When grounds worker Peter Chance was charged with replanting the Welch Hall second floor patio garden at California State University, Dominguez Hills, which previously kept dying due to lack of proper drainage, he turned to his lifelong fascination with the Japanese art of bonsai to remedy the situation. Using a technique where the roots are planted above ground, he and his grounds keeping crew have alleviated the problem.

Franklin Strier had his article “Rating the Raters: Conflicts of Interest in the Credit Rating Firms,” published in the Dec. 2008 issue of Business and Society Review. In it, the professor of business law at California State University, Dominguez Hills examines one of the key causes of the sub-prime mortgage crisis and related solutions.