BY DR. ROBERT ELROD

Dean Hogan asked me to go to Poznan, Poland, to teach decision sciences to the students in the Poznan MBA program - that he established with the aid of an Andrew Mellon Foundation grant. My immediate response was, "when do I leave?" Teaching and travel are in my soul, and travel to East Europe was to be a new experience for me. Bijan Fazlollahi, a colleague and friend in the Decision Sciences Department, went with me. Bijan is widely traveled, and we made an excellent team.

We flew to Berlin then took a limousine across the German border to Poland. Poland is beautiful. However, many architectural legacies of the Soviet time remain and are scars on the landscape. Our driver, a young Polish man, said "we are bordered on one side by Germany and the other side by Russia. They meet in our country and beat up on each other."

Upon our arrival in Poznan, we spent a quiet evening in the Stare Miastro (old town) discussing Poland and her past and future with Dorota Hadasik, Tadeusz Tomaszewski and Fred Tilman. Dorota directs the Poznan MBA program, and Tadeusz is on the faculty at Poznan University. Fred is on the GSU faculty in the area of Business Law and also taught in the Poznan program while we were there. Tadeusz had taken Fred, Bijan and me for a tour of Poznan earlier in the day. He is the consummate guide, careful of his facts and very proud of his city and country. I count Tadeusz now among my very close friends. He is indeed a gracious man. As I prepare to return this summer to Poznan, he is among the most treasured memories of my initial trip to this lovely land. After an evening with these wonderful, open people, listening to them talk of the times of Soviet domination and Poland's proud history, Bijan, Fred and I each said that the evening was one we shall always remember.

The program in which we taught was held in Lubneiwicz, a little village east of Poznan. Upon our arrival there, we had an introduction to the students whom we would be teaching. We spent an evening eating and talking with them about their experiences under the Soviet hegemony. The spirit they exhibited, the sheer joy of freedom filled the night air with wonder. We in the West are often inured to our incrediblefreedoms. These people are just learning them and are overjoyed with the prospects.

In the course Bijan and I taught the first class in this new MBA program. We used a business simulation game to introduce the students to the idea of a market economy and all its intricacies. They took to the competition with gusto, a budding vanguard of new capitalists.

Bijan, Fred and I returned this June to another class of MBAs and also to attend the graduation of the first class of MBA students from the program. Think about the irony! Who would have thought just a few years ago that this former Soviet-dominated state would be able to embrace Americans in their midst teaching them in a Master of Business Administration program? What a beautiful experience.

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