This is a problem that has been expressed by students and faculty alike: we simply know so little about where this school is heading. the strategic plan that Babson currently has available publicly is from 2003. (Plus, it doesn’t mention anything about helping out poor kids – so if you’re poor, theres no room for you at Babson.) in this age of business schools (and I’m sure barefoot would certainly agree) things change very fast. when you’re a student, or a faculty member, at a school like Babson, which tells you practically nothing about how or why they’re changing (or not changing) … well, then you feel like you’re riding Wonka’s boat ride in the Charlie and the chocolate factory:

there’s no knowing where we’re rowing
or which way the river’s flowing
is it raining?
is it snowing?
is a hurricane a-blowing?
not a speck of light is showing
so the the danger must be growing

With that in mind, i got an interesting email this week from barefoot (a very rare occurrence.) Guess what, friends, we’re getting suggestion boxes. finally, it seems, that barefoot is getting the message: the administration needs to communicate more (and not just to the SGA.) and, i really have to be honest – these boxes seem to be part of a recent, positive trend in the administration. they are communicating more, i assure you. and i am not drinking (heavily.)

but these boxes are a somewhat trite way of going about it. i mean, thanks – i will certainly use them. but it’s painfully obvious that this is the perfect solution for the administration. we write down their dirty little secrets and put them in a dark box and then we have no idea whether or not they are listened to or acted on or whatever. the administration loves these little boxes, especially those made of ticky-tacky that can withhold the rather (human) fact that they might not have implemented the best education system possible. (or, to put it graphically, fucked up magnificently.)

these boxes do very little to solve the problem with our administration: there’s still ‘not a speck of light is showing / so the danger must be growing.’ and yes, barefoot does say that they will announce the suggestion box results through SGA – but quite frankly, i don’t trust this administration at all. i don’t think they have the balls to come out and say that they did a poor job at anything. we will only hear about the ‘feel good’ stories, the same preprocessed, glossy bullshit that duped me into coming to babson in the first place. (fuck. i should have gone to Bentley.) what babson really needs to do is post every single suggestion received on a public board in a high traffic area. the entire community deserves to see how everybody else feels, this is one of the founding principles of crapcampus and the reason why we get read.

(oh, and here’s a tip. I’d contribute twice as many ideas to the suggestions boxes if you offered monetary incentive. if you’re going to make your customers do your work at least pay them for it.)

the administration currently shies away from this sort of public discourse such as facebook or this website. they feel a lot more comfortable in their offices that smell of rich mahogany and contain many leather-bound books. and quite frankly, if they did adopt a more transparent mentality, then they would let the cat out of the bag.

i was fortunate enough to actually hear about this cat through a phone interview with none other than the captain of our ship, president barefoot. well, not me personally, i fed questions through a friend – clark kent’s got to keep his day job after all. the main theme that i got from this discussion is that the current administration does not know what to do.

that’s right, i said it. the administration does not know what to do. i heard barefoot say this.

now, i’m sure barefoot will spin it his way, and really – i’m hoping someone will prove me wrong. can anyone at babson show me that they have a strategy over the next few years? can ANYONE tell me how babson plans to change next year? how they plan to deal with the disaster that is trim? why so many people don’t donate to this school? why nobody attends the OCL events? why knight parties aren’t even worth the free beer? why our tuition increases yet the service we receive declines? please, for the love of God, post your strategy and prove me wrong. i dare you. nay, i double dare you – because i don’t have my pride on the line, i have thousands of dollars of student loans on the line. please prove to me that i didn’t make a huge financial mistake by attending this school.

i know that the problems facing babson today are monumental, even threatening the very existence of babson as a certified educational institution. executive education, the for-profit company that our non-profit tuition dollars are boot-straping, is not helping babson. executive education teachers can’t teach in our class, our professors can’t teach in their classes. not because they can’t, because they just need different kinds of professors. the office of campus life has done a consistent, astonishingly terrible job for 3 years straight (arline maccormack: i’m looking at you.) i am downright disgusted by the fact that they still have jobs. really. (rachel rieser: you’re a super star, though.)

but above all that bullshit, the one thing that struck me as so amazingly ignorant is that barefoot doesn’t really give a shit about the quality of life at the undergrad school. it’s not even on his list of priorities. i just couldn’t get over this one. i couldn’t believe that the president of the school isn’t even concerned that the majority of it’s students are unhappy at babson. i’ll argue to the death that quality of life is the single most important factor (maybe tied with academics) in the undergrad’s perception of how well babson is doing. even more importantly, the babson graduate primarily uses this quality of life perception to figure out how much to donate, or – in my case, and many of my friends, to not ever donate to babson. (although, i am very much enamored by the idea of donating 1 dollar each year on my credit card so that babson loses money on the donation.)

and if there is anyone that disagrees with me, i want their voices to be heard. if you love babson, then please, post your opinion. we have both embarked on the same investment: babson college. i happen to think they failed on almost every single account (except for a few professors such as Lawrence Smith, Stephen Collins and Ruth Gilleran.) but really, it would make me feel a lot better if i was proven wrong.

public disclosure makes the bason administration nervous. but really, this is a business school: let’s be a maverick business school. if we want to be a world class business facility – and i really believe babson can be one – we should embrace this new philosophy of transparency. drop the carefully crafted PR/marketing bullshit for an honest, we’re-in-this-together approach. let’s all sit down, bitch a bit, converse some more. all we need is a more transparent dialogue – and it doesn’t cost anything. you can’t ever stop a site like crapcampus from airing your dirty laundry. suggestions boxes won’t do it, more money to sga won’t do it. only an improved quality of life will make this site transition from crapcampus to chillcampus – or whatever the next incarnation of crapcampus will be. hey, an improved quality of life might even completely destroy crapcampus. then, everyone would win.

even though my post is filled with harsh, bitter rhetoric, i do think the administration is catching on to the real world. it’s CERTAINLY not happening fast enough with barefoot or ocl or with the train wreck that is dining services. (another hint – just because you outsource sodexho doesn’t mean you aren’t fucking responsible for their terrible service, barefoot.) but, let me take a break from my bitching, there is one person in this administration that i think really gets it. thats Dean Hanno of the undergraduate school. his recent facebook group demonstrates a much better step forward than the president’s little ticky-tacky boxes. if you haven’t seen it, here’s the link: http://babson.facebook.com/group.php?gid=2253745216.

It was here that Dean Hanno confirmed – the first person from the administration that i have heard say this – that there was not going to be Friday classes (and Wednesdays off.) what’s happening in that group is a public discussion with a Babson administrator, something that has rarely happened here at Babson (at least during my years.) there are a lot of good posts there and i suggest that if you have the time, take a look. maybe i should start writing as hire hanno? it’s got that positive ring to it.

anyway, barefoot and company just need to realize that this public discourse is essential. you can’t stifle it. you can pander to it with suggestions boxes, but you can’t ignore voices like crapcampus and facebook. the only real option is to do as dean hanno has done: meet it head on. this is the real “digital” world, barefoot. we provided better suggestion boxes to the babson community years before you even realized this was a problem. you can either start to work with us or face a true nightmare once crampcampus gets into the top ten google searches for ‘babson.’ (have you tracked our success? we’re getting there.)

you’re the captain of this ship, barefoot, you’re the one that knows just where we are rowing. i suggest you get back up on your soap box and start telling all of us what the hell you spend all your time doing – because we sure as hell know you can’t raise money.

peace out, friends. don’t forget to vote for your sga reps. and april 20th is coming soon – better make your plans.

cheers,
fire barefoot