Why Academics?
Robert Henry
Issue date: 10/15/01 Section: Opinions
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This article started as an opinion piece on Academic Recognition, but I just couldn’t write about my opinions anymore. Instead, I found myself writing about my principles and explaining my positions--and I realized what really needed to be said.
At the second year class meeting and over email, I’ve argued very openly that commitment to academics is a choice like any other here at the business school, and achievement in this field should be recognized and celebrated as we celebrate other achievements. I reason that the private knowledge of where one stands is the ideal intrinsic motivation, greater than any external reward. I have stated that competitive aspects of academics are beneficial to the school because of the collectively higher level of performance; I believe the strong, collaborative culture exists not in the absence of academic emphasis but in the presence of the phenomenal people that compose this community.
Given my emphasis on the benefit of intrinsic drive over external recognition, I have no trouble supporting the desire for nondisclosure to recruiters, but I do take issue with constraints on how we handle information internally. The premise that by “not looking” we are enhancing our community hinges on the idea that academics are second to many other aspects of this school, and I fundamentally disagree. The Stanford Graduate School of Business is all about academics--our mission is to be the world's leading school of management education--so the notion that we need not focus on academic pursuit and achievement is simply inconsistent with our purpose here.
After two weeks of debate, voting, strife, and frustration, I have concluded that I care about academics a great deal while others consider it a secondary purpose of the GSB experience. I do not expect to change others’ opinions in one article, but I feel compelled to explain why my convictions are so strong. Academics have provided opportunity to make choices and changes in life impossible in any other arena, and have allowed me to become the person I am today. I am as loyal to it as it has been to me--and I will tell you why:
At the second year class meeting and over email, I’ve argued very openly that commitment to academics is a choice like any other here at the business school, and achievement in this field should be recognized and celebrated as we celebrate other achievements. I reason that the private knowledge of where one stands is the ideal intrinsic motivation, greater than any external reward. I have stated that competitive aspects of academics are beneficial to the school because of the collectively higher level of performance; I believe the strong, collaborative culture exists not in the absence of academic emphasis but in the presence of the phenomenal people that compose this community.
Given my emphasis on the benefit of intrinsic drive over external recognition, I have no trouble supporting the desire for nondisclosure to recruiters, but I do take issue with constraints on how we handle information internally. The premise that by “not looking” we are enhancing our community hinges on the idea that academics are second to many other aspects of this school, and I fundamentally disagree. The Stanford Graduate School of Business is all about academics--our mission is to be the world's leading school of management education--so the notion that we need not focus on academic pursuit and achievement is simply inconsistent with our purpose here.
After two weeks of debate, voting, strife, and frustration, I have concluded that I care about academics a great deal while others consider it a secondary purpose of the GSB experience. I do not expect to change others’ opinions in one article, but I feel compelled to explain why my convictions are so strong. Academics have provided opportunity to make choices and changes in life impossible in any other arena, and have allowed me to become the person I am today. I am as loyal to it as it has been to me--and I will tell you why: