Campus Flashback

Aaron Lykken, Manager – Academic Services & Technologies

Once a quarter a Saturday class day is held on the UW Seattle campus.  The reason this is unique is that by default all class meetings are held at TMMBA’s Executive Education Center in Kirkland, WA.  This was started when it was realized that many of the students wanted a stronger connection with the University and a simple way of doing this was getting our TMMBA students exposed to life on the main campus in Seattle.

Last Saturday was Class 9’s final class day on the Seattle campus but they were treated to a sunny day and an interactive day of class with their Global Strategy course.  Holding classes on campus brings back many memories for myself and the students, when life was so much different as a undergraduate.  One of the neatest parts about the day is seeing the students from both sections (Monday and Wednesday sections) together in one place.  This offers an excellent opportunity to network as well as to mix with other classmates.  In addition, the classroom landscape becomes dramatically different with the experiences and knowledge from both sections fusing…and sometimes clashing, for some wonderful in-class dialogue.  Global Strategy was ideal for the day as the morning was spent out of lecture in conference rooms hashing out deals in a negotiations simulation with teams representing various parties and their interests.

A lunch break outside in the sun was the perfect recharge for students before they headed back into the classroom for the afternoon sessions.  Many chose to eat out near the fountain or on the grass while others took the opportunity to walk through campus or visit the bookstore.  The afternoon was occupied with discussion revolving around two cases: one a court case that went before the World Trade Organization; and the other centered around a company mulling the issue of choosing to manufacture in-house in the US or exporting to another country, or licensing the technology to one of its distributors and sit back and collect their royalties.  Decisions, decisions…