Bentley University News

During my time at Bentley, I took a variety of business courses. We all know that to be a successful business person in today’s world, you need a variety of skills and exposure to many different ways of thinking.

In one class, Professor Tim Anderson introduced the talking stick.

He explained to us that it was an ancient tradition. Whoever held the talking stick was the person talking. They could hold on to it as long as they wanted, say whatever they wanted  and everyone else had to allow them to speak and not interrupt.

When we talk about the importance of global business education, most people think about the integration of international business concepts into the curriculum, or opportunities to take students abroad.

Increasingly important, though, is the degree of international diversity in the classroom. A good example is our new Bentley University MBA, which brings together 13 international students from 11 different countries with six domestic students.

On March 14 in Washington, D.C., a group of business school educators and administrators gathered at the National Academy of Sciences to meet with leaders from the private and public sectors and have a conversation on an unlikely topic: climate change education for future business leaders.

What will be the tipping point for national legal recognition of gay marriage? Politicians, scholars, activists, and historians can all disagree but one thing is certain: the Supreme Court cannot avoid at least the first significant step toward that tipping point this month.

One evening this spring, like so many other working parents, I was working late. As I graded papers and wrote emails — after finishing dinner, dishes, and kids’ homework — I turned on the TV show Revolution. Watching main character Rachel Matheson dodge bullets while running through the underbrush, I thought, “Now, wouldn’t that be nice?” 

The actuarial career is consistently rated among the top jobs in America, according to surveys and rankings such as one recently reported by CareerCast. Good pay, low stress and interesting work equal high job satisfaction. It’s not surprising, then, that actuarial science is gaining a lot of attention from prospective students. But what does it take to educate a successful actuary?

Did Occupy Wall Street provide the campaign’s subtext?

During the recent campaign Occupy Wall Street seemed to have disappeared completely. In fact, Occupy lurked just below the surface. Mitt Romney’s infamous remark that 47 percent of Americans are irresponsible mooches was an unhappy echo of Occupy’s 99 percent. When the GOP nominee later insisted that he cared about 100 percent of Americans, he nullified Occupy’s distinction between the 1 percent and the rest — just as his tax plan promised across-the-board cuts for all Americans, including the top 1 percent.

On September 11, 2012, Ambassador Chris Stevens was slain in an attack on the U.S. consulate in Benghazi, Libya. Stevens spent his life, and gave his life, to bring good will from the United States to the people of the world. We may never know all of the circumstances of Stevens’ death, but we do know this: ongoing protests against the U.S. in other parts of the world mean that we have not yet succeeded in building strong bridges. We don’t understand them, and they don’t understand us. Some even harbor resentment, which we also don’t understand.

Anyone experiencing the current political climate might easily conclude that our system of governing is either severely dysfunctional, even broken.