Next year, NSU will welcome the addition of a new trading floor in the Carl DeSantis atrium. The open-ceiling glass structure will house a computer lab and conference room with access to a board of accredited advisers.
Students, especially business majors, can expect a space where they will be guided by a board of expert advisers to trade securities, or financial assets, such as stocks.
Construction is expected to continue until winter semester of next year. However, the first set of trades took place last winter semester.
After a year of design and approval planning, the project’s funding was provided by a $5-million donation by the Jerry Taylor & Nancy Bryant Foundation, an independent non-profit that regularly donates to higher education institutions. Half will be used for construction of the new floor while the other half will go into an endowment, or donation, to support student activities related to the Student Management Investment Fund and investment classes.
The new space will allow students to get real-world experience in pitching investments.
“Any time students can get real-world experience, it enhances the quality of their education,” said Dean Andrew Rosman of the Huizenga College of Business and Entrepreneurship. “They get to put to practical use things they learn in the classroom.”
Business students will need to present their research on a particular security to the panel of advisers, who will then discuss it with the student. Participants must justify their reasoning to the panel to proceed with their recommendation. The decision ultimately lies with the faculty on whether a security can be traded, bought or sold.
Furthermore, students must follow a set criterion established by an Investment Portfolio Strategy (IPS) created by the board before presenting their plan. If students do not adhere to the IPS, the student’s suggestion will not be considered.
Students must also take into consideration environmental, social and governance risks for securities, which businesspeople consider when deciding what to invest in. Environmental risks involve world impact, such as energy usage. Social risks consider how a company treats workers and buyers. Governance risks revolves around ethical concerns and executive pay.
All non-business majors, can also take advantage of this space after taking the standalone course FIN2020 (Introduction to Stock Market and Sustainability).
Many students are excited about this new addition.
“I’ve seen other universities have this, so us getting it now is a big jump,” said Elvis Lejlic, junior business major. “I just wish we had this earlier, so I had time to get more into it.”
Students will receive their own endowment from NSU of $100,000 to use for trades. As detailed in the Student Investment Fund’s charter, the college expects that the income generated from the students’ endowments will be able to be reinvested into more trades. If the income becomes substantial enough, it may also be turned back to students in the form of scholarships.
Some students, however, are concerned about how the money will be handled.
“It’s definitely a risk. If the students can make money out of it, then yes, but we’ll have to see what happens,” said Alec Frohn, senior business major. “If a bunch of business students just go in and somehow fail cataclysmically, how does that affect the school?”
The building where the trading floor will live is named after Carl A. DeSantis, who has passed away recently on August 10, 2023. An entrepreneur with a history of philanthropy in the South Florida community, Carl DeSantis donated $2 million in 2000 toward the construction of the building where the H. Wayne Huizenga School of Business was to be housed, renamed the H. Wayne Huizenga Graduate School of Business and Entrepreneurship at the time. His donation brought the school to $9 million for the construction, roughly two-thirds of the total price of building and equipping the school.
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