The Slate 2-13-18

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Federal government fails to help Puerto Rico, D1

Women’s Center prepares for Vagina Monologues, C1

Dance troupe performs annual recital, D1

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@ShipUSlate

Tuesday February 13, 2018

TheSlate @ShipUSlate 60 years strong

Volume 61 No. 15

theslateonline.com

Reporting truth. Serving our community.

Wolf gives budget address, discusses education funding Jenna Wise Managing Editor

Photos by Shannon Long/The Slate

The SU Investment Club hit a record high return rate of 26 percent last year. Members of the club get together to discuss the stock market, their portfolio and the economy. Anyone is allowed to join the club to learn more about how to manage money. It meets Thursdays at 3:30 p.m. on the second floor of Grove Hall.

Club sets $20K record Shannon Long News Editor The Shippensburg University Investment Club hit a record return of 26 percent last year and has grown their investment to more than $20,000. The return was the highest the club has ever seen and means that they received 26 percent of their original investment. Club Vice President Jose Polanco said the return was so high because of the bull market in 2017. The club made good stock selections and beat the Standard & Poor’s 500. The club beat its benchmark, which is what any portfolio manager aims to do in order to see how well he or she is doing. The S&P 500 is what people often compete against. The investment club beat the S&P 500 benchmark by almost 10 percent, which means members did well and selected good securities, according to club President Andrew Crum. The investment club is student-run and helps students understand the stock market, and leads discussions on what is happening in the economy and how that will affect certain indicators with sectors and industries in the stock market. The club has its own portfolio with real money that members use to make investments, according to Crum. “Students do presentations and we vote. If [the] majority votes ‘yes’ then we pass it and we go ahead and buy the selected company,” Polanco said. The money comes from the Shippensburg University Foundation, and is a donation that has grown over time. The original investment was $2,000 and has now grown to about $20,000, according to Crum. The club is helpful for finance students because it also allows them to learn both inside and outside of the classroom. The Investment Management Program (IMP) is a class that se-

lects 15 top seniors to manage a portfolio of nearly $200,000. Polanco and Crum were both in the investment club and are now in the IMP and said the investment club is a gateway into the program. “The biggest goal for the investment club, especially now that the IMP class is starting to become more competitive, is to get these students to understand how to manage the money at a younger freshman or sophomore level so then by junior year they are able to go to the IMP class and run the endowment fund for the college of business,” Crum said. The endowment fund from the class helps give scholarships for students. It starts off as donations and the goal is to create scholarships from the investments, according to Crum. The club places donations into a portfolio as a school-run scholarship program. People such as alumni donate toward the fund and students run it. They give about $1,250 to four students in need every semester. Although it may not seem like much, Polanco and Crum agreed that the scholarship made the class matter even more. “I would say the most important part of the class is the fact that we provide scholarships from the money that we make in the stock market to finance students that are in need, which is a great benefit to have,” Polanco said. Students with all different majors from the college of business are currently in the club, but they are interested in growing the diversity of students. “I think it’s really a good opportunity for people to understand how to manage money,” Crum said. “The biggest thing too [that] we found is a lot of people that have kind of diverse backgrounds and understand things, not just the finance side of it, really help, too.” The club meets every Thursday at 3:30 p.m. in the stock room on the second floor of Grove Hall.

HARRISBURG — Pennsylvania Gov. Tom Wolf delivered his annual budget address on Feb. 6, highlighting an increase in funding for public education in the 201819 fiscal year and pushing state legislators of both parties to approve a severance tax. Recalling his inauguration, Wolf compared his intent upon being sworn in as governor to what he has been able to accomplish during his term. The component connecting the last three years, he said, is a “political paralysis” that has prevented past governors and legislatures from working together to accomplish common goals. “When I stood outside this building on that Tuesday afternoon and took the oath of office as Pennsylvania’s governor, I talked about what made our commonwealth a place we are all so proud to be from,” Wolf said. “I believed then, as I believe now, that the people of Pennsylvania have what it takes to restore those values and rebuild our prosperity.” The state’s rebuilding process included an examination and reorganization of Pennsylvania’s public schools after Wolf took office. Today, Pennsylvania’s school districts have an 86 percent graduation rate and enroll more than 100,000 children in full-day kindergarten programs.

Pennsylvania is also second in the nation in science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) education, according to Wolf. He said the number of technical education students has increased in the state by 33 percent, and will help to fill the positions that employers have been struggling to fill. “Rebuilding our schools is the beginning of rebuilding our economy — but it’s just the beginning,” Wolf said. Wolf tied Pennsylvania’s strides toward improving education to the state’s flourishing business investments, and said strong education programs are what led Amazon to consider establishing a second headquarters in Philadelphia or Pittsburgh. “Businesses don’t invest in states that don’t invest in education, infrastructure or job training,” he said. Throughout the approximately 20-minute address, Wolf tackled subjects ranging from the state’s declining crime rates to the opioid crisis that continues to affect a large portion of the state. “Harrisburg works better — and Pennsylvania works better — when we work together to make it work for everyone,” Wolf said. Prior to his conclusion, Wolf stressed the value of Pennsylvania’s abundance of natural gas and the importance of creating a state severance tax. See “WOLF,” A2

File Photo/The Slate

The SU Investment Club uses real money that originated from a $2,000 donation by the Shippensburg University Foundation. Last year, the club made good selections in which stocks they were going to invest. This allowed it to grow the original investment to about $20,000 and beat the benchmark.

INDEX

Ship Life C1

News

A1-3

A&E

D1-2

Opinion

B1-2

Sports

E1-4

Weather Forecast

Tuesday

39/29 Wednesday

52/46

During Gov. Tom Wolf’s budget address on Feb. 6, he discussed an increase in public school funding. Wolf also brought up the subjects of declining crime rates and the opioid crisis during his address.

Thursday

Saturday

65/47

38/25

Friday

Sunday

53/20

51/36


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