Changing the Taboo

1. Changing the Taboo GBC 2012

2. Race • Consortium • Aggression towards Consortium students because of general lack of information about what Consortium is and what it’s about • Based on incident a year ago • Great student, great job candidate, but was kicked out of school • People were upset and used this incident to show that Consortium is causing problems • Caused many issues that people wanted to address as a race issue and race problem driven by the Consortium being on campus • Problem with Consortium seems to be with second year students who were not exposed to it in first year • Town hall meetings do not work for addressing the race issue because they have ended in yelling and arguing, without truly addressing the issues in a productive manner

3. Admissions • Low yield of females, African Americans and Latin American studentsnot a very diverse student body • Different identity groups holding their own “admissions” days to encourage diversity, embrace these differences, and show perspective students that these communities are strong there • Having a lack of diversity in the student body may perpetuate further lack of diversity, especially if perspective students are seeing homogenized student body, may drive strong candidates away to other schools

4. Rankings • How change in rankings effect morale • A lot of people don’t understand the methodology for rankings • How can students affect rankings? How can administration affect rankings? • Impact on how responsible reporting of statistics affects rankings into the official systems to best reflect most current information • Information in the rankings and rankings themselves are a lagging indicator • Concern that rankings and trying to improve rankings could affect culture • What can students change?: attitude. • Business Week Rankings • Student surveys must be filled out objectively, and school administrators are not allowed to try to influence the surveys • Chasing rankings is the wrong mentality; however, there are things you can do to try to improve what is in your control

5. Unpopular, tenured professors • How do you approach student body who are displeased with tenured faculty? • Need to talk to the right people within the schools to affect this problem-->work with people who are involved with scheduling class • How do you get around excuses from the faculty and administrators so that there is accountability in the system

6. International Students • Brad, University of Illinois; Alaina, University of Toronto; Rich, University of Maryland; Robert, Georgia Institute of Technology; Tyler, Foster; Bobby, Simon; Sam, Case Western • Case Western: International population – concentrated international groups, bringing all these groups together has different levels of expectations as far as academic integrity, formality, dress; certain traits become associated with certain groups  problems establishing a baseline at the school regardless of your backgroundHave tried “taboo speaker” international management consultant came in and did a presentation during orientation to throw everything out on the table to start out with, i.e. stigmas of not wanting to look stupid by answering questions – both to bring those to light for other students and to let the students know; Reading comprehension classes with a TA from that international population to help manage that in a smaller subset

7. Acedemic Integrity • Academic integrity seems to be a key issue, perhaps within some groups more than others; domestic students have issue with this, very strict guidelines that they have come to knowThinks the school needs to essentially follow through on expectations, signed document that says you can get kicked out for academic dishonesty; even blatant violations don’t result in this; would create a very visual message, example, otherwise the message is that there are no ramifications for this type of behaviorMany things designed to catch this issue: turnitin which helps find resubmissions from prior people or things taken directly offline; professor takes this information and can bring it to the board or they can settle the violation themselves – this is not standardizedWriting classes address both grammatical issues but also get everyone on the same page of citing everything and howAcademically focused, how does the government plan to deal with this; student government constitution was redone to emphasize things like the board and the academic committee membership; “can we change the way that we introduce the subject of academic integrity and the code of conduct to students?” one method: everyone is together in this but it is a self-reporting thing – if I see something I turn it in, and if I don’t, then that is essentially me cheating as well “ownership”; other schools seem to work within small cohorts crafting their own document of conduct that you then say out loud (more powerful)

8. Acedemic Integrity • University of Maryland – not enforced uniformly, but there exists an honor pledge that you must rewrite on every exam or assignment – more powerful than simply writing it down • Toronto – part of the battle is how you package it during presentation during orientation; seldom a one-person thing • Case Western – procedure is in place to actually dismiss students, even for a period of time, if this is found to be happening; administrative and student board who decides outcomes – fail the class, asked to leave the school  the issue is that, there is no established bar of “if you do this, this will happen” since things like completely turning in someone else’s paper has happened without other ramifications than failing the class • Foster - Honor Council as a student/teacher government; when there is an infraction you have to sit before the Honor Council that determines your outcomes; a peer group passing judgment (as opposed to an ad-hoc group that deals with something that comes up) • Georgia Tech – there is an Honor Code that envelopes the entire university; there is an honor code board run by students and faculty; once it is reported to the Honor Code representative (knows answers about any gray areas) it is immediately passed on to a third party board so it is out of the MBA-level and is given to the university level to deal with; when the university as a whole is involved, it is almost more ominous; specifically address other cultural differences in the ways of thinking “that’s just how it’s done” so it’s not perceived as wrong, you have to change this fundamental way of thinking • Autonomy versus need for policing

9. Rankings • How is the topic of rankings approached, how much education is provided as to what they mean, etc. Some rankings deal directly with student satisfaction surveys – do you communicate students to do this? • Case Western – lack of responses creates rolling ramifications; held an educational campaign – NOT coaching someone to say things that are untrue, but rather education on the importance, and that results are used in a meaningful way; the value of the degree comes after you leave, so if your school could be better ten years after you leave, this helps it appreciate in value – need to participate now to help the school build itself to be better both internally and externally; students AND alumni need to fill them out; also educate them on high-level ways in which the rankings work • Georgia – dropped four spots (for second year) so receiving a lot of feedback/concern from students • Foster – talk to UCLA; they have a Town Hall structure to inform students, did a Town Hall on rankings, how the systems work, i.e. that responses alone help improve rankings • Maryland – recently held a Town Hall where the Director of Marketing Communications discussed how the surveys worked, how the rankings work, not instructions but rather which factors play the biggest part into rankings dropping/ increasing; had decent participation because it was specifically advertised to be on this topic

10. Class Room Behavior • Classroom behavior: showing up late to class • Toronto – professor can lock the door after a certain period of time; win & lose; can come in at the break still; start the year very punctually but becomes more lax throughout the year • Georgia – one time slot, the same people; impossible to enter and exit quietly • Illinois – when someone comes in late, the professor starts completely over from the beginning of the presentation; not beneficial to the rest of the class  becomes a social stigma; if the professor doesn’t get through all the slides, too bad, you move on the next time; on the one end, you’re punishing those who are there • Case Western – teachers individually trying to deal with things (quizzes, waiting for you to sit down before continuing speaking), held a meeting to discuss the issue and no one showed up; irony of the people that are there are the ones who don’t need to hear it • Maryland – longer classes create a more laidback atmosphere i.e. it is okay to get up and go to the bathroom, if someone shows up late it’s pretty laid back, they just essentially assume everyone has a reason and it gets ignored; professors will dock participation points for those who show up late • Georgia – even if you have to come in late, doing it in a rude way (i.e. slamming doors) • Idea of public guilt from the rest of the class? Deeper issue of if the degree means less they don’t care as much

11. Job Entitlement • Jobs: sense of entitlement, expecting to get a job, expecting the job just coming from the Career Services to them • Maryland – had a student engagement meeting to determine how to improve job placement, etc – turned into student demands from the Career Services center; how do you deal with that this is NOT a job service? Complaints that the CS is “not doing enough” • Illinois – first day of orientation, point out that they are here to help but it’s all on the student to put the effort in; essentially pass on information that the students can use to their advantage or not; different responses to this – get out what you put in, give idea of complete ownership which avoids the entitlement aspect • Maryland – how do you reply to students and say, “well what have YOU been doing on your own”; career-specific coaches, soft-skill improvement, mock-interviews with alumni – and then students don’t show up • Illinois – each student lists out 5 companies they want to work for, Career Services takes this list and reaches out to these companies if they can, especially when there is a large interest; also puts it into the students’ hands of that it’s their job • Georgia – class on career search/career services during first quarter – once a week workshop about resume development, career fair coaching, mock interviews; career coaches are placed with student for their entire time at school, and meetings start before they even show up (June/July before arriving on campus); helps to set the tone as part of the curriculum, pass/fail • Toronto – week-long class between first- and second-quarter entirely about careers, networking, that other clubs may cover but this offers a career services look at it – still instills a sense of entitlement; students need to realize they need to go TO the career services with their specific goals, ideas, needs • Georgia – ten interactions and constant interaction with one person creates a certain comfort level • Illinois – time blocked off on Fridays for career events, sign up online for events that are happening • Toronto – if you sign up for something and don’t show up twice, you can no longer sign up for things; being strict plays against the sense of entitlement • Case Western – accessibility is important, tailoring the discussion to your needs; touch points from informal “Express Advising” time slots – representatives sitting in the café for a few hours, you can just go up and have a quick conversation; they are more visible, more approachable, less of a structured thing, pushes back on the students

12. Misc. • Giving • How do we address alumni giving so that it can bolster school finances, and hopefully improve rankings through positive effects • Power in the schools • Tenured faculty hold the power in the school, not the administrators (deans) • How create transparency and accountability with administrators and faculty • Town hall meetings should involve administrators and faculty to best create sense of urgency in order to make significant changes in program • Solving problems within the school: • Urgency • Create transparency • With transparency, create accountability • Grade disclosure