Orientation for incoming freshman next fall will include more than finding one's way around campus.

It will give Ed Caner, director of CWRU's new Student Educational Entrepreneurship Development (SEED) Center, the opportunity to pitch the idea of students starting businesses on or around the University.

Caner said he would like to see SEED take root and sprout as many as six new businesses that grow and thrive where the University lacks services or where the business can fill a special niche that students, staff and faculty can use. The program is housed in the Peter B. Lewis Building and operates with support from the Weatherhead School of Management and CWRU.

SEED, which was launched in the fall as a nonprofit organization, already has some promising student plans for a DVD rental business, a dry cleaner and health food kiosk on the south side of campus.

Students interested in starting a business will have to present a sound business plan.

"I plan to sit down with the students and beat the heck out of the plan until all the details are in place," Caner said.

Individual students or groups of students submitting plans will be encouraged to enroll in Weatherhead's "New Venture Creations" course to learn about creating a business.

The process will separate those with the muster to weather a few business ups and downs from students who are only half-hearted in their business attempts.

"Our primary goal is education," said Caner, who has learned over the past two years to write business plans through the Physics Entrepreneurship Program at CWRU. "It's to help students weed through the nonsense."

Once details are in place, the business plan is presented to SEED's board of directors, which is comprised of faculty and staff members from various schools on campus, as well as the SEED board of advisers, which is comprised of alumni donors.

If business plans are accepted, the student or groups of students will be awarded what is basically a loan for 50 percent of the upstart cost that is repaid with profits. If the business withers and fails to grow, then SEED loses its investment.

"This is why we are being careful in which business plans get funded," Caner said.

Whereas in the world of business, the new entrepreneur has to rent space, phone lines and other services, those will be provided by the University.

Caner said the idea is to get a viable business running on campus where the profits are returned to SEED to provide a continuous pool of funds for new ventures. When the students graduate, the business stays with SEED or is dissolved.

For information about SEED, contact Caner at 216-650-1007 or emc15@po.cwru.edu.