[LCM Articles] From The Economist

[Fadi P. Kanaan]

News from the schools


Feb 14th 2007
>From The Economist print edition

General admission

Controversy is brewing at Harvard Business School over one of its alumni.
Gabriel Ashkenazi graduated from HBS's eight-week-long Advanced Management
Programme in 2004. Recently appointed head of the Israel Defence Forces
(IDF), General Ashkenazi has been accused by some on campus of overseeing
human rights abuses during Israel's occupation of southern Lebanon. The
general, who is portrayed as a moderate in Israel's press, has not been
charged with wrongdoing in Israel or abroad. But that hasn't stopped
activists from questioning HBS's admissions standards (the alleged abuses
occurred before Mr Ashkenazi came to Harvard). 

The disagreement raises interesting questions over how schools make their
admissions decisions. Sandy Kreisberg, an admissions consultant who follows
HBS closely, thinks schools should avoid giving politically-motivated groups
any sway over their decisions. "It would mean second-guessing military
admits from scores of countries, including America," said Mr Kreisberg.

Harvard's Ivy League rival, Yale University, provides a cautionary tale. The
school faced an uproar last year when it was revealed that a former Taliban
spokesman, Sayed Rahmatullah Hashemi, had been admitted to a non-degree
programme. Conservatives in the Wall Street Journal and on cable news shows
hauled Yale over the coals, and one alumnus launched a campaign to cut off
donations to the school. In July 2006 Mr Rahmatullah's application to one of
Yale's degree-granting programmes was rejected.

 

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