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EMU Student's Antarctic Eco-Tourism Presentation Just the Tip of the Iceberg for 2009 Undergraduate Symposium

Posted on: Tuesday, 24 March 2009, 14:11 CDT

YPSILANTI, Mich., March 24 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- Corporate ethics and the environment are big topics in the media.

But they are just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to the more than 300 undergraduate participants and their faculty sponsors presenting at the Eastern Michigan University 29th Annual Undergraduate Symposium March 27.

The day-long event is believed to be one of the largest and longest running undergraduate symposiums in the nation.

"The Symposium gives undergraduates a chance to highlight some very interesting research, but it really showcases the close mentoring relationships that our students developed with the faculty here at EMU," said Dennis Beagen, who has worked with the event for 27 years. "We are really proud that our students and faculty have these opportunities to showcase their research efforts."

Lianna Cecil, a senior accounting major at EMU, will make two presentations at the event.

Cecil's project in biology is a poster presentation entitled, "Classification of Ecotourists on an Antarctica Cruise: Comparison with Land-Based Ecotourists," based on research she did while on a cruise for a Study Abroad course in Antarctica.

Cecil based her project after research conducted in Australia that attempted to classify eco-tourists -- ecologically and socially conscious individuals who travel with a desire to learn news ways of living on and improving the earth -- into three different categories: hard, soft and structured. Each type of tourist has different characteristics, attitudes and behaviors regarding the environment and travel preferences. Cecil decided to survey individuals on the cruise in an attempt to identify if the three types of eco-tourists would be found in an entirely different environment (Antarctica vs. Australia).

The results and findings of this project may result in a new classification of tourist, along with news ideas about ecotourism as a whole.

Her accounting project, "Voluntary Corporate Social Reporting: An U.S. Examination," focuses on corporate social responsibility (CSR) reports within the U.S. She researched firms that voluntarily issue CSR reports and found that reporting firms had a higher level of total CSR, CSR strengths and CSR weaknesses. Another finding highlights a strong relationship between CSR and financial performance, which shows there may be profitability when reporting CSR.

Cecil's project began with a paper that she worked on with her current faculty sponsor, Lois Mahoney. The research began in 2008 when Cecil participated in the McNair Scholars program at EMU. Through a Symposium Undergraduate Research Fellowship (SURF) award, Cecil and Mahoney were able to continue their research. This research allowed the paper to be accepted to the 2009 Midwest American Accounting Association (MWAAA) Annual Meeting, where it received the Best Student Paper award.

For more information about Cecil's projects, or any other of the diverse projects being presented at Undergraduate Symposium XXIX, please visit the Web site at http://www.emich.edu/symposium/.

SOURCE Eastern Michigan University

Source: PR Newswire

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