A piece of the stock market makes its way to Slippery Rock University
SLIPPERY ROCK — When students at Slippery Rock University enter the Eisenberg Classroom Building, they are greeted with two large digital displays scrolling the latest updates on stock market.
SRU’s 12-foot, LED stock ticker was installed in January, and it scrolling financial stock quotes from the New York Stock Exchange, Nasdaq and other markets, alongside another big screen display that shows news, campus announcements and information submitted from faculty in the College of Business.
“The digital displays really liven up the place,” said Lawrence Shao, dean of the College of Business, which is housed in Eisenberg. “You’re able to see financial activity and stay current.”
Shao said the ticker is an upgrade to the students’ learning environment.
“We’re living in an instantaneous world and students want to know what’s going on now; this is certainly the type of equipment that provides that immediate response of market activity,” he said.
Invented by Edward Calahan, the first-ever stock ticker debuted, Nov. 15, 1867, in New York City, according to the Encyclopaedia Britannica.
The earliest ticker devices printed quotes on strips of paper, and the information was sent by mail or messenger to New York Stock Exchange.
Mechanical stock tickers were developed through the 1960s before giving way to computerized tickers and electronic displays that are used today.
Shao said it is good for students to be surrounded by the same technology they will see when they enter their careers.
“(The ticker) make investors more aware of activity and it provides topics of discussion when you see stocks going up or down,” Shao said. “Then you’ll want to go out and research it further and find out why a stock is jumping. It can provide a treasure trove of information.”
