Students were served Ben & Jerry's Ice Cream by co-founder Jerry Greenfield himself after he gave a speech about his former business on Monday night in the Weasler Auditorium.

Greenfield first met co-founder Ben Cohen in seventh grade in Long Island, N.Y. He said they met in gym class when they had to run the mile under time constraints, a difficult task because both were the "slowest and fattest" kids in the class. He said they were at the end of the pack running the mile.

"After (Cohen) told our gym teacher that, 'If we could not finish the mile under seven minutes the first time, what makes you think we can do it the second time?' Right then and there I knew I wanted to be friends with Ben," Greenfield said.

He said they were friends all through junior high and high school. Greenfield ended up attending Oberlin College majoring in pre-medicine, with hopes of one day attending medical school. But after applying to 20 different medical schools, all rejected him.

Greenfield said Cohen went to Colgate University, but dropped out after three semesters. He said Cohen later entered the University Without Walls program at Skidmore College, a progressive program where the world is the classroom of study. Cohen eventually dropped out of that as well.

With both having unhappy jobs, Greenfield and Cohen decided to start a business together. Eventually, they settled on ice cream. Greenfield said they took a correspondence course in ice cream making at Pennsylvania State University. They then began their business in Burlington, Vt. because they wanted a college town location in a rural area.

Greenfield told Marquette students of how he and Cohen campaigned against the Pillsbury Company after it threatened their distributors. Greenfield said they decided to not go directly to the Federal Trade Commission themselves, but instead chose to have their consumers voice their opinions to the FTC.

Greenfield said the company was bought out in 2000 by Unilever. He said it was not something that he and Cohen wanted to do, but they were unable to avoid it. However, both founders still work at the company today.

Greenfield said many businesses measure their success by how much profit they are able to make. The other part of a business' bottom line, he said, is to give back to the community.

"There is a spiritual side to business just as in an individual's life," Greenfield said.

Traci Sheehan, a freshman in the College of Arts & Sciences, said Greenfield was a great speaker and explained things well.

Kristen Wetzel, a freshman in the College of Arts & Sciences, said she was surprised when she found out that Greenfield and Cohen no longer owned the company. Wetzel said she was also surprised that at first both of them faced some failures.