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Headlines Letter to the President The re-election of George W. Bush is likely to ensure a continuation of econom- ic policies that are troubling to many business school professors across America. A month before last year's election, a group of professors at Harvard Business School in Boston, Massachusetts, composed an open letter to the president expressing their concerns about his fiscal approach. The letter ultimately was signed by 169 professors at business schools around the U.S. before it was mailed to the President on October 5. Among its concerns, the letter notes that "real GDP growth during your term is the lowest of any presidential term in recent memory. Total non-farm employment has contracted and the unem- ployment rate has increased. Bank - ruptcies are up sharply, as is our dependence on foreign capital to finance an exploding current account deficit. All three major stock indexes are lower now than at the time of your inauguration. The percentage of Americans in poverty has increased, real median income has declined, and income inequality has grown. The data make clear that your policy of slashing taxes—primarily for those at the upper reaches of the income dis- tribution—has not worked." The entire text of the letter can be found at www.openlettertothepresident.org, as can an addendum of names of people who wanted to sign the letter after the signing period was closed. HBS professors decided to write the letter because "we were discour- aged about the level of discussion of economic policy in the election cam- paign," says Louis T. Wells Jr., Her - 8 BizEd JANUARY/FEBRUARY 2005 bert F. Johnson Professor of Inter - national Management. "There were promises of tax cuts without serious discussions of the implications of tax cuts. We realized we have a lot of alumni who hold important posi- tions and who ought to be thinking about economic issues, if for no other reason than to understand how these issues affect their busi- nesses. And we wanted to reach some of them and cause them to do some serious analysis." The letter certainly drew atten- tion. A couple of weeks before the election, the Web site had had more than 50,000 hits, while the letter had been reproduced or referenced on countless other sites. The letter also was covered by media outlets such as The New York Times and CNBC. Students, too, were most supportive, sending notes and e-mails to register their approval—but the authors emphasize that the letter had no role in their classrooms. "This is a personal activity that wouldn't enter into the classroom discussion," says David A. Moss, John G. McLean Professor of Business Administration. However, he thinks it's valuable for students to see their professors standing up in support of a cause they believe in. "One of the responsibilities of every academic is to engage in public debate whenever there's an issue rel- evant to his or her work," he says. "Clearly, we as academics are sup- ported by the public, and we owe that in return." Neither Wells nor Moss expected the letter to have an impact on the outcome of the election—although they hoped it would make voters think. "If a large number of people walked into the voting booth better informed, that would have been more than we could have hoped for," says Moss. "How they voted would be up to them." When drafting the letter, the authors attempted to lay out in neu- tral terms the current state of the economy and what factors have brought it to this state, and then let readers draw their own conclusions. But to the authors, the conclusions are obvious. Harvard Business School's famous case study method teaches that there are many alterna- tive right answers, Wells notes. "But there are certain answers that are flat wrong, and we think the current eco- nomic policy is flat wrong," he says. It remains to be seen if President Bush's strategies will change after his re-election—in response to this letter or other factors. It seems clear, how- ever, that America's business school professors will be closely watching the president's economic policies during his second term in office. Women and the Workplace The attitudes that men and women hold about the workplace are explored in a new survey conducted by the Com - mittee of 200 (C200), an organiza- tion of leading women business own- ers and corporate decision makers. C200 Report: MBA and Early Career Women on Business is part of C200's "Pipeline" research, a series of surveys that explore attitudes about business on the part of women at various stages of life. The survey of 933 MBA students and 807 MBA gradu- ates was conducted for C200 by the Center for Women's Business Research. Among the findings: ■ Business students and graduates hold low opinions about major corporations, both SHAWN THEW/AP WIDE WORLD