The school obviously has values, and it obviously wishes to impart those values to its students. How odd then that it would choose values that seem antithetical, or at least benignly neutral, to its mission. How many "future leaders" will change their behavior in the years ahead as a result of what they learned in S&E? From wide discussions with classmates, the answer is a resounding "none." On the other hand, I would wager that many students will accept as unequivocal truth a trickle-down theory of charity.

The business school does several things very well. Its use of teaching technologies is cutting-edge; its physical plant is run with Disneyworld-like efficiency; its alumni outreach programs inspire a loyalty measured in the hundreds of millions of dollars. But if the business school wants to be a true leader and play a "CEO" role in education, it would recognize that at the heart of true leadership in education is the imperative to enlarge students' beliefs of what is possible. The business school's beliefs seem shockingly narrow: to increase profitability and win the corner office.

What surprised me most about the S&E experience was that several students wanted to learn more about social responsibility in business. They lamented the fact that the S&E program was not graded, isolated from the rest of the curriculum and so short. By failing to accomplish its lofty mission "to develop outstanding business leaders who will contribute to the well-being of society," the business school is shirking its responsibility to these students.

Harvard Business School graduates ought to form a new type of business leadership, one that embraces acting on deeply-held beliefs to contribute "to the well-being of society." Definitions of "well-being" will obviously sometimes conflict, but what is important is that we learn to find, secure and initiate opportunities for social action.

Only if the business school has the courage to live up to its promise will it be able to state its mission in good faith. Until then, the words ring hollow.

Patrick S. Chung '96 is a former editorial chair of The Crimson. He is currently a student in Harvard's J.D.-M.B.A. program.