests of patients. Although research driven by commercial interests will certainly benefit psychiatric patients in some ways, it cannot serve their overall needs, as it is much too narrowly focused. The designation of funds by granting agencies for specific neglected topics will help but is unlikely to produce any large changes in the direction of research. Thus, the biggest losers from the pressure to commercialism will be psychiatric patients. In addition I am concerned whether students who are trained to focus on the short-term commercial implications of their research will be able to maintain the breadth of vision that is a characteristic of the majority of creative researchers. Changes due to pressure from governments to commercialism are not limited to researchers.The increased emphasis on centralization in universities has in some ways distorted the perceptions of senior university administrators about the purpose of the institutions. For example, there mess to be a lack of concern about some of the sources of funds that universities receive. Universities now hold patents on many life-saving drugs. These patents sometimes limit access to the drugs, particularly in low-income countries. 1 5 In Canada, one-quarter of the faculties of medicine receive funding from the tobacco industry. 6 Perhaps a suitable future definition of a university will be a whole body of teachers and scholars engaged in turning ideas into profit. In 13th century Italy the response to interference by the Roman Catholic Church in the work Of scholars was a move to another action to escape the interference. In the 21 SST century that option is not available even to the minority who are concerned about the drive to commercialism. However, the picture is not entirely bleak. Charitable foundations will remain immune to commercial interests. In addition, even though charitable foundations will probably remain relatively small players in the funding of research, there are promising signs. For example, the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, created in 2000, has an endowment of about LOS$27 billion and is striving to use its money for the benefit of humankind in areas neglected by governments. This foundation is not involved in psychiatric research, but its focus on preventive approaches may help to direct interest to that important area.Research on prevention in psychiatry is still in its infancy and will certainly remain that way if short-term commercial considerations stay paramount. However, charitable foundations cannot be expected to have any large effect on the change in university culture brought about by the drive to commercialism. Although would like to be able to end this editorial on a more hopeful note, I am concerned about these cultural changes, and I do not see any solution.