Ross
Hello.

Mayzee
Hi, Ross, this is Mayzee from Myalumniwebsite.com.  We’ve heard that you’ve just published a new book entitled, The Dog Ate My Budget, great title, congratulations!

Ross
Thank you.

Mayzee
Can you tell us a little bit about how the book came about?

Ross
Well, Mayzee, I spent 40-some years as a professor, administrator, vice president, and consultant at the University of Pennsylvania, the Wharton School, and I had so many funny, bizarre, and ironic experiences that I thought I would share them with anybody who ever went to college because it captures some of the humor that’s involved in that big, complex type of institution, that is a modern university. I was writing a memoir for my own college reunion, 50th reunion book, and I told the story of when I was a new vice president about losing a piece of paper when I was planning the budget, and it turned out my dog had ate it up; and I was missing $100,000 from my budget.  I had no excuse but to tell my troops that my dog had ate it up, which was sort of like the stories that students used to tell me about their papers.  People like it; I got positive feedback on it, and somebody suggested, a professor at another institution suggested, “Why don’t you write a book about these experiences?”  So I did and they just flowed.  I mean I was able ot remember stuff 40 years ago and a year ago and write it down.  So I ended up with about 80-some vignettes and anecdotes about strange and humorous and ironic and funny events that occurred.

Mayzee
Can you tell us another story that’s in the book?

Ross
Well, yeah, I was sitting in my office one day and the telephone rang, and it was the Reserve Library, at the University library saying, “Congratulations, Professor Weber,” and I said, “Why?” and she said, “Because all the copies of your book have been stolen.”  I put them on reserve so the students wouldn’t have to buy them and save them some money, and it turned out that they were all gone.  The librarian couldn’t find any of them.  Strange because the bookstore also had copies and not a single one had been purchased at the book store. It turned out that the students had hid the books in the stacks at the library in secret places out of order, so that they wouldn’t have to share them with other people.  The irony was the assignment that week was a chapter on research I had done on business ethics in which students claimed to have high ethics, but the research indicated that students had markedly lower ethics than senior executives in business, and the gap between what they professed and what they practiced was just so dramatic.

Mayzee
That’s a great story.  Tell us where we can get a hold of your book.

Ross
The book is available on Amazon, Amazon.com.  You simply enter my name, and they’ll have this book and I must admit, several earlier books leftover from the past that they also sell.  The subtitle of the book is, Tales About Teaching and Managing in the Ivy Tower, because it covers more than teaching. It also covers managing and raising money for the University and representing the University in the outside world, particularly in consulting engagements.

Mayzee
It sounds like a great book. Congratulations and I hope it does really well.  Thanks so much for sharing with us.

Ross
Well, thank you.

Mayzee
Bye-bye.

Ross
Bye.