Smith Students Testify Before MD Senate Finance Committee

Students from the Robert H. Smith School of Business had an exciting, and possibly unprecedented, opportunity to participate in state legislature when they and their faculty advisor, Charles E. Olson, were invited to present research findings from a graduate field project (GFP) for PEPCO to the Maryland Senate Finance Committee on February 15, 2005.

Sparkle Douglas, Christina Nichols, Mary Byrd, and Eduardo Mihura participated in the GFP as part of Smiths MBA Consulting Program, which offers MBA students a chance to step into the business world as active participants. Douglas and Nichols elected to represent the groups findings and testify.

PEPCO asked the students to explore the viability of opt-out municipal aggregation, a concept in electricity delivery for residential consumers that Maryland lawmakers have debated since electricity deregulation was passed in 1999. In opt-out aggregation, a municipality or county may act as the retail electricity provider for all residential and small business customers within its jurisdiction. Under this concept, affected customers would automatically be switched to municipal service unless they actively rejected it.

The students analysis included visits to Ohio and Massachusetts, two states that had already instituted similar programs, as well as interviews with public officials, state consumer advocates, state utility commissioners and staff. Using information from these sources they were then able to determine if ultimately, opt-out brought benefits to consumers. Following the presentation of a white paper to PEPCO the students were then asked to testify and present their results before the statbe Senate Finance Committee.

As business students and residents of Maryland, our team was keen to understand the potential benefits of opt-out municipal aggregation for residential electricity customers in Maryland. We appreciate the value of competition in the marketplace. We hoped to bring new perspective to this debate that of business people eager to create a robust marketplace that can truly benefit all consumers and that can sustain healthy economic growth within Maryland, testified Nichols.

Speaking afterwards of the experience, Nichols said, The consulting aspects of our graduate field exercise offered fantastic benefits in terms of real-world experience, but the opportunity to actually participate in public policy exceeded anything I could imagine. We felt it a huge compliment to be viewed as a legitimate source of expertise and insight by lawmakers.

It is enormously exciting and a huge honor for the students research to be held in such serious regard and value before the members of the finance committee, said Olson, teaching professor of logistics, business, and public policy at Smith. What a wonderful testimony to the quality of our students.

Graduate field projects are part of Smiths MBA Consulting Program. Working under the direct supervision of a faculty member, MBA students spend a semester helping clients solve complex business problems and explore new initiatives. The arrangement is a win-win situation, with students getting valuable industry experience before graduation and companies benefiting from the up-to-date business knowledge and fresh ideas of Smith School MBAs.

Angela Toda, Public Relations Manager, Office of Marketing Communications