Last fall I had the opportunity to participate on the student/faculty team responding to the The Aspen Institute’s biennial survey “Beyond Grey Pinstripes: Preparing MBAs for Social and Environmental Stewardship.” This report measures the degree to which business school curriculums incorporate environmental and social issues that impact business performance.

It was our charge to respond to the questionnaire auditing the entire SOM curriculum. For two months, we met and vigorously debated the extent to which each course was addressing environmental, social and ethical issues that will clearly be applicable in modern day business. (http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2009/10/22/BUFO1A8VO0.DTL)

SOM students are always much harder on our program than anyone else would be: Is 25% of that course truly dedicated to social impact issues? And in order for a course to satisfy 100% dedication to social, ethical or environmental issues it went through the wringer many many times. Each student had a different perspective, but ultimately the same value system.

While of course, rankings are important for the school’s reputation, we value what is behind them most of all. With that in mind, the administration left us students to determine the grades on our own.

Well, the results of our work have come in:

Yale SOM is ranked #3 overall in this year’s Beyond Grey Pinstripes biennial ranking. SOM is ranked #2 among U.S. schools; and ranked #1 in relevant coursework.  Please check out http://www.beyondgreypinstripes.org/ for more details.