Babcock Recognized for Excellence on Social, Environmental Issues

WINSTON-SALEM, N.C. – Wake Forest University’s Babcock Graduate School of Management has demonstrated significant leadership in integrating social and environmental issues into its MBA program, according to the Aspen Institute’s 2007-08 Beyond Grey Pinstripes, a biennial survey and alternative ranking of business schools. Babcock ranks 30th among the Global Top 100 Schools.

The Aspen Institute’s bottom line on Babcock? “Compared to other business schools in our survey, Wake Forest University offers a truly extraordinary number of courses featuring relevant content, and does an excellent job in those courses explicitly addressing how mainstream business improves the world.”

In addition to being recognized by the rankings, Babcock will be featured in the Aspen Institute’s upcoming “Alternative Guide to MBA Programs” as well as online at www.beyondgreypinstripes.org.

The Aspen Institute Center for Business Education compiled Beyond Grey Pinstripes by looking at how well social and environmental issues are incorporated into the training of future business leaders. Babcock includes relevant content in all of its 11 core courses.

“While we don’t have numerous courses dedicated solely to social and environmental issues, it is a common thread throughout our curriculum and that’s what they were looking for when they did this survey,” says Megan Glaser, second-year Babcock MBA student.

Glaser interned with the Aspen Center over the summer and compiled much of the information that went into the “Alternative Guide to MBA Programs.” “What they think is most interesting is when you have an economics class and the professor incorporates these critical issues,” she explained.

In the Beyond Grey Pinstripes survey, success is measured not by how much new MBA graduates earn or how many offers they get, said Judith Samuelson, executive director of the Aspen Institute Business and Society Program, “but by how well prepared they are to guide a company through the complex relationship of business and society, where issues relating to the environment or the well-being of a community can impact a company’s performance and reputation.”

Invitations to participate in the 2007 survey were sent out to 600-plus internationally accredited business schools with in-person, full-time MBA programs. More than 40,000 pages of data were collected from 111 schools this year — 71 institutions located in the U.S. and 40 international schools, representing 18 countries.

Babcock offers five MBA programs: full-time, evening and fast-track executive MBA programs in Winston-Salem, and evening and Saturday MBA programs in Charlotte. The school also offers a one-year MA in Management program designed specifically for recent college graduates who have majored in liberal arts and sciences and want to learn fundamentals of business and management.