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MayJune2013

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your turn by Judith F. Samuelson Putting Pinstripes in Perspective Last March, the Aspen Institute's Business and Society Program announced it was suspending the "Beyond Grey Pinstripes" report that ranks global MBA programs by how well they prepare managers to be stewards of society. Pinstripes, as it is now known, was published for the first time nearly 15 years ago when Aspen and the World Resources Institute (WRI) gave up trying to convince Businessweek and US News & World Report to include sustainability measures in their own rankings. Because we believe that business needs to take its place as a responsible global actor, we saw the mainstream rankings as a negative force—albeit, a deeply influential one. On that score, not much has changed. By fixating on salary data and satisfaction measures, the conventional rankings relegate students and recruiters to the role of passive consumers of education rather than dynamic participants and potential change agents. Their approach shortchanges the Millennials who seek to acquire the skills and build the networks that will solve sticky domestic and global problems. These rankings also undervalue the work of faculty who connect the dots between business success and the health of the commons. Back in 1998, we believed a new kind of ranking was needed. Students concerned about the role and impact of business could use this new ranking to choose where to study. Faculty and administrators could benchmark their offerings against peer institutions. The first alternative guide was published by World Resources Institute as "Grey Pinstripes with Green Ties: MBA Programs Where the Environment Matters." Aspen and WRI joined forces in 1999 and together produced the biennial survey for six years. Aspen has been the sole researcher and publisher since 2005. Response from both fans and critics suggest Pinstripes has been catalytic. Some schools used the rankings to support their plans to introduce new content to the curriculum; others used it to spark dialogue on campus. Pinstripes also helped some of our highly ranked schools recruit applicants of exceptional quality. Thus, we believe Pinstripes has achieved its goal of sparking debate and increasing awareness of the role that business education plays in promoting social responsibility. Fifteen Years of Lessons We stand poised to encourage business schools to take the next leap forward. But first it's time to ask: What have we learned from reviewing thousands of pages of syllabi and research abstracts over the past 15 years? First, change is sweeping the business education industry. Today's MBA programs do far more to prepare students for social and environmental stewardship than they did 15 years ago. In 2011, for example, we saw a 20 percent jump in content on business and society issues over the prior period. Many factors led to these changes, including leadership by forward-thinking deans, intellectual engagement by faculty, demand from students and business, and fierce competition among schools. Second, business and society courses are moving into the core. One indicator of the change is that between 2001 and 2011, the percentage of MBA programs that require students to take courses dedicated to business and society increased from 34 percent to 79 percent. Third, while the data tells us a lot about what is being taught and researched, it's challenging to measure all the factors that influence school culture. Our methodology considered the opportunity students had to take courses with social and environmental content, as well as student exposure to this content. We also reviewed faculty publications for Our most important finding is that business students are getting mixed messages. 66 May/June 2013 BizEd

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