China Studies Program
Professor Swanz created the China Studies Program as a result of being invited to the People's Republic of China in 1993 and 1994 to lecture on business topics to Ministry officials, business leaders and graduate students.
During these visits, Professor Swanz met officials from the Beijing Institute of Technology who invited him to bring his students to a program that could be mutually developed. In December of 1997 the first group of 14 departed for Beijing. They would spend two weeks discovering the history and culture of China, and the obstacles to doing business there.
Since then there have been 13 similar trips involving more than 210 students, mostly MBA candidates. The program is a three-credit course, and the group now visits Shanghai, Pudong, Suzhou and Xian as well as Beijing. While in China the students visit three companies with roots in Western New York, get a briefing from the Beijing bureau chief at CNN, and hear from a prisoner of Mao's Cultural Revolution.
Publications
- CPA Journal – March 1995 – feature article “Doing Business in China”
- Contributor to the Chapter on China in World Accounting published by Matthew Bender, 1995
- “General Agreement on Trade and Services of the World Trade Organization Regulation of Tourism” as presented at and published in the official proceedings of the Institute of Insurance at Kielce, Poland in March 2001 in Wyzsza Szkola Ubezpieczen w Kielcach
- “The Importance of Services Under the WTO"; Proceedings of 2001 International Conference on International Business in the Era of Economy Globalization, in Beijing, P.R. China, September 2001 organized by the School of Management and Economics, Beijing Institute of Technology, PRC and the Business School of South Bank University, United Kingdom
- Book review published in the Journal of American Taxation Association (Fall 2006) of “Inventing Tax Rage” by Larry Patrquin (published by Fernwood Publishing, Halifax, Nova Scotia)
- "China-Dissecting The Miracle and Exposing its Parts", the Business Research Consortium of Western New York Conference at St Bonaventure University, April 20-21, 2007
- "A Decision Support Model for the China Studies Program", co-authored with Dr. Carl Case, Business Research Yearbook, Global Business Perspectives, Volume XV, 2008, 81-86.
Miscellaneous
Researched, developed and jointly composed St Bonaventure policy on: Copyright Law,1996, Sexual Harassment, 1997; Reviewer for West Publishing, Prentice Hall and Houghton Miflin Publishing Companies.
Presentations
- National Association of Accountants
- Western New York Trade Council
- Jamestown Accountants and Purchasing Agents
- Olean Industrial Management Council, on several occasions
- National Association of Purchasing Managers (In New York and Pennsylvania.)
- Human Resources Management Association
- Institute of Management Accountants
Conferences Attended
- University of Hawaii International Visiting Colleagues Program, as part of the Pacific-Asian Management Institute of Scholars and International Executives – with representatives from the U.S., Japan, South Korea, Indonesia, Singapore and China
- Practicing Law Institute, in New York, Chicago and San Francisco on the topics of antitrust, intellectual property and accountants' liability, and due diligence studies for Business
- New York State Bar Association proceedings on product liability and intellectual property
- Participant in government trade mission to Chile and Argentina at the request of former Congressman Amo Houghton. Involved in special presentations by U.S. commercial attaches in those two countries
- Attended Pricewaterhouse Coopers forum for university faculty conducted in New Jersey, July 2006
Committees served on at SBU
- University Graduate Council
- Grievance Committee
- ROTC Committee
- By special appointment of the president to several investigative/review committees. Served on Board of Trustees of Mt. Irenaeus from 1985 to 2004, and 2006, ongoing
Committees elsewhere
- National Committee on U.S.-China Relations
- American Academy of Legal Studies in Business
- European Community Studies Association
- American Bar Association New York State Bar Association
- World Trade Center for Buffalo-Niagara
- Chairman of the Board of Trustees of the St Elizabeth Mission Society of the Sisters of St Francis of Allegany.
- Consultant on legal matters to the 2nd largest trucking company in WNY, and to several estates.