Visible through glass walls on the ground floor of Baruch's Information and Technology Building at 151 East 25th Street is the Subotnick Financial Services Center/Bert W. and Sandra Wasserman Trading Floor, the premiere facility for financial markets education in the New York City area. Behind another glass door is the office of Richard Holowczak, associate professor of computer information systems and the center's new director.

Even though Holowczak just took the reins in winter 2003, he has been involved with the center since its inception. In his first year at Baruch in 1997, Holowczak teamed with CIS colleague Professor Lucy Garnett to develop a plan to make her original idea—a financial development software lab—a reality. That idea was expanded upon by an enthusiastic Sidney Lirtzman, then Zicklin dean and later interim college president. Lirtzman's larger vision for the center reflects its current layout: a 42-workstation trading floor, a 25-seat development classroom, a 60-seat seminar room, and an advanced research facility for the collection and analysis of large data sets.

The Subotnick Financial Services Center (SFSC) combines academic theory and financial services practice. Simulated trading exercises using live data feeds from major market sources immerse students in a true-to-life trading environment. The SFSC is also an incubator for new software solutions and tools for the financial industry. "We have it all," says Holowczak, "Location, expertise, partnership with the three main data providers—we're much more than a finance student looking at stock prices."

The Subotnick Center, operational since March 2000, has evolved over the years. "Initially, Zicklin focused energies on the academic side of the equation, integrating the center into the business curricula. Then outreach was expanded," explains Holowczak. "We are now set on raising our external visibility." What's the philosophy driving the center today? "Internally, we want our students to get their hands on these industrial-strength software tools. They're not like a Web browser, which you can basically learn by clicking around. One needs specific instruction. Externally, we hope to gain greater exposure for the center and for what we do—to open people's eyes."

The SFSC is expanding its support for faculty research. Holowczak is at work on several research projects, including MarketVCR, a multimedia financial data warehouse that captures on a single screen market prices, live news video (a triggering event like a Federal Reserve report or a Presidential press conference), and the text of news articles on that event in real time. How the markets react to world events is dramatically demonstrated. For example, if Alan Greenspan recommends interest rate cuts at a morning meeting, an evening class can study the entire financial-media scenario second by second. MarketVCR offers many interdisciplinary uses. "I'll work with anybody at the College," says Holowczak. "We want students to understand the connection of the financial markets with real life."

The center owes its name to Stuart Subotnick ('62, LLD [Hon.] '97), vice chairman and CEO of Metromedia International Group, Inc., whose support helped to build the center, and Bert W. ('54) and Sandra ('55) Wasserman, whose gift supports its ongoing operations. Additional information about the SFSC and its activities can be found on the College's Web site at www.baruch.cuny.edu. —DH

Photo, above: Richard Holowczak,
associate professor of computer information systems
and the Subotnick Center's new director.