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Additional $300,000 grant to SMG from GE Fund

The School of Management announced recently that it has received a $300,000 grant from the GE Fund, the philanthropic foundation of the General Electric Company, to support its Center for Team Learning.

The GE Fund, which invests in innovative interdisciplinary teaching methods and curricula in business and engineering disciplines, has contributed more than $1 million to the Center for Team Learning, which was launched in 1996.

"We are grateful to the GE Fund for its continuing commitment to our unique approach to Team Learning," says SMG Dean Louis E. Lataif. "It comes on the heels of a $5 million contribution SMG received from Lucent Technologies as a part of its global mobility initiative. Our school is very proud to partner with these global corporations to study important business and management trends for the 21st century."

The Center for Team Learning teaches leadership skills and trains students to solve management problems as members of a group; it grades students on both their own proficiency and the success of their group. The center's educational focus differs from traditional group learning, in which members of a group often are given the identical grade.

"What also makes Team Learning at SMG unique," says Jeffrey Miller, SMG professor of operations management and director of the center, "is that students are assigned to groups instead of picking their own and are mutually responsible for one another's learning. They are evaluated on their leadership and coaching abilities and the extent to which they help other students learn. It's a program that other schools have emulated."

The GE Fund grant runs through August 2003.

26 January 2001
Boston University
Office of University Relations