商学院学生在抗议时代发声

When Keith Scott was shot and killed by a policeman in North Carolina in September, Matt Bubley felt compelled to rally his fellow students at Dartmouth College’s Tuck School of Business.

去年9月，当基思•斯科特(Keith Scott)在北卡罗来纳州被一名警察击毙时，马特•布勃利(Matt Bubley)认为自己有必要把他在达特茅斯学院(Dartmouth College)塔克商学院(Tuck School of Business)的同学们召集起来。

The second year MBA student and intern at McKinsey, the management consultancy, says he was surprised by the level of support from classmates. Three-hundred students — close to half of those enrolled at the school — joined a demonstration on the front steps of Tuck’s main campus building against police violence towards black people.

当时布勃利正就读MBA课程的第二年，在管理咨询机构麦肯锡(McKinsey)实习。他称，他对同学们的热情支持感到惊讶。300名学生——将近塔克商学院在校学生的一半——加入了在塔克主校园教学楼前台阶进行的示威活动，抗议警方针对黑人的暴力行为。

“Most of the student body, like me, are white, so I was moved by how many people turned up,” Mr Bubley says. “It is a feeling that business people ought to be concerned about what goes on in the broader world around them.”

“多数学生和我一样，都是白皮肤，所以这么多人现身令我十分感动，”布勃利称，“感觉商业人士应该关心周遭这个更大的世界所发生的事情。”

Business schools have not traditionally been regarded as hotbeds of activism. Even at the height of US civil rights protests in the 1960s, when students on campuses such as University of California, Berkeley, battled with police, those on MBA courses were conspicuous by their absence, according to staff and alumni.

在人们的传统印象中，商学院对行动主义不甚热衷。据商学院的教工和校友称，即便是在上世纪60年代美国民权抗议最火热的时期——当时加州大学伯克利分校(University of California, Berkeley)等学校的学生都在与警方抗衡——MBA课程的学生也显眼地缺席于抗议活动。

But political events of the past few years, including the policies of President Donald Trump and concerns about gender equality, have changed the mood among many studying at top business schools both in the US and Europe.

但过去几年发生的政治事件，包括美国总统唐纳德•特朗普(Donald Trump)的政策和有关性别平等的关切，改变了很多美国和欧洲顶级商学院在校生的心态。

The shift reflects the world of business, where leaders such as Bill Gates and Mark Zuckerberg use their positions to push for change in healthcare and the environment, according to Bill Boulding, dean of Duke University’s Fuqua School of Business.

据杜克大学(Duke University)富卡商学院(Fuqua School of Business)院长比尔•博尔丁(Bill Boulding)表示，这一转变反映了整个商界的变化——比尔•盖茨(Bill Gates)和马克•扎克伯格(Mark Zuckerberg)等商业领袖正利用他们的地位来推动医疗和环境方面的改变。

Students are disappointed with the political process in effecting social change, Mr Boulding notes. “MBA students are recognising that they have a strong voice in society and that business provides a platform for addressing many issues,” he says.

博尔丁指出，学生们对促成社会变革的政治进程感到失望。他称，“MBA学生正逐渐认识到，他们的声音在社会中是有分量的，商业提供了一个平台，可以解决很多问题。”

Mr Bubley agrees. “We have done a lot of work on racial justice in the classroom, and people see that it is important to business,” he says, noting that implicit bias awareness testing is now part of the core leadership curriculum.

布勃利对此表示赞同。“我们在课堂上做了很多种族平等方面的研究，同时人们意识到这对业务经营很重要，”他称，并提到，对内隐偏见的认知测试如今是核心领导力课程的一部分。

Another reason why MBA students are willing to campaign is efforts by schools to broaden their appeal beyond people hoping to fast-track careers in investment banking and consultancy, to executives from the public sector and not-for-profits. Increasing numbers of applicants put “social impact” goals in their business school applications, according to Paul Bodine, founder of Admitify, the MBA admissions consultancy.

MBA学生愿意参与这些活动的另一个原因是，在吸引那些希望通过进入投行或咨询公司走上职业快车道的人之外，学校还努力吸引公共部门和非营利机构的高级管理者。据MBA招生咨询公司Admitify的创始人保罗•博丁(Paul Bodine)表示，越来越多的申请者在商学院申请材料中提到了“社会影响力”目标。

Theo Grzegorczyk, who worked as a local field organiser on Barack Obama’s 2008 presidential campaign before moving into television production, is in the final year of an MBA at Berkeley’s Haas School of Business.

西奥•格热戈尔奇克(Theo Grzegorczyk)正在伯克利哈斯商学院(Haas School of Business)读最后一年。他曾是2008年巴拉克•奥巴马(Barack Obama)总统竞选团队中一名地方现场组织者，后来进入电视制片行业。

When he learnt in January that an Iranian student in his MBA class might not be able to return to campus because her homeland was listed in Mr Trump’s first attempted travel ban, Mr Grzegorczyk wrote an open letter of protest to the school’s dean, which attracted 1,000 student signatures in 24 hours.

当1月他得知，MBA同班的伊朗同学可能因伊朗被列入特朗普首次旅游禁令的国家名单而无法重返学校时，格热戈尔奇克给院长写了一封公开抗议信。这封信在24小时内吸引了1000名学生的签名。

Many signatories were studying for business and management qualifications other than the MBA, but those on Mr Grzegorczyk’s course were a driving force in getting people to sign, he says.

格热戈尔奇克表示，当时很多署名学生都是攻读商业和管理学位、而非MBA的，但发动人们签名的主要是与他同课程的学生。

“We are a tight-knit community of 250 students at the full-time MBA programme at Haas,” Mr Grzegorczyk says.

格热戈尔奇克称，“我们这250名在哈斯就读MBA全日制课程的同学是一个紧密的集体。”

Tiffany Smith, a final-year MBA student at Kellogg School of Management, recently co-founded MBAs Open Up, an online platform that aims to help those organising business school protests.

蒂法尼•史密斯(Tiffany Smith)是在凯洛格商学院(Kellogg School of Management)读MBA最后一年的学生。他最近与其他人一起联合创办了在线平台MBAs Open Up，该平台旨在帮助那些在商学院组织抗议的人。

Her undergraduate degree was supported by Management Leadership for Tomorrow, a not-for-profit body helping minorities to access higher education, something Ms Smith claims fostered a desire to help others.

非营利机构“明日管理领袖”(Management Leadership for Tomorrow)资助她完成了本科学位，史密斯称这件事促使她想要帮助其他人。“明日管理领袖”旨在帮助少数群体获得高等教育。

Not everyone in Ms Smith’s MBA class is so eager to take a stand. “Some people want to help but don’t know how. Others would rather not be involved.”

并非史密斯MBA班上的每个人都那么积极参与。“一些人想帮忙，但不知道怎么帮。其他人宁愿不掺和进来。”

Political activism brought Winnie Fuchs to London Business School. She was choosing between MBA offers when the school invited her to attend a weekend conference on gender equality organised by Women in Business, the student lobbying group, held on the Regents Park campus.

政治行动主义让温妮•富克斯(Winnie Fuchs)来到了伦敦商学院(London Business School，LBS)。当伦敦商学院邀请她参加一场由“商界女性”(Women in Business)学生游说团体在摄政公园(Regent Park)校区举办的关于性别平等的周末会议时，她正在两份MBA录取通知书中抉择。

Ms Fuchs is now co-president of the LBS Women in Business Club, which encouraged students to attend the recent women’s march through London, part of a global demonstration to show opposition to misogynistic comments by President Trump.

富克斯现在是伦敦商学院“商业俱乐部中的女性”(LBS Women in Business Club)的联席会长。该组织鼓励学生参加了最近伦敦的女性游行活动，该活动是全球反对特朗普歧视女性的言论的示威活动的一部分。

She admits that the group did not march in an official LBS capacity. “We wore LBS backpacks but we didn’t make a banner.” But she stresses the wider value of campus activism to the MBA experience.

她承认，该组织并没有正式以伦敦商学院的身份游行。“我们背了伦敦商学院的背包，但我们没有做横幅。”但她强调了校园行动主义对于MBA课程体验的更广泛价值。

“The current political environment has taught us to be more vocal about our opinions,” Ms Fuchs says. “At LBS, that means students seek out the discussion with others.”

“目前的政治环境告诉我们，要更响亮地表达我们的观点，”富克斯称，“在伦敦商学院，这意味着学生主动与其他人讨论。”