Clubs to be put on display
By Andrew Donovan
Staff Reporter

Several members of the M.J. Neeley School of Business say they hope this year’s Neeley Week, which begins Sunday, will continue the success of last spring’s inaugural event.

“It is a great opportunity to celebrate the business school,” said William Moncrief, senior associate dean of the Neeley School. “We really want this to become an annual tradition.”

Moncrief said the event was started to display the several different business clubs to all students, even if they are not business majors. He said he hopes the event will also attract new students who do not know about the clubs.

The event was held last year in conjunction with the opening of the Steve and Sarah Smith Entrepreneurs Hall, where most of this year’s activities will be held. Each club is designated a certain weekday for their activities, which this year, include everything from noted speakers to an inflatable bungee run setup outside the building.

“Each group will have some good events to show what they are all about,” Moncrief said. “Hopefully, it will help to get even more (students) involved in the business school.”

While he may have originally came up with the idea for Neeley Week, Moncrief said he has since passed on control to a group of 14 undergraduate business school representatives, known as the Neeley Associates.

Senior e-business and entrepreneurship major Blaire Bassett, one of the Neeley Associates, said the event will not only encourage more memberships in the clubs, but also create a stronger camaraderie within the business school.

“One of the other focuses of the event is to help bring students and faculty of the business school together for entertaining and educational events,” Bassett said. “I just hope the students will be interested and stick around to have some fun.”

Senior e-business, marketing and entrepreneurship major Jason Ruth said he wants the two clubs he is active in, TCU CEO, which supports young entrepreneurs, and Delta Sigma Pi, the business fraternity, are able to take advantage of the event.

“We just want people to know we are out there and that we are here to help them any way we can,” Ruth said.

TCU CEO and Delta Sigma Pi are scheduled to share hosting duties on Monday.

He said the two organizations plan on having TCU graduate Ash Huzenlaub speak and then follow the speech with a dinner where students can sit down and talk with actual entrepreneurs. Huzenlaub, CEO of Emergisoft Corporation, is the youngest CEO of any publicly traded company in the United States.

While he thinks the event is a great opportunity, Ruth said he would prefer having the event in the spring last year, when the organizations are not as tied down with business.

“For us as an organization, you just feel a bit rushed,” Ruth said. “It’s still going to be a great event, though, and I hope we can have it both semesters this year.”

Neeley Week will begin with a basketball tournament in the TCU Recreation Center Sunday at 3 p.m. and will continue through the week with events at and around the Smith Entrepreneurs Hall until next Friday.