Brown School of Business and Leadership

Outdoor fashion brand, Patagonia, is coming to Stevenson University on Oct 21 and Oct 22 as part of their Worn Wear Tour. Patagonia reps will be on the Owings Mills campus on Oct 21 demonstrating how to care for and repair clothing to keep it out of the landfills, and keep it wearable longer.

On Oct 22, Patagonia will give a talk in the BSOBL Courtroom on "Sustainability and Careers" from 11:30 - 2:30 PM.

Dr. Holly Lentz-Schiller, organizer of the event, had this to day: "The generation of students that we teach are savvy consumers who want to make a difference. So many of my students understand that sustainability must be a fundamental part of doing business in today's apparel industry and no one does that better than Patagonia. From their very core, they are dedicated to corporate social responsibility. "

"When I heard of the Worn Wear Tour, I knew that I had to get them to campus to further educate our students. The Worn Wear Tour educates students on how to repair and mend their garments, keeping them out of landfills. Through this experience, if we help even one person learn about sustainability, keep one piece of clothing in someone's closet for a little longer, or make a student begin asking simple questions like "who made my clothes?" or "where did my shirt come from?", we are making a difference" says Lentz-Schiller.

For more info on Patagonia's Worn Wear program, watch the video below:

On Tuesday, October 15, Sy Saulynas (Assistant Professor of Information Systems) will give a research talk at the United States Naval Academy entitled, “Towards Developing Guidelines for Addressing Situationally Induced Impairments and Disabilities (SIID) and Severely Constraining Situational Impairments (SCSI)”. The introduction of commercially-viable mobile information appliances has revolutionized the way humans consume information. The mobile aspect of mobile interaction, however, often places users in less than ideal ambient conditions where environmental variability can negatively affect the completion of a desired mobile interaction (e.g. trying to read a text message while outside in bright sunlight).

This phenomena has been dubbed “Situationally Induced Impairments and Disabilities (SIID)” or simply “situational impairments”.

Further, the rapid adoption and omnipresent use of mobile devices seems to have produced a new complexity by-product termed “Severely Constraining Situational Impairments (SCSI)” where workarounds to a transaction issue are not available or easily obtained, or where a technological solution was found that only led to the introduction of new situational impairments. These phenomenon represent an accessibility challenge for effective mobile device use on the go, and the effects of these challenges can be dangerous.

Sy’s research arc addresses situational impairments from a novel perspective. Little research to date has attempted to examine the SIID phenomenon from a general classification standpoint. Nor has there been much research attempted to explore the secondary impact of amplified complexity that the increase in usage and functionality offered by mobile technology is producing.

Professor Saulynas' research aims to achieve a richer understanding of the variety and complexity of situational impairment events. The culmination of this research will provide recommendations for fostering specific guidelines so that the design of mobile human-computer interaction can: 1) better recognize the new complexity of the diverse facets that are present during mobile interaction and 2) properly and effectively account for the presence of SIID and SCSI in the design of mobile device interaction.

For more info contact Sy Saulynas, SSAULYNAS@stevenson.edu.

Three Fashion Merchandising seniors (Meghan Roberts, Justin Baluyot, and Elle Bialozynski) from Dr. Holly Lentz-Schiller's Merchandise Sourcing and Logistics (FMER 340) class were selected to present a poster at the International Textile and Apparel Association's Annual Meeting in Las Vegas, NV in October.  'Sol' was a term project consisting of a business plan for a socially responsible retailer conceived by the students.  

There were over fifty submissions to the competition, with only the top ten selected for presentation. Great poster! Congrats to all!

Dr. Holly Lentz-Shiller of the Brown School of Business and Leadership and Leslie Simpson, did a pre-orientation workshop with a group of freshman students focused on merchandising and retailing in Harbor East.  Students were from a variety of majors; Business  Administration, Fashion Merchandising, Fashion Design, Biology, and Business Communications.

They visited Lululemon and talked with the team there where they learned about the Lululemon consumer, sales strategies, and visual merchandising.

On Friday, April 26th, twenty-one students from the Brown School of Business and Leadership were inducted into the Sigma Beta Delta Honor Society. To qualify, members must rank in the upper 20% of their class and have completed half of their degree program.

The students were: Taesha Andre, Alyson Chaconas, Michelle Charron, Paige Creek-Abdullah, Jonyae Curry,  Brady Darcy, Carolyn deGuzman, Emmanuel Essien, Jackson Gibb, Samantha Hacker, Andrew Hanrahan, Velma King, Katherine Kraft, Daria Mosley, Adam Rhyner, Nicholas Russell, Mark Russell Jr., Ryan Siegel, Erin Stephey, Leslie Stept, and Kafayat Sulaimon.