Last term, the HBS Student Association’s Student Clubs and Careers Committee formally approved a new club, The Republican Club. The Harbus wishes to extend a warm welcome to this new club, but more significantly, we want to highlight the significance of its founding.
In his remarks here in December, former Massachusetts Governor Michael Dukakis remarked to a crowded Burden Hall how surprised he was that so many Harvard Business School students would show up to hear a Democrat speak. He told a story of years ago, when he substituted for an HBS professor and described to the class the new Community Reinvestment Act, a law that requires banks to invest a certain amount in the communities in which they operate, how hard the class fought against the idea. Governor Dukakis noted that times have definitely changed at HBS.
And indeed they have. Many of us are aware of the misconceptions that people outside of HBS have of our school, but we may not be so aware of our own. When a student asked a club representative at a Club Fair table just last term if there was a Republican Club, the representative responded that Republicans seemed to be the majority on campus and there was no need for such a club.
That view was clearly dated; within that same term, Republican Club President Rick Shrotri (NG) and his colleagues would found the very club for which some people on campus assumed there was no need. The Harbus congratulates Shrotri and his colleagues for their entrepreneurialism-and for their contribution to the growth of diversity at HBS. At long last, the ideological spectrum has been brought into balance: Harvard Business School now has both a Democratic and a Republican Club.
Let it be known, therefore, both outside and within the walls of this great institution, that with each passing term, there are increasingly few default assumptions one can make about Harvard Business School students.
For more information about student clubs or to contact a club officer, click Life@HBS under the Quick Info link on My.HBS
