Since last fall, Brown students have been able to use two on-campus computer terminals to access a service previously available to only top-tier clients of the financial firm Lehman Brothers. Students have access to an exclusive online information system, LehmanLive, which provides financial analyses, research and data compiled by the company's top employees.
"LehmanLive is a platform to access our published research, valuation models, and supporting data on the global economy and the stock, bond, commodities and foreign exchange markets around the world," Paul Salerno, a senior vice president at Lehman Brothers, told The Herald in an e-mail. It was developed to "make research more interactive and to provide customers with Lehman Brothers' market intelligence through each phase of the investment cycle."
Though the terminals have been at Brown since the fall, students - not knowing the ins and outs of the program - haven't been using them, said Laura Joshi, manager of employer relations at the Career Development Center.
So on March 3, Lehman will hold an instructional workshop at the CDC to show students how to properly use the system.
The two data terminals, located in the multipurpose room on the first floor of the CDC and the first floor of the Rockefeller Library near the reference area, are provided in part by Brown's program in Commerce, Organizations and Entrepreneurship, the University Library and the CDC.
Lehman's donation of the two terminals is part of a broader effort to increase the company's presence at Brown, Joshi said.
Lehman employee Ajay Nagpal '90, who runs the company's global sales effort for equities, is heading the effort to strengthen ties between Lehman Brothers and Brown.
Although there is already a strong alumni presence at Lehman, the company wants to "broaden the awareness of its analytical capabilities" at "a very strong school," Salerno told The Herald.
The terminals will also benefit students. Professors who teach finance courses often use outdated data sets for class assignments, said Professor of Economics Andrew Foster. The Lehman terminals allow instructors to give students more current material to work with, he said.
"But in terms of getting students excited about this process and, therefore, motivated to build through necessary program skills, it helps to give them something to get their teeth into," Foster said. "If you're going to do original research, you need original data," he said.
The COE's administrative director, Maria Carkovic, echoed this sentiment, equating the terminals to a laboratory for finance students. COE is helping fund the program through a donation from Jeffrey Tabak '72, an alum who wanted to "fund data access to Brown students for a number of years," Carkovic said.
Professor of Economics Ivo Welch tried unsuccessfully to use the LehmanLive terminals in a new course he taught last semester, ECON 1759: "Data, Statistics, Finance." Welch may use the terminals for the course in the fall, but because the research techniques necessary for it are relatively complex, "the course is in flux," Welch wrote in an e-mail to The Herald.
"I realized that students need to learn how to program before they get to my course, so we are still in experimental design stage," he added.
"The idea was to teach a course to teach students how to program and use financial data, thanks to the money raised by COE and by Tabak," Carkovic said.
Salerno applauded Brown professors incorporating the data from LehmanLive into their coursework.
"We'd like them to speak to the ideas coming from our research department," Salerno said.
"It's beneficial to bring that into the coursework being done at Brown," he continued.
Mark Ramadan '08, a teaching assistant for ECON 1720: "Corporate Finance" and a co-president of the Brown Investment Group, noted it might be difficult to use this resource with a class of 30 students and only two terminals.
"It's definitely a good starting point, though," he added.
"We are trying to give students tools to work with, and employers are interested because word has gotten out," Carkovic said.
Salerno agreed, saying Lehman wanted to make sure everyone on campus interested in pursuing a career in finance knows what the company has to offer.
Until recently, the terminals have been a well-kept secret.
Ramadan and co-president Christopher Manatis-Lornell '08, who have been working with the Brown Investment Office to get research reports, saud they were unaware of the two terminals on campus.
"I think it's strange that the Investment Office didn't even mention it to us. If they've been there, it seems there has been a lack of communication somewhere down the line," Ramadan said.
"I can see it being an additional research supplement for the Investment Group," Ramadan said, adding that he would try out the terminals and make an announcement at the group's next meeting.
No formal evaluations of the terminals have yet been designed, Carkovic said, adding that she is waiting to "see how much it is used and what it entails."
Salerno said formal surveys would best show how much students are using the terminals. "It's something we'll have to look into," he said. He added that Lehman is working with the CDC and the library to understand how well the terminals are used, but that he'd also appreciate direct feedback.
