University of Delaware
Office of Public Relations
The Messenger
Vol. 5, No. 3/1996
Blue Hen Investment Club manages $500,000 portfolio

     University of Delaware College of Business and Economics
students in the Blue Hen Investment Club are gaining hands-on
experience working with a real-dollar investment portfolio of
$500,000.
     Faculty adviser Donald Puglisi, MBNA America Business
Professor of Finance, says the group was organized last spring
and drew up policies and procedures for a sound investment
management process. Members of the club then made a presentation
for funding to the Investments Committee of the Board of
Trustees, which approved $500,000 from the invested operating
funds of the University.
     "The primary missions of the club are to provide the members
valuable educational investment and general business
experiences," Puglisi says. "Managing an actual portfolio with a
specific purpose is different from theoretical investments on
paper. Like any investment manager, the club has a performance
target. In this case, the goal is to do better than the Standard
& Poor's 500 Index in terms of return on the investments."
     One of only 35 such campus organizations in the country, the
Blue Hen Investment Club is one of the 10 largest in terms of
portfolio size, Puglisi says. Student investment groups are at
work at the universities of Virginia, Maryland and Wisconsin,
Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University and Ohio
State University.
     At Ohio State, the funds managed by students doubled from
the original $5 million endowment to $10 million in five years.
The fund has generated $653,397 in dividend income for
Ohio State.
     According to Dean Kenneth R. Biederman, the Delaware
program, suggested by President David P. Roselle, has met with
enthusiasm.
     "I have attended meetings of the club, and the students are
excited about this opportunity," he says. "They are well-
organized, diligent and serious about their purpose. They have
been doing their homework on the best investments in different
fields, such as pharmaceuticals and technology. Above all, the
club provides a learning experience. The students also are
enjoying themselves while organizing the club, preparing the way
for future members."
     According to the club's president, Tam Vuong, Delaware '96,
the club has provided a variety of valuable educational
experiences for its members, first in organization and then in
carrying out research on stocks in core industries, presenting
proposals and making investment decisions.
     The club's emphasizes investments in common stocks. An
investment committee manages the portfolio, analyzes each stock
considered for inclusion in the portfolio and keeps detailed
minutes of each meeting. An accounting committee is involved with
internal and external reporting requirements but is not involved
with portfolio composition decisions.
     To ensure proper University oversight, Puglisi and Peg
Patten, who administers the University's portfolio, serve on the
club's executive committee and are responsible for authorizing
the execution of trades for the portfolio account. The investment 
decisions, however, are strictly those of the club members. The 
portfolio itself is held at Wilmington Trust Co.
     Puglisi says, "Members have to develop and present ideas
that may or may not be accepted by their peers, and this kind of
group dynamic is also educational and part of the 'real' business
world.
     "It is too early to comment on the portfolio's performance,"
Puglisi says, "but of the 15 stocks purchased thus far, 13 are up
and two are down. However, the emphasis and purpose of the club
are to provide a hands-on, educational experience for students."
                                           -Sue Swyers Moncure