Last week there was an exchange on ONE-L about the usefulness and fairness of the 2005 WRI/Aspen Pinstripes rankings. It was pointed out that USF-St. Petersburg (USF-STP) received the top small school award and also that the Dean at USF-STP, Ron Hill, was asked to resign from his position. The implication was that Dean Hill was asked to resign because of the USF-STP mission and in particular because of the emphasis in their mission on the natural environment. This concerns me because some ONE scholars may feel hesitant to advance the natural environment as a legitimate area of study if they think there are negative political consequences in the profession and in university settings. At this point in the development of the field, I doubt there are negative consequences associated with advancing the natural environment as a field of study anywhere, but I want to comment specifically on the situation at USF-STP and try to clear up any misunderstanding about what happened there
First, the USF-STP mission is focused on corporate social responsibility and they have a strong emphasis in their teaching and research programs on CSR. Most of their points with the Pinstripes raters, however, came from the social impact side as they have very little emphasis on the natural environment. I am aware of this because I did some consulting recently with the USF-STP faculty while they were developing their mission, preparing their application for the Pinstripes rankings, and beginning their transition to becoming an autonomous campus. (My affiliation is with the Tampa campus of USF). Second, there were a number of other issues outside of the CSR mission that led to Dean Hill falling into disfavor with USF's top administration--issues that are typical in universities when talented and well-intentioned leaders disagree about change. The details would not be interesting to members of this list or appropriate to share, but I do want to make it clear that neither the USF-STP mission nor the Pinstripes award led to Dean Hill's resignation.
John M. Jermier
University of South Florida, Tampa
----Original Message-----
From: Organizations and the Natural Environment Discussion [mailto:ONE-L@AOMLISTS.PACE.EDU]On Behalf Of Charles Wankel
Sent: Friday, November 11, 2005 9:38 AM
To: ONE-L@AOMLISTS.PACE.EDU
Subject: Re: South Florida St. Petersburg [was: RE: Pinstripes]
From: Joseph Sarkis [mailto:jsarkis@clarku.edu]
Mike,
The road is also littered with carcasses of programs, organizations, and people that did not have a vision, focus, and core competence.
-Joe S.
==============================================
Joseph Sarkis
Professor of Operations and Writing things to the ONE Listerve when he should be doing other things.
<st1:place w:st="on"><st1:placename w:st="on">Graduate</st1:placename> <st1:placetype w:st="on">School</st1:placetype></st1:place> of Management
<st1:place w:st="on"><st1:placename w:st="on">Clark</st1:placename> <st1:placetype w:st="on">University</st1:placetype></st1:place>
<st1:street w:st="on"><st1:address w:st="on">950 Main Street</st1:address></st1:street>
<st1:place w:st="on"><st1:city w:st="on">Worcester</st1:city>, <st1:state w:st="on">MA</st1:state> <st1:postalcode w:st="on">01610-1477</st1:postalcode></st1:place>
Phone: 508-793-7659
Fax: 508-793-8822
URL: www.clarku.edu/~jsarkis
jsarkis@clarku.edu
==============================================
-----Original Message-----
It's reminiscent of the Malcolm Baldridge award curse . . . focus on one thing generally comes at the detriment of other things . . . which brings us back to the important original point that it seems unwise to focus solely on environmental concerns . . . or at least it seems that way in my naive eyes.
Just to avoid any confusion, I should probably point out that I am completely independent of the USF St. Pete campus, and have no idea what's going on there.
<st1:place w:st="on"><st1:city w:st="on">University of South</st1:city> <st1:state w:st="on">Florida</st1:state></st1:place>
<st1:place w:st="on"><st1:placetype w:st="on">College</st1:placetype> of <st1:placename w:st="on">Business Administration</st1:placename></st1:place>
Department of Management & Organization
<st1:street w:st="on"><st1:address w:st="on">4202 E. Fowler Avenue</st1:address></st1:street>, BSN 3527
<st1:place w:st="on"><st1:city w:st="on">Tampa</st1:city>, <st1:state w:st="on">FL</st1:state> <st1:postalcode w:st="on">33620-5500</st1:postalcode></st1:place>
Now I see why Wharton and Harvard opted out of this Survey.
First RPI loses its program then USF loses its Dean after being recognized.
In <st1:city w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Boston</st1:place></st1:city> we had the Curse of the Bambino....
In ONE/SIM/CRS/Sustainability we have the Curse of the Pinstripes (Something
to do with Yankees either way).
-----Original Message-----
Note that the dean of the South Florida St. Petersburg business school
has recently resigned, apparently under pressure. He was active in
emphasizing corporate social responsibility.
http://chronicle.com/weekly/v52/i11/11a00901.htm
http://tinyurl.com/8675f
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Organizations and the Natural Environment Discussion
[mailto:ONE-
> L@AOMLISTS.PACE.EDU] On Behalf Of Barnett, Michael
> Sent: Thursday, November 10, 2005 1:36 PM
> To: ONE-L@AOMLISTS.PACE.EDU
> Subject: Re: Pinstripes
>
> Hi Joe. Yet another example of the problems with measurement! That's
the
> St. Pete campus that was top small school. USF has 4 campuses
(campi?),
> or more correct, had 4 campuses. The St. Pete campus recently became
(or
> is becoming) fully independent. <st1:city w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Tampa</st1:place></st1:city>, where I'm at, is the main
campus,
> and has about 33,000 of those 42,000 students I think. Bottom line:
St.
> Pete is a small school. I certainly don't fault you for falling into
that
> trap, since we try to trick you every step of the way -- USF
(University
> of South Florida) isn't really even in the south of <st1:state w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Florida</st1:place></st1:state>!
>
> -----Original Message-----
>
>
> Mike,
>
> I noticed that your school was top small school in Pinstripes. When I
go
> to
> its website, I see it has 42,000 students overall.
>
> -Joe S.
>
> -----Original Message-----
>
> I'll bite, even though I know this discussion is getting off target.
I
> didn't get out on the right, or left, side of the bed today.
>
> There's no problem with striving, even competing to improve.
Competition
> can be a good thing. It only becomes unhealthy when those striving to
do
> better try to do so through deception or destruction.
>
> The argument should be about whether or not these Pinstripe measures
can
> discern betterment from deception or destruction. I would hope my
school
> or
> any other would act on any competitive urge to do better at infusing
the
> values of sustainable development. My fear, of course, is that
they'll
> always go with the low hanging fruit or symbolic efforts. Thus, we
should
> seek measures that embrace competition, but the right kind of
competition
> --
> a race to the top, not the bottom.
>
> Best,
> Mike
>
> *********************************************
> Michael L. Barnett, PhD
> Department of Management, BSN 3527
> <st1:place w:st="on"><st1:placetype w:st="on">College</st1:placetype> of <st1:placename w:st="on">Business Administration</st1:placename></st1:place>
> <st1:place w:st="on"><st1:city w:st="on">University of South</st1:city> <st1:state w:st="on">Florida</st1:state></st1:place>
> <st1:street w:st="on"><st1:address w:st="on">4202 E. Fowler Avenue</st1:address></st1:street>
> <st1:place w:st="on"><st1:city w:st="on">Tampa</st1:city>, <st1:state w:st="on">FL</st1:state> <st1:postalcode w:st="on">33620</st1:postalcode></st1:place>
> Phone: (813) 974-1727
> Fax: (813) 974-1734
> Website: http://coba.usf.edu/barnett
> View my research on my SSRN Author page:
> <http://ssrn.com/author=414796>
>
>
> -----Original Message-----
>
>
> Andy Hoffman just pointed out the potential contradiction between the
> inclusiveness/cooperativeness of sustainable development and the
notion of
> educational programs competing to be the best at infusing these
values.
>
> I agree. I see an even more egregious contradiction between (a) the
> importance of transparency many incorporate in the notion of
> sustainability,
> and (b) the quite limited transparency about the Pinstripe methodology
> used
> to assess educational institutions and faculty pioneers.
>
>
> Mike Toffel
> Haas School of Business
> <st1:place w:st="on"><st1:placetype w:st="on">University</st1:placetype> of <st1:placename w:st="on">California</st1:placename></st1:place>
> 545 Student Services Bldg #1900
> <st1:place w:st="on"><st1:city w:st="on">Berkeley</st1:city>, <st1:state w:st="on">CA</st1:state> <st1:postalcode w:st="on">94720-1900</st1:postalcode></st1:place>
> Office: (510) 642-9949
> Cell: (510) 847-8160
> Email: toffel@haas.berkeley.edu
> http://faculty.haas.berkeley.edu/toffel/
>
>