Motivation: why a center?

The need existed: folks on campus were crying for help (mostly statistical)
The need existed: so the Statisticians were crying for help, too, but of a different sort....
As an applied mathematician, I wanted to help "Mom and Pop" operations (the big operations were being handled elsewhere, by CINSAM). There would be some interesting projects.
This would help jump-start interdisciplinary collaboration: get faculty talking to faculty (one of my mandates!)
We thought it a win/win/win situation: we hoped that
- our students - get great experience
- our faculty - ask (and answer!) questions they might not otherwise
- our community - get solutions to problems
All should benefit from the experience.
Naysayers (there were a few, of course!):
- There wouldn't be any business.
- We'd make some serious foul-ups, and fingers would point.
- The students wouldn't be able to help in any substantial way.