REPORTERS, EDITORS:  To arrange for coverage of any part of this
event, including students' intensive problem-solving sessions,
please contact professor William Kehoe, faculty advisor, at (804)
924-7045.

	PRESTIGIOUS BUSINESS-CASE COMPETITION AT U.VA.
	SHARPENS REAL-LIFE SKILLS OF UNDERGRADUATES

	CHARLOTTESVILLE, Va., Feb. 6 -- An international array of
top business school undergraduates from universities in New Zealand,
the United Kingdom and the United States will confront tough,
real-life business challenges when they meet for the 15th Annual
McIntire International Case Competition (MICC), to be held here Feb.
14-17 sponsored by the University of Virginia's McIntire School of
Commerce.
	This year, teams from the University of Pennsylvania's
Wharton School of Business, the University of Waikato in New
Zealand, Hampton University, the University of Manchester in England
and the University of Minnesota, will participate in the event.
	Each team is given a case written by several McIntire
faculty members that presents pertinent facts about a company and
details a specific problem.  In 24 hours, the students must have
analyzed and determined a solution.  
	Each team then presents its solution before a panel of
distinguished judges, who represent a spectrum of industries,
universities and the business press.  Based on the written and oral
presentations, this panel declares one team the winner.  While each
team prepares for its presentations, advising faculty members will
join U.Va. faculty and students in an open forum to discuss current
international business topics.
	The MICC is supported by a grant from the General Electric
Fund, which has been supporting higher education projects for more
than 40 years.  GE Fanuc Automation North America Inc., a leading
industrial controls supplier based in Charlottesville, provides
organizational support necessary to make the competition a success.
According to Donald Borwhat, GE Fanuc's senior vice president of
human resources, the MICC participants are the "community leaders of
tomorrow, and we (General Electric) want to help develop their
skills. This belief along with the international aspects are
reflected in this year's theme, 'Bringing a World of Experience
Together.'"
	MICC has been so successful that other universities have
used it as a model to implement their own case competition.  In
addition, several cases chronicled by the competition have been
published in textbooks and used by numerous executive development
programs.
	Since its establishment in 1981, the MICC has remained
committed to fulfilling three key objectives:
	¥ To provide an opportunity for both participants and their
schools to gain international exposure, and take advantage of
contact with other undergraduates students from around the world.
In the past six years, MICC has hosted students teams from the
United Kingdom, the Netherlands, Sweden, Germany and Canada.
	¥ To provide a forum for faculty from among the world's
finest undergraduate business schools to discuss topics affecting
today's international business arena.
	¥ To foster industry media awareness of the importance of
undergraduate business schools
	The U.Va. McIntire School of Commerce is consistently ranked
as one of the nation's leading undergraduate business schools.
###
February 5, 1996