Social contract? Prompted by a grant from a former Starbucks executive, the graduate schools of business and social work at the University of Washington are collaborating to consider how the workplace can best balance the needs of employers and employees. The Seattle Post-Intelligencer reports that the idea for the course came from Howard Behar, who directed the Starbucks North American operations; Behar gave UW $250,000 to fund the course’s first three years. The goal is to help students with diverse academic interests develop a common understanding of the complex connections between what companies need to do to both turn a profit and take care of their employees.
Marketing with character. “Reality Check” brands the clever marketing campaign for the Tepper School of Business at Carnegie-Mellon University (see www.mbarealitycheck.com). The most recent phase of the campaign urges would-be MBA students to investigate the “character” of a business school—or what John Mather, Tepper’s executive director of master’s programs, calls “the attributes a school chooses to express,” elements that “reveal its viewpoints and values.” Online and in printed Reality Check materials, Tepper faculty, staff, students, and alumni speak to the characteristics that they believe make the school unique. Earlier, the Reality Check campaign considered the implications of how success is defined and how students develop confidence.
Food for thought. A company started by two MBAs from the University of California Berkeley and dedicated to putting fresh, nutritional food in school cafeterias took the $25,000 grand prize in this year’s Global Social Venture Competition, based at Berkeley. Kristin Richmond-Gross and Kirsten Tobey, 2006 MBA graduates from Berkeley’s Haas School of Business, started Revolution Foods (www.revfoods.com) with an eye toward getting schools to trade mystery meat for couscous. Their company has introduced a healthier, largely organic diet to half a dozen pilot schools. They also provide nutrition education. So far, they’ve also been able to keep prices competitive, pay their employees well, and attract venture capital from J.P. Morgan.
Community outreach. Columbia Business School has started a collaboration with Harlem Children’s Zone (HCZ), a social service organization. Among other activities, Columbia will offer slots in its management education programs to HCZ executives and managers, plus management consulting from faculty; students in Columbia’s Social Enterprise Program will get internships with HCZ.
Follow the Money… The head of Dubai, Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, is donating $10 billion to establish a Middle East educational foundation devoted in part to encouraging entrepreneurship….With a $2.5 million gift from businessman David O. Nichols, the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee will create an “applied finance lab,” where students will access high-tech equipment and databases that professional money managers use….On the heels of the Kentucky Derby, the University of Pittsburgh announced that it had picked up a $1 million gift from alumnus James B. Tafel, who owns Derby-winner Street Sense….At Dartmouth, students faculty, staff, and alumni of the Tuck School of Business raised $129,270 for Tuck GIVES, an annual student-organized event that generates funds to support Tuck student summer internships in nonprofit organizations and the public sector.
New Programs… Bridging “the gap between the ‘creatives’ and the ‘suits,’” New York University’s Stern School of Business teamed up with NYU’s highly regarded film and television school to offer a new joint MBA/MFA degree for film producers…The University of California-Irvine’s Paul Merage School of Business has announced that it will start offering undergraduate courses next fall…The Stephen M. Ross School of Business at the University of Michigan announced that, starting in the fall of 2008, it will offer a new master’s degree program in supply chain management…This fall, the Rotman School of Management at the University of Toronto will launch what it calls “the world’s first morning MBA program.” Classes in the three-year program will meet Tuesdays and Thursdays from 7:00 to 8:59 a.m. (on the dot)...Harvard Business School is starting a new executive education program to help corporate leaders link corporate social responsibility with business performance. The program, “Corporate Social Responsibility: Strategies to Create Business and Social Value,” will be offered this fall.
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