Speaker 1: You're listening to Bloomberg Business Week with Carol Masser and
Speaker 1: Jason Kelly on Bloomberg Radio. All right, so the past
Speaker 1: two Novembers scarlet food. You may have noticed Carol and
Speaker 1: I pop up out. I have noticed you have noticed
Speaker 1: we're out at the Stanford Graduate School Business because for
Speaker 1: the past two years running, Stanford's Graduate School Business has
Speaker 1: been the number one business school according to Bloomberg Business
Speaker 1: Week Quick Flex. Jonathan Levin has been nice enough to
Speaker 1: host us there. He is the dean alongside Sarah Soul
Speaker 1: associate Dean. They're really good to have you guys with us.
Speaker 1: Next same here. So Dean Levin, I want to start
Speaker 1: with you. Tell us what it's like out there right now, uh,
Speaker 1: you know, obviously, and we'll talk a lot about some
Speaker 1: of the work that you've been doing amid these dual
Speaker 1: crises that the nation is facing. But just you know,
Speaker 1: give us a sense of what life is like. They're
Speaker 1: in palat them. Well, the weather is beautiful, and it
Speaker 1: would be a terrific summer if we weren't all walking
Speaker 1: around wearing masks and worried about social distancing. In a
Speaker 1: normal year, in the summer, we have thousands of business
Speaker 1: executives and other folks coming to campus for executive programs
Speaker 1: and all types of different summer programs that we run.
Speaker 1: Of course, all of that has been shut down this summer,
Speaker 1: and so we're running the whole range of virtual programs
Speaker 1: we have working with businesses and were running a big
Speaker 1: virtual entrepreneurship program that we just put together over the
Speaker 1: course of the last two months, the Stanford Rebuild program UM.
Speaker 1: But it's a very unusual time. There's nothing. You know,
Speaker 1: a university campus is meant to be a place with
Speaker 1: interaction and students and faculty and staff and everyone just
Speaker 1: bumping into each other, and right now it feels lonely
Speaker 1: and on your Stanford campus. Yeah, that interaction is key,
Speaker 1: and it's what contributes to the success of institutions like
Speaker 1: Stanford Graduate School of Business UH associating SOUL. I want
Speaker 1: to bring you into this conversation here because obviously, as
Speaker 1: with other universities UH, Stanford is trying to of course
Speaker 1: increase its diversity, equity and inclusion efforts, really increasing the
Speaker 1: representation of black and other disenfranchised people, not just among
Speaker 1: students but also in your faculty as well. Talk a
Speaker 1: little bit about the plan to increase racial equity. How
Speaker 1: do you go about that in this kind of environment
Speaker 1: when people cannot get together and the interaction is so
Speaker 1: artificial and stilted. Yes, thank you with Scarlett, it's really
Speaker 1: nice to meet you. Nice to meet another Cornell alum.
Speaker 1: Oh yeah, big, yes. Yes. Let me step back a
Speaker 1: little bit and say a word or two about what
Speaker 1: it is we've been working on here at the Stanford
Speaker 1: Graduate School of the no In ten, we re released
Speaker 1: our first Diversity, Equity and Inclusion Report, and one of
Speaker 1: the goals that we issued in that report for the
Speaker 1: academic year of was to spend some time studying and
Speaker 1: thinking about how we could do better as a school
Speaker 1: as an institution to learn from and um increase representation
Speaker 1: and increase a sense of an inclusion and belonging for
Speaker 1: groups that otherwise before had been underrepresented in our efforts
Speaker 1: to date. So what we've been working on really started
Speaker 1: last year, and what we're announcing today is what we're
Speaker 1: calling the Racial Equity Action Plan for the school. And
Speaker 1: as you noticed, Scarlett, one of the things that we
Speaker 1: are working on is representation in particular, and so what
Speaker 1: we are thinking about in in this particular bucket, and
Speaker 1: what we're announcing our commitment for is thinking how we
Speaker 1: can do better about bringing black and other underrepresented minority
Speaker 1: teaching faculty, staff and students to campus. And you know,
Speaker 1: as I noted, this commitment really does build on the
Speaker 1: momentum that we have had over the last couple of
Speaker 1: years around our broader diversity, equity and inclusion efforts. But
Speaker 1: in particular when we think about uh hiring of black
Speaker 1: and you r M teaching faculties, what we're thinking about
Speaker 1: doing in particular is taking advantage of an incredible UM
Speaker 1: initiative on the part of the university that Stanford University
Speaker 1: to UM to to bring ten new faculty members and
Speaker 1: ten year line faculty members to campus UM on a
Speaker 1: search that is really centered around the impacts of race
Speaker 1: in America. So that's one piece of what it is
Speaker 1: that we're working on collaborating with the university to take
Speaker 1: advantage of these new ten billets for ten year line
Speaker 1: faculty members. And then on the on the sort of
Speaker 1: lecturer side, we also have a number of UM practitioners
Speaker 1: who lecture in our classes. We're working actively with our
Speaker 1: alums and also with our our faculty to identify more
Speaker 1: black and underrepresented minority teaching faculty as well as guest
Speaker 1: speakers too, so we can make sure that we are
Speaker 1: having voices heard in the classroom and that we're able
Speaker 1: to teach issues related to race in business and race
Speaker 1: in America. Yeah, and I find that so interesting, you know,
Speaker 1: and Jonathan, the the integration into the curriculum as it were,
Speaker 1: I find really interesting here. And you've even got some
Speaker 1: new courses that you're going to be offering. Tell us
Speaker 1: about that. I think one of the topics that we've
Speaker 1: spent a lot of time thinking about in in our
Speaker 1: curriculum over the last few years has been generally preparing
Speaker 1: students to go out and be effective managers and leaders
Speaker 1: in uh in diverse organizations, and to help build organizational
Speaker 1: cultures and be the effective in leading in the world
Speaker 1: where the country has become more diverse and and the
Speaker 1: need for businesses to create widespread opportunity in many different
Speaker 1: ways has become increasingly important and is on everyone's minds.
Speaker 1: And so that's that's been something that Sarah just mentioned.
Speaker 1: We've thought about in what sort of cases our faculty
Speaker 1: or writing in terms of the guest speakers, they're bringing
Speaker 1: and so forth. And and interestingly, when the when the
Speaker 1: pandemic arrived and we had to move very quickly into
Speaker 1: virtual teaching in the spring UM, we had the opportunity
Speaker 1: to create some new classes. We created a Civic Workshop
Speaker 1: class where the students developed ideas to to around the pandemic.
Speaker 1: We created a new Business and Society class, which is
Speaker 1: a lack sure series virtual lestages. We bring people in
Speaker 1: from around the world to speak to the students. Wonderful
Speaker 1: thing about virtual learning is you can you can bring
Speaker 1: in guests regardless of graphic boundaries. Phenomenal And Sarah, I
Speaker 1: want to pick up the conversation with you because I
Speaker 1: was reminded as I was getting ready for this, I mean,
Speaker 1: this is really part of your all of your jobs
Speaker 1: in many ways, is understanding all of this when it
Speaker 1: comes to social movements. And I remember talking to you
Speaker 1: about this in a totally different context when we visited
Speaker 1: last November. Then we were talking about sort of the
Speaker 1: social movements around the use of technology. Now we're talking
Speaker 1: about something very different in many ways and yet adjacent
Speaker 1: to that. I do wonder when you look at Silicon
Speaker 1: Valley and certainly Stanford and the business school's prominent place there.
Speaker 1: What do you make of Silicon Valley's broader role in
Speaker 1: these discussions around equality, because, as you know, probably better
Speaker 1: than I, the reviews haven't been awesome when it comes
Speaker 1: to diversity across the tech industry. That's a really wonderful question, Jason.
Speaker 1: And one of the goals that we have at the
Speaker 1: Graduate School of Business is to impact and make positive
Speaker 1: change beyond the g SB and that includes most approximately
Speaker 1: the Silicon Valley, and we aim to do this in
Speaker 1: a number of different ways. One of the things that
Speaker 1: we are working on actively is the g SB Racial
Speaker 1: Equity Initiative, which is going to be in partnership with
Speaker 1: our alumni, many of whom are here in Silicon Valley,
Speaker 1: and the goal of this is to increase representation, strength,
Speaker 1: and leadership and foster economic conclusion beyond the campus and again,
Speaker 1: as I said, most approximately here in the Silicon Valley.
Speaker 1: So that's one of the ways that we hope to
Speaker 1: help to help the companies here in Silicon Valley. The
Speaker 1: other thing that we're doing actively right now is collaborating
Speaker 1: with the Stanford VM where Women's Leadership Lab on a
Speaker 1: number of different tool kits and trainings that we're developing
Speaker 1: in conjunction with the lab, but which will become part
Speaker 1: of the training for all of the corporate partners in
Speaker 1: that lab. Now, while the lab is focused on gender
Speaker 1: representation and gender equality, they're more broadly focused on diversity,
Speaker 1: equity and inclusion. And like most organizations right now are
Speaker 1: focusing on racial justice and racial equity. And so those
Speaker 1: are just some of the ways that we hope we
Speaker 1: can impact our local area, but our global area of
Speaker 1: the global arena as well. I want to pose my
Speaker 1: question to Dean Levin. I mean, obviously, increasing diversity is
Speaker 1: a huge priority for for universities, for companies. I wonder, though,
Speaker 1: are you expanding your class size to bring to be
Speaker 1: able to bring more underrepresented minorities on campus or are
Speaker 1: you are you still looking at the same class sizes.
Speaker 1: And this matters because otherwise it becomes a zero sum situation.
Speaker 1: Are more spaces open up for a certain group of people,
Speaker 1: but that means others that might not might have been
Speaker 1: able to get in are no longer able to get in.
Speaker 1: So wonderful question in terms of thinking about the some
Speaker 1: of the trade us that can arise in thinking about
Speaker 1: class composition at the Stanford gsb our class size has
Speaker 1: increased gradually over time, at a at a at a
Speaker 1: continuous rate, and so we have been able to have
Speaker 1: more students being our NBA classes and our one year
Speaker 1: master's and sex program over time, and that has helped
Speaker 1: to broaden the set of people who have who have access.
Speaker 1: And there are opportunities through some of the programs that
Speaker 1: we also run that are non degree programs. For example,
Speaker 1: we run an online program, the Lead Program, which now
Speaker 1: has hundreds of participants every year, to to reach more people.
Speaker 1: And and that's a way by providing broader access to
Speaker 1: the Business School that we're able to reach more people
Speaker 1: and all different types of people, and and that that
Speaker 1: really helps when your goal is to to create more
Speaker 1: access for different groups. All right, before we let you
Speaker 1: guys go on, only got a couple of minutes left, uh,
Speaker 1: Dean Levin, where are we when it comes to getting
Speaker 1: folks back to campus this fall? Given the backdrop that
Speaker 1: you're seeing in California, but also taking into account you are,
Speaker 1: by all means a very international school with a global
Speaker 1: footprint and a global population. It's a great question everyone
Speaker 1: once to know the answer. We're all trying to figure
Speaker 1: it out. We're in a mode right now where we're
Speaker 1: we're planning for contingencies. So we have had a plan
Speaker 1: to bring our students back to campus to have a
Speaker 1: hybrid learning environment where there's a mix of in person
Speaker 1: and virtual learning. We are like everyone up when you're
Speaker 1: waiting for the state to provide guidance around what will
Speaker 1: be possible and allowed and our county, San Clair County
Speaker 1: to do the same, and we'll have to operate within
Speaker 1: the bounds of those regulations. So we're also preparing for
Speaker 1: an eventuality where we would be doing virtual learning as
Speaker 1: a backup plan. And I think you know, our focus
Speaker 1: is that whatever rules were given by the state and
Speaker 1: the county, the public health rules, we will we will
Speaker 1: do everything we can to create a wonderful, immersive, interactive
Speaker 1: environment for our students. And I think our students are
Speaker 1: committed to that, or faculty are committed to that. We're
Speaker 1: gonna no matter how we end up this spool, we're
Speaker 1: going to end up doing a lot of innovation because
Speaker 1: it's going to be uncharted territory and we're gonna we're
Speaker 1: gonna rely on the innovation of our community and the
Speaker 1: good will of our community to get through it, and
Speaker 1: I'm confident we'll have a great quarter no matter how
Speaker 1: it how it plays out all right, well, we look
Speaker 1: forward to visiting with you in per since someday, some
Speaker 1: way or another. Jonathan Levin is the dean of the
Speaker 1: Stanford Graduate School of Business. Business along with Sarah soul
Speaker 1: she is Associate Dean Professor of sociology organizational management as
Speaker 1: well organizational behavior. Excuse me, uh, really good to catch
Speaker 1: up with them.