Serving the Homeless and Low-Income Communities through Business & Society/Business Ethics Class Projects: The University of Wisconsin-Madison Plan

Serving the Homeless and Low-Income Communities through Business &Society/BusinessEthics Class Projects: The University of Wisconsin-Madison PlanAuthor(s): Denis CollinsSource: Journal of Business Ethics, Vol. 15, No. 1 (Jan., 1996), pp. 67-85Published by: SpringerStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/25072732 .

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Serving the Homeless and Low-Income

Communities Through Business &

Society/Business Ethics Class Projects: The University of Wisconsin-Madison Plan Denis Collins

ABSTRACT. For several years, MBA students

enrolled in a Business & Society/Business Ethics class

at the University of Wisconsin-Madison have been

volunteering their services at homeless shelters and in

low-income communities. Students also work with

low-income residents' and relevant stakeholders on

evolutionary team projects aimed at improving living conditions in low-income communities. These

projects include starting a grocery co-op, credit union,

day-care center, job training center and a transporta

tion business. In addition, student groups develop service networks that link low-income communities

with student organizations, other university professors and United Way volunteers. This article provides an

evolutionary summary of these projects with the hope that other professors will adopt them for their classes.

Businesses and universities play critical roles in

the evolution of a "good society". As developed

by Aristotle, Adam Smith and the Founding Fathers of the United States, a good society is

one where government ensures communal

happiness. Happiness, in turn, is a function of

individuals and institutions achieving and con

tributing to four key factors: (1) wealth, (2)

Denis Collins is an Assistant Professor of Business Ethics at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. He has

published numerous articles in the areas of business ethics, business and society, social philosophy, participatory

management and gainsharing. He is coauthor, with

Thomas O'Rourke, ofEthical Dilemmas in Business

(South-Western Publishing, 1994) and coeditor, with

Mark Starik, of Sustaining the Natural Environ

ment: Empirical Studies on the Interface Between

Nature and Organizations (JAI Press, 1995).

health, (3) intellectual virtue, and (4) moral

virtue. Thus, businesses and universities are

publicly judged according to whether they

improve a community's wealth, health, intellec

tual virtue and moral virtue.

Although many citizens do enjoy a wealthy,

healthy, intellectual and moral life, many others

do not. The worst scars on capitalism as prac ticed in the United States are homelessness,

poverty and low levels of education. In a land

where private property is a supreme value, one-half to 3 million people are homeless. In

1992, 18% of those with full-time jobs had

earnings of less than $13 091. In 1993, 39 million

citizens lived in poverty, including 20% of all

children born. In 1990, 55% of all adults had at

most a high school diploma and only 20% had a

college undergraduate degree or higher. In

Madison, Wisconsin, a community of approxi

mately 200 000 with only 2% unemployment, 15% of its citizens live in poverty, including 4411

of those under the age of 18 and 1836 under the

age of 5. The invisible hand is not working on

behalf of these people. Rather, a conscious effort

by business employees, students and university

professors is needed, one that uses all the skills

and talents they have to offer, and then some.

Every semester I teach two sections of a

required second-year MBA class titled "Political,

Ethical, and Legal Environments of Business" at

the School of Business, University of Wisconsin

Madison. Enrollment is capped at thirty graduate students per section. One of the course require

ments is completing a community involvement

project. The projects described in this article aim

for students and the professor to (1) understand

Journal of Business Ethics 15: 67-85, 1996.

? 1996 Kluwer Academic Publishers. Printed in the Netherlands.



68 Denis Collins

the real-life conditions of low-income commu

nities, (2) explore how businesses, citizens and

government can diminish this social problem, (3)

apply business theory to social services, (4) initiate change, and (5) learn how to work with

a team to develop creative, productive, and eco

nomically viable partnerships among businesses,

government and social services. Business students

often say they can do a better job than govern ment in helping low-income people. These

projects provide them the opportunity to prove it.

The student projects will be presented in the

following format: how they are integrated with

other course issues, the manner in which student

activities evolved, a list of the student projects, student reactions, specific community project outcomes, and several obstacles.

Theory of student learning

The last thing that many MBAs want to con

template is the circumstances of the least

fortunate. Some have left these problems behind, others have never confronted them. They would

rather dwell on the new realities of nicer salaries, houses and cars that are within their reach. Most

would prefer to focus their energies on learning technical skills that will enhance their climb up

organizational hierarchies.

Then the business school requires them to

enroll in a Business & Society/Business Ethics

class and the professor requires them to serve the

homeless and low income communities. Many students wonder how this is related to their

future jobs. Some interpret my requirement as an

attempt to make them feel guilty for having certain economic and educational advantages over others. But by the end of the semester,

rather than guilt, most students experience some

form of liberation -

they know more about the

homeless and low-income living conditions,

they've conquered some fears, they know more

about themselves, they've had some practical

impact, and they can more confidently speak to

others about the problems of the poor. In the middle of every semester, I conduct a

Rawlsian experiment with my students to remind

them why projects such as this are essential for

them. After being taught Rawls' original

position, veil of ignorance and definition of

justice (Rawls, 1971), they meet in small group task forces to discuss a fair and just method of

distributing Gross National Product (GNP). We

assume John Rawls has been swept into the

presidency based on the motto "Justice for All".

As promised to the citizens, Rawls has national

ized everyone's assets. These task forces must now

decide how to distribute $60 billion a week of GNP. Naturally, this amount is not a fixed pie.

Weekly GNP totals can drop drastically if their Rawlsian distribution solution ruins the

economy. Almost all of the groups propose some

form of capitalism, where safety nets are provided for the most disadvantaged and all other money is distributed by managers through companies

based on a combination of market wage rates and

meritocracy.

The students next read the true case history of

Sandra Bolton, from John E. Schwarz and

Thomas J. Volgy's book The Forgotten Americans:

Thirty Million Working Poor in the Land of Opportunity (1992). Bolton is a single parent of

two children who obtained a divorce after being

physically beaten by her husband. While seeking a college degree to improve her living conditions, she worked full-time at a medical center as a

word processor, taught piano lessons and sold her

blood to make ends meet. This income covered

all of her subsistence expenses, except for child

care and emergencies, such as medical and car

problems. In addition, she obtained a part-time

library job two evenings a week, leaving her little

time to care for her children or study. The students are asked if Sandra Bolton would

conclude that capitalism is a fair system. The

answer is a resounding no. Students then discuss

why they did not consider Sandra Bolton's

vantage point when operating under Rawls' veil

of ignorance. Somewhat embarrassed because

they had previously maintained it was easy to

apply Rawlsian justice concerns to decision

making, they reason that in reorganizing society

they assumed they would be MBA students and

corporate managers, not Sandra Bolton. This

helps to explain why so many well-intentioned

social policy makers continually develop social



The University of Wisconsin-Madison Plan 69

policies that appear to have marginal impact on

those they are intended to help, the worst-off

(Galbraith, 1992). How then can the Sandra Boitons in the world

become part of my middle class-to-wealthy MBA

students' consciousness? As suggested by Paulo

Freir? in his 1971 classic book on education,

Pedagogy of the Oppressed, people learn most

through participation, reflection and mutual

liberation. Freir? educated illiterate Brazilians by

having them reflect on photographs of others

who had similar unfortunate living conditions.

When the peasants projected their own sad

situations on those in the photograph, Freir?

encouraged them to transform the world around

them by learning to read and becoming com

munity organizers. Having had much social

interaction with MBAs and business leaders, I am

convinced that they are also oppressed, being dehumanized by forces more powerful than

themselves such as profit margins, promotion criteria and lengthy work weeks. Nonetheless,

they are not as oppressed as those over whom

they have power. I apply Freire's pedagogy to well-educated

future business leaders with the hope that they will become literate regarding social problems and help to transform their own worlds as well

as the world of those living in poverty. First,

students gain some awareness of their own

oppression by performing an ethical analysis of

their former company's stakeholder relationships. Part of this graded paper also explores other

work-related situations when they and their

co-coworkers did not pursue what they knew to

be morally right.

Secondly, as discussed below, students gain some awareness of poverty by briefly experi

encing the lives of those in poverty, writing about

their experiences, and developing practical solutions to the problems they see. This entails

raising the consciousness of students and teacher

in a manner that leads to social action. I reward

them with a grade for pursuing this risk and

struggling with the obligations that may flow

from these experiences (i.e., should they pay minimum wages to an adult with two children?).

Importantly, these projects are just part of my

attempt to develop the ethical sensitivities and

behaviors of university students. As shown in

Figure 1, in addition to this class, student

awareness of social problems and ethical dilemmas

may be raised in three other ways: (1) while

enrolled in another business school course, (2) while enrolled in another university course, and

(3) while participating in a student organization. The latter two strategies will be discussed later

because they are outgrowths of the course

project. The first issue deserves some comment. I

assume that teaching ethical issues has minimal

legitimacy for most business school students

(Collins and Wartick, 1995). In order to increase

legitimacy, I developed an ethical dilemma

module for all business school courses. A

graduate student and I developed several two

paragraph real life ethical dilemmas for each of

the eight departments of the business school

(Collins and O'Rourke, 1994). I met with faculty members as a group and individually to change

their mental conceptions about addressing ethical

issues, encouraging them to pursue a Ted Koppel

REQUIRED BUSINESS & SOCIETY/BUSINESS ETHICS CLASS

ETHICAL ISSUES

POLITICAL ISSUES

LEGAL ISSUES

HOMELESS SHELTER

COMMUNITY INVOLVEMENT PROJECT TEAM PAPER

UW-MADISON SERVICE LEARNING PROJECT

Every Academic Department and Class should (will!) have a service-learning component linking students to low-income neighborhoods and social service agencies

22 STUDENT ORGANIZATIONS

Each club has a Community Service Officer for Low income and Other

Community Projects

B-SCHOOL FACULTY

Fig. 1. Developing the ethical sensitivities/behav

iors of UW-Madison Business School students.



70 Denis Collins

or Ophrah Winfrey, rather than a Kant or

Aristotle, teaching paradigm (Collins and Page,

1995). In this sense, the faculty member serves

as a moderator of student debate, rather than the

ultimate source of philosophical truth. On the

first day of my class, students debate one of these

ethical dilemmas, one where a human resource

manager is torn between honoring company

policy (nobody is to be forewarned about small

layoffs) and honoring friendship (the manager's

friend, who is on the layoff list, is in the process of closing on a new, expensive home). Students

are clearly divided about what is the right thing to do in this situation (half honor the company's

confidentiality policy, the other half tell their

friend), thus at the end of class debate they desire

some professorial input about ethical analysis.

Homeless shelter class project

Beginning with the 1992 Fall semester, students

have been required to volunteer their services for

one or two three-hour shifts at homeless shelters

throughout the Madison, Wisconsin community. All students visit the shelter with a classmate as

a safety precaution and to reduce some of their

anxieties about entering the unknown. They are

required to bring two dollars' worth of milk,

cereal, soap, or other essential items as a

donation. They take turns sitting with a social

work intern who performs intakes with homeless

people who are using the facilities. In addition

to serving the homeless, they are challenged by me to sit down and talk with a resident about

sports, whatever is on the television, or some

other depersonalized issue. If the person is

responsive the students are encouraged to raise

more personal issues such as the person's previous or current jobs and future expectations.

Initially, pairs of students were assigned to

serve different homeless shelters. Although all of

the homeless shelters welcomed volunteers, some

were more experienced than others in managing them. Some shelters were not sure what the

students should do, whereas other shelters gave the students too many immediate responsibilities.

At one shelter the regular volunteers told

students that their help was not wanted. It soon

became obvious that one of the men's homeless

shelters had high quality volunteer managers and

now all students service this shelter.

After working two three-hour shifts, students

enrolled during the Fall 1992 and Spring 1993 semesters met in preassigned teams to write a

group paper that: (1) described their homeless

shelter experiences, (2) brainstormed recom

mendations on what action businesses and/or

government should take on behalf of these

people, (3) summarized three projects that could

be presented to a business and/or government

official, (4) recommended one of these projects for implementation, (5) provided an in-depth

description of this project, and (6) examined

probable implementation stumbling blocks. This

paper, which was due one month prior to the

end of the semester, accounted for 25% of the

class grade.

Low-income community class project

During the Spring 1993 semester, several students

asked if a more practical project could be

developed in which some of their ideas could

actually be put into practice. This question coincided with three other events. First, I was

very inspired by Professor Benjamin Barber's

presentation at an academic conference on orga

nizing community service projects for students at

Rutgers University-New Brunswick. Second, a

chance meeting with another scholar at the same

conference led to a brainstorming session on all

the low-income activities that could be pursued with a workforce of 60 MBAs. Third, a Catholic

Church parishioner employed at one of the

homeless shelters had met many of the students

and invited me to read their testimonies to other

parishioners at a Lenten service. During the

question and answer session, one of the parish ioners asked what they ought to do to aid the

worst off. I replied: adopt a neighborhood and

combine all of your skills in making it better. To

which the parishioner appropriately responded:

Why don't you do that with your students?

During the Summer of 1993, after meeting with several community leaders, I expanded the

class project to include three low-income



The University of Wi$consin-Madison Plan 71

Neighborhood Community Centers. The first

community center I contacted, which had a

reputation for being progressive, rejected my overtures. The director never absolutely said no;

rather, he simply kept on referring me to other

community centers that may be more in need. I

was informed by other sources that he did not

trust that business school faculty and students

would behave in a responsible manner when

visiting the community. He referred me to David

Haas, Executive Director of the Bayview

Community, who was ecstatic about the possi bilities. The Bayview Community, located just a

few blocks from the Business School, has a large Asian population and I thought it would be

interesting for the 10?20% of my students of

Asian descent to experience this neighborhood. I also contacted Ron Chance, the Director of the

Northside Planning Council, who was overseeing the creation of a large integrative community center on the northside that would be associated

with several low-income neighborhoods and

their community centers.

David, Ron and I independently created a list

of projects that students could work on to fulfill

the needs of low-income residents. The goal was

16 team projects, one for each team in my two

sections (eight teams per section). Due to the

exploratory nature of the class project, David and

Ron strongly suggested that more could be

gained if the list was limited to eight projects, and each class section focused on the same eight

topics but for the two different neighborhoods. One class section would explore eight issues

(such as day care and job training) for David Haas'

Bayview Community and the other section

would explore the same eight issues in terms of

Kennedy Heights, a low-income neighborhood on the northside of Madison that was associated

with Ron Chance. The eight topics assigned to

both sections appear in Table I.

Because social problems are so complex, it was

obvious that a long-term perspective was neces

sary. For instance, both Bayview and Kennedy

Heights would benefit from a job training

program, but it was highly unlikely that any student group could develop a high quality job

training program during one semester. So it was

decided to pass student papers from one semester

to the next until a solution to the problem was

finally worked out and implemented. This would

also provide a sense of continuity and commu

nity for all MBA students, as former students

would most likely be curious enough to make

sure that current students took their project ideas

the next logical step. After meeting with both David and Ron it was

apparent that the most reasonable way to create

a situation in which students could meet residents

face-to-face would be to develop a workshop on

how residents could better manage their low

incomes. Students could meet residents by

canvassing the neighborhood to invite residents

to attend. Due to the canvassing time require ment, I reduced the homeless shelter time

requirement from two to one three-hour shift. I

contacted the student officers of the Finance

Club and they agreed to organize a "Money

Management for Low Income Residents"

workshop. I volunteered my students to adver

tise the workshop door-to-door.

A third low-income community entered the

picture after the fall semester began. Ron Chance

introduced me to "Future Madison", a nonprofit

group composed of local CEOs. Future Madison

Housing Fund (FMHF), a subsidiary, was estab

lished to improve the quality of life in "high risk" neighborhoods. FMHF had recently

purchased one hundred of the one-hundred and

forty apartments in the Vera Court neighbor

hood, one of the most crime-ridden low-income

neighborhoods in Madison, located several blocks

from Kennedy Heights. FMHF was exploring the

purchase of an abandoned grocery store building next to Vera Court and turning it into a facility that would strengthen the neighborhood, such as

a grocery store, job-training center, or a church.

Fritz Grutzner, the Executive Director of FMHF, asked if students could work on two special

projects for him ? one on financing a new com

munity center at Vera Court and the other on

how to transform the abandoned grocery store

into a grocery co-op. Ron Chance and Fritz

Grutzner attended one class session to discuss all

of these projects and provide other leads for the

students. During the Fall 1994 semester,

Northport Packers, a fourth low-income neigh

borhood, was added to the community project



Denis Collins

TABLE I Fall 1993 MBA semester projects

(1) describe the community's history; document how much money (on a yearly basis) is currently being invested

in social service programs for community residents that are sponsored by government, private foundations,

nongovernment organizations, etc.; assess these efforts and design a better way to utilize this money to

fulfill community needs;

(2) describe the neighborhood community center's history and the types of services the community center

offers the residents; assess these efforts and design an effective "Full Service" Neighborhood Community Center for the residents;

(3) describe the child care services that are available for community residents; assess these efforts and design an

effective for-profit affordable quality child care facility for community residents;

(4) describe the types of job training programs that are available for community residents; assess these efforts

and design an effective job training organization/program for community residents;

(5) describe how Madison businesses and company employees contribute to improving the welfare of commu

nity residents; assess these efforts and design an effective network organization that links local businesses

and company employees to community residents and service agencies;

(6) describe how School of Business and University of Wisconsin-Madison organizations improve the welfare

of community residents; assess these efforts and design an effective network organization linking the talents

of these organizations with community residents and service agencies;

(7) describe how community residents contribute to the well-being of the neighborhood center and commu

nity; assess these efforts and design an effective network organization linking the talents of community residents to improving the community; and

(8) describe the types of monetary and nonmonetary incentive systems that are in place to reward social

service workers and volunteers who aid community residents; assess these efforts and design an alternative

incentive system for social service workers and volunteers who aid community residents.

recipient list because of a strong interest by Carmen Porco, its executive director, to benefit

from the student projects. Most student groups wanted to conduct

massive surveys related to their issue. This was

not practical due to both time and money con

straints. Instead I recommended that they simply interview key informants and, if possible, conduct small focus group sessions with residents

they met while canvassing for the money man

agement workshop. I provided each group with

a list of government employees, local politicians and community activists who could provide

quick and knowledgeable answers to their many

questions. In addition, we had the full coopera tion of the neighborhood community center

staffs.

At the end of the Fall semester I shared all

eighteen papers with David Haas, Ron Chance, Fritz Grutzner and other public officials. There

were some obvious overlapping themes among the papers and I integrated several of them into

a Job Training and Placement Agency Co-Op

model, as shown in Figure 2, for the abandoned

grocery store near Vera Court. A prerequisite for

building use would be that all non-profit co-ops

provide a service to the community, serve as a

job training worksite for residents, and be linked

to a similar Madison business as a joint venture.

When I presented this model to Fritz Grutzner

of FMHF he was very interested. However, he

preferred to follow the advice of a student paper on operating only a grocery co-op out of the

building. Importantly, the building had not yet been purchased because the owner's selling price was high. According to Fritz, the Job Training and Placement Agency Co-Op model would

serve as a long-term ideal.

JOB TRAINING AND PLACEMENT AGENCY CO-OP (Internship/Shadow Program)

credit Union Co-Op

Grocery Co-Op

Daycare Co-Op

Restaurant Co-Op

Computer Services Co-Op

Fig. 2. Job training and placement agency Co-Op model.




Most of the teams analyzing the same issue

arrived at modestly different solutions to the

problem. It seemed reasonable for the Spring 1994 semester teams to combine the two papers

written on a particular issue and take the project the next logical step for either the Bayview

Community or the northside neighborhoods of

Kennedy Heights and Vera Court. After consul

tation with both David Haas and Ron Chance, I decided that students should focus their efforts

on Kennedy Heights and Vera Court rather than

Bayview for the following reasons: (1) based on

the student papers, Kennedy Heights had more

immediate problems that could benefit from

student input, (2) Future Madison was working at Vera Court, and (3) the large Asian population at Bayview were Hrnong immigrants who did

not speak English, causing a significant transla

tion problem for the students. Thus, for the

Spring 1994 semester, eight new issues were

added to the list of student projects based on

community input and student recommendations

in the Fall 1993 papers, for a total of sixteen

student projects (see Table II), one for each

student team.

In the Fall 1994 semester, I taught in the

Business School's new Executive MBA program in addition to the regular MBA program. Most

of the twenty-seven executives in the two year

program had at least twenty years of work

experience and had job titles such as Vice

President, Controller and Director. Classes in the

program consisted of twenty ninety-minute

sessions, two on friday and two on Saturday every other weekend; a total of five weekends of classes

spread out over two months.

As the first weekend of classes came to a close, three executives who had read the entire syllabus confronted me in the hallway about how inap

propriate it was for me to require them, none of

whom had ever volunteered at a homeless shelter, to do so. I simply asked for their patience because

I would not mention the projects in class for

another month. The homeless shelter visit and

TABLE II

Spring 1994 MBA semester projects

Create a:

(1) business plan for a Job Training and Placement Agency Co-Op;

(2) business plan for a Credit Union Co-Op;

(3) business plan for a Grocery Co-Op;

(4) business plan for a Day care Co-Op;

(5) business plan for a Restaurant/Coffee Shop Co-Op;

(6) business plan for a Computer Services Co-Op; (7) business plan for an Internship/Shadow Program for the five previously mentioned Co-Ops;

(8) business plan forming a Network Organization situated in the Business School that would link Madison

businesses and company employees to community residents;

(9) business plan for a non-profit Neighborhood Improvement Corporation, consisting of Madison individ

uals, businesses, organizations and communities, that would provide a set of factors and scores which, if

surpassed, would result in tax breaks;

(10) business plan linking School of Business student organizations, administrative offices and faculty to com

munity residents;

(11) business plan linking University of Wisconsin-Madison student organizations, administrative offices and

faculty to community residents;

(12) business plan for a transportation service for residents of all Northside Low-Income communities;

(13) financial bonus system for social workers and volunteers via a gainsharing calculation;

(14) barter system for resident service contributions;

(15) per-resident cost calculation by documenting the amount of government funds, nonprofit funds and private funds that are currently being spent on community residents;

(16) guidebook that shows how Bayview became successful in helping residents purchase homes so that other

low-income communities can replicate this model.



74 Denis Collins

community involvement project were introduced

the third weekend of classes. After reading a

working draft of this article for homework, the

executives listened to three community activists

present innovative community/business projects from the perspectives of business, county

government and grassroots organizations. Armed

with this different view of corporate social

responsibility, the executives met on teams to

brainstorm ideas that their companies could

adopt to fulfill the needs of a particular low

income neighborhood near their companies. As

shown in Table III, each executive had just two

weeks to develop a business plan for how his

or her company could service the needs of a

low-income neighborhood.

Student reactions: Go-getters, fence

sitters and opponents

As noted earlier, students learn a great deal about

themselves, local companies, starting new busi

nesses, government agencies, the homeless and

low-income living conditions. Student reactions

to these projects can be grouped according to

how they initially feel about doing the commu

nity involvement project, namely, go-getters

("Great idea, can I start the project today"!), fence-sitters ("Hmm, what's this all about"?), and

opponents ("I don't want to do these projects"!).

Typically, about 30% are go-getters, 60% are

fence-sitters and 10% are opponents. What

follows are some generalizations about each

group based on my limited experience.

TABLE III Fall 1994 executive MBA community involvement project assignment

THE GOAL

This two-part project (serve at a Homeless Shelter and develop a business plan linking your firm with a

Low-Income Neighborhood) has the following goals: (1) sensitize business leaders regarding the real-life con

ditions of low-income communities, (2) explore how businesses, citizens and government can diminish this social

problem, (3) apply business theory to social services, and (4) initiate change.

Part I. Personal experiences

Write about your experience as a volunteer at the homeless shelter. What were your preconceptions? What did

you do? What did you see? Who did you talk to? What did you learn from/about the clients?

Part II. Issue definition Choose a low-income neighborhood community that your firm can form a long-term relationship with. Provide a description of the neighborhood, groups working there, and current needs.

Part HI. Business plan Provide an overall description of the community involvement project you plan on recommending.

Part IV. Interest-based policy reactions

What are the likely objections of the major community stakeholders (community center, social service agency,

etc.) to your project? How will you overcome these objections.

Part V. Implementation recommendation

Provide an in-depth blue print on how to implement your recommendation that takes the stakeholder

objections raised in the previous sections into consideration.

Part IV. Company-based policy reactions

What are the likely objections of a manager who may oppose your recommendation? How will you overcome

these objections.

*** Other assignment options: (A) How to expand your company's existing community involvement

project, or (B) Why it's unethical to ask your company to develop an innovative community involve

ment project.




Often, the go-getters have already performed

community service work and are thrilled to get credit for doing so as part of a class assignment.

Many of them have put their community service

work on hold while working 50 hour weeks

pursuing their MBAs. Few go-getters have served

at homeless shelters, as their prior community involvement revolved around other more

personal concerns, such as church outreach

programs, Big Brothers/Big Sisters mentoring

programs or telephone crisis counselling. The fence-sitters, by far the largest group of

students, are apprehensive of visiting homeless

shelters and meeting low-income residents. Their

contact with this clientele has often been limited

to television reports, newspaper articles, movies,

books, and avoiding panhandlers on the

downtown streets of either Madison, Chicago or

their hometown. It is a requirement of the class, so they accept the challenge. Typically, they enter

the homeless shelter and low-income community with high anxieties that are set aside when they work with other volunteers or meet a resident

who reminds them of somebody they know, or

vice versa. For example, several male students

have been assumed to be homeless by homeless

people waiting on line to enter the shelter. This

is a shock to the student's psychological system.

According to one student:

When I arrived there was already a group of clients

lined up at the entrance. I apprehensively joined the group at the door. As I watched I realized that

they did not know that I was a student. I did not

look different than most of them. My shoes and attire were in the same or worse condition than

most of theirs. I was white, but so were about half

of the group. No one seemed to notice me so I

continued to watch and listen to the conversations.

The main topics were the shelter, the police, and

what people were going to do the next day. There was a long conversation about why it was stupid to have an apartment. The logic was that you don't

spend much time there anyway so why pay the

high rent when you can stay at a shelter. Some

agreed. Many disagreed.

Opponents are few in number, yet obvious and

vocal to either me or their classmates. These

students, in general, would much prefer taking

another statistics class rather than being required to take a Business & Society/Business Ethics

class. And then to be required to talk about their

feelings in class, listen to criticisms of neo

classical theory, and forced to volunteer! They

argue that (1) the homeless shelter project is a

waste of time and hypocritical because it's only a few hours, (2) canvassing low-income neigh borhoods is a callous intrusion of residents'

private property rights, and (3) writing the

project papers is an exercise in futility because

none of their solutions are going to come to

fruition.

Some of these oppositional beliefs are sincerely held. The course contains many experiential exercises and debates, so it is virtually impossible for students to hide their true sentiments by the

semester's mid-point. I invite students who are

obviously struggling with the course to meet

with me to discuss their feelings about the course

and the projects. Those who sincerely maintain

their oppositional beliefs have overwhelmingly been politically conservative. They don't want

to question their beliefs and don't want to hear

others questioning neoclassical dogma. They also accuse me of having a left-wing political

agenda. I try to point out the difference between

analytically exploring the nature of a problem versus imposing a specific political agenda as a

solution to the problem. Most importantly, I

emphasize that the class projects are actually neoclassical in philosophy. Volunteering is a

prominent neoclassical value, as is developing

nongovernment solutions to the problems of

poverty. Some become fence-sitters.

Importantly, some of the opponents are trying to avoid much deeper psychological issues.

During one-on-one discussions, they become

very emotional, even tearful, and tell me about

some tender situation that they have personally

experienced which this class forces them to

relive. These students have included those who

had been physically abused as children, Vietnam

veterans, participants in highly unethical organi zations, or escaped poverty themselves and

wanted to forget about their experiences. They

thought they had put these issues behind them

and seem to resent me, the course, or these

projects for making them realize that they had



76 Denis Collins

not yet been resolved. Some opponents in this

subgroup transform into go-getters once these

personal issues are exposed.

Regardless of whether a student is a go-getter, fence-sitter or opponent, most have very

rewarding experiences by the end of the

semester. Several students continue to volunteer

on a regular basis, realizing that something had

been missing from their MBA lifestyles. One character trait that seems to govern

student experiences at the homeless shelter is

political ideology. For instance, students with a

"liberal" political perspective tend to assume that

all homeless are well-intentioned people who had

bad luck. They psychologically struggle with the

homeless people they serve who are obviously

manipulating social services or are mentally-ill or

addicted to alcohol or drugs. A student who had

expressed politically liberal views throughout her

essay wrote:

I think I had a certain prejudice going into the

shelter that people in dire straits would band

together. This share-and-share-alike ethic was not

in evidence during my two nights at the shelter.

Several clients would manipulate (the blanket) number system and try to "con" others' blankets

because they were thicker, longer,

or newer.

Several clients also came back for two or three

soaps or three or four shampoos. I was struck by

this behavior because it underscored the fact that a basic component of human nature is competi

tion. In this environment, blankets, toiletries, and

food hold supreme value, followed by particular bunks. The person with two shampoos is therefore

better off than the person with one or none; the

person in the top bunk has a little luxury that the

person in the bottom bunk does not. It was

enlightening to witness this lack of communism; no matter how wretched one's circumstances are,

there is still a fundamental desire to be less

wretched than one's neighbor, even if that means

taking something away from one's neighbor.

On the other hand, students with a "conser

vative" political perspective tend to assume that

all homeless people are lazy or addicts. They

psychologically struggle with the homeless

people they serve who have full-time or part time minimum wage jobs. A student who had

expressed politically conservative views

throughout his essay wrote:

As a white male from an upper middle-class

background, I reluctantly went to the shelter with

an unsympathetic attitude of homeless people. My initial misgivings began to erode somewhat as I

talked to the clients. For the most part, they were

young, working part-time in menial jobs, and had no

long term focus. For instance, one guy who

works at a car wash twenty hours a week couldn't

earn enough money to come up with first and last

month's rent and a security deposit. For the most

part, my experience at the shelter did not signifi

cantly break down my stereotypes of homeless

people nor did it engender much compassion for

these individuals. Admittedly I was looking for

problems with the system, which I easily found, but I didn't see much hope either.

A student with a military background had the

following struggle when meeting veterans at the

shelter:

When a few of the guests found out I was in the

military they came over and we traded war stories.

Many of them were proud to have been in the

armed forces but wanted the government to

provide better VA services to meet their needs. I

was shocked to find out that 25% of the men who

routinely use the shelter were veterans of the armed

services of this country. Additionally, 10?12 of the

current regular guests were veterans of Desert

Shield/Desert Storm. I was shocked that men who so recently were involved in armed conflict for

the nation would be forced to live in the manner

they currently did with little or no government assistance.

Students also find themselves in positions of

power that do not always work out well, such as

when the shelter has limited food or milk. One

student wrote:

It was a very cold and blustery evening. I was in

charge of dishing the fruit salad. No seconds were

allowed until much later because the salad had to

last the entire evening. I had to deny a man a

second helping. It was a terrible feeling telling a

hungry person that he could not have any more.

Growing up in a family where there was never a

shortage of food it was very uncomfortable telling




someone no. Not too long after that episode, the

shelter ran out of milk. This implied that there

would be no milk for breakfast. One of the other

volunteers later went out to buy some, but not

until many people had been turned away. The

tragic thing was that the men were not asking for

another steak or fancy dessert. Rather, hungry

people wanted a glass of milk and a serving of

syrupy fruit salad.

Lastly, international students learn about

themselves as well through these projects. A

student from Iran wrote:

I arrived at the shelter somewhat unenthusiastically. I am a citizen of a Third World country, Iran and

I have no problems sympathizing with the

exploited of the Third World. The poor of the

First World have always been different in my mind. I always felt that they approved when their

government raped us so why should I care if they are poor. How many poor Americans wept when

several million Vietnamese got slaughtered? How

many poor Westerners lost sleep when the French

massacred over a million Algerians? The examples are endless. Why should I give a hoot about the

poor in France or America? It's not my problem. I was standing, pouring milk and observing the

crowd when a homeless man came and got a milk

refill. He then thanked me extensively saying, "You

don't know how much it means to you when you

are homeless and you come here and somebody

gives you food and shelter. Thank you. Thank you so much." Here I was at the shelter uselessly

pouring milk because of some assignment and the

guy was thanking me like I had actually done

something worthwhile. I felt like apologizing and

e^laining the situation. The day after my second visit I was talking with a friend about my experi ences at the shelter. The experience had been

worthwhile, more than anything else I had done all semester. I no longer viewed the American poor in such black and white terms. I could better feel

their pain and suffering.

Specific community project outcomes

In addition to psychological benefits for students, these class projects have generated beneficial

outcomes for the business school, the university, the homeless, low-income residents, homeless

shelters, and low-income community centers. In

terms of business school benefits, there have been

several newspaper articles written about the

student projects and much word-of-mouth

publicity. I have invited community activists to

speak with the students and held several orga

nizing meetings in the business school with

people interested in adopting some of the team

project recommendations. The business school

also receives positive public relations when either

the dean or I make presentations informing others about these projects.

Some linkages have been made between the

business school and other academic disciplines on

campus as a result of the low-income neighbor hood projects. The School of Social Work

typically has student interns at most low-income

neighborhood community centers and these

interns have aided students by serving as key informants and making contacts with community residents. I also presented the student projects at

a retreat for faculty and graduate students of the

Sociology Department. As a result, some

members of the Sociology Department are brain

storming ways they can work parallel to, or

jointly with, the business school students.

The wider university community has also bene

fited from these projects. The University of

Wisconsin-Madison is a public university funded

by Wisconsin taxpayers. For the past decade

there has been growing tension between the

university and politicians, with the politicians

questioning why professors only work with

students six hours a week (most professors have

a 2/2 teaching load). Although professors and

administrators offer rational explanations, they often don't appear, or sound convincing, in the

general press. The university's current response to this

political problem was partly inspired by one of

the student projects. The two student groups

exploring how to link all university academic

departments and student organizations to the

needs of low-income community residents con

ducted an all-inclusive telephone survey across

the university to document how much university

employees were currently contributing. They found out that quite a bit was being done, but

none of it was centralized so nobody knew what



78 Denis Collins

anyone else was doing. I shared these reports with university administration. As a result of this

and other issues, the university now documents

the amount of public service performed by its

employees to demonstrate to politicians and the

public-at-large the great extent to which the

university is engaged in solving local and state

social problems. In addition, a student group and myself pre

sented the concept of expanding service-learning

throughout the campus (see Figure 3) at a

university-wide luncheon forum attended by

faculty and administrators. As a result of this

presentation, the student papers and the efforts

of others on campus, university administration

is in the process of centralizing community

projects and providing one visible outlet for all

community organizations to contact.

Public Health Department \ f Medical School

X__ Fraternities, Sororities

Fig. 3. UW community partnership program.

I have been informed by managers of the

homeless shelter and the low-income community centers that the homeless and low-income residents

benefit from the presence of MBA students in

their midst. According to them, such actions

demonstrate to the homeless and low-income

residents that the Madison community still cares

about them, they have not been forgotten.

Specific outcomes for the homeless shelter and

low-income residents include:

* Homeless shelters and low-income com

munity centers receive 720 volunteer hours

a year from the students enrolled in the

class. In addition, each student provides a

$2 donation in products to the homeless

shelter. * Several graduates have had their new

employers add the homeless shelter to the

list of philanthropic activities. * The Graduate Business Association estab

lished the position of "Community

Development Chairperson" to facilitate and

monitor the community involvement activ

ities of student organizations. Every business

school student organization is now required to appoint a Community Service Director

to serve as liaison between the organization and low-income communities. The Real

Estate Club was the first to take on this

challenge and members read books to

children at Kennedy Heights on a Saturday afternoon.

* The Graduate Business Association con

ducted a food drive at nine grocery stores

with the aid of over fifty volunteers from

eight student organizations. They collected

500 pounds of food and donated it to the

Dane County Advocated for Battered

Women. t * The Finance Club conducted a "Money

Management" workshop at three commu

nity centers. The types of questions raised

at the workshop were very basic, such as

what is a money market account or what

should one do if a credit card company

charges for an unpurchased item (the resident was afraid that if she complained her credit card would be cancelled).

* A member of the marketing faculty con

ducted a market survey for the proposed

grocery store near Vera Court. The surveys were analyzed and summarized by a student

group. The report was sent to FMHF. * Students developed a guidebook for the

Bayview Community that documents its

successful turnaround from one of

Madison's worst to best low-income neigh borhoods. The guidebook provides a

"How-To-Do-It" model that other low

income communities could replicate. * Students created and advertised the UW

Student/Community Information Clearing




house (IC) database, a managed database of

low-income community service users and

potential university/student organizations service providers that is being used by

Volunteer Services. Each service request from a member of the local community can

be matched via keywords with a student

organization that has already agreed to

volunteer its services. Registration forms

created by the student group are distributed

by the Student Organization Office when

student organizations officially register every

year. * Students created a computer spreadsheet of

all "unearned" funding entering Kennedy

Heights that will aid city and county administrators.

* Students helped two women establish a

nonprofit job training program. * Students created and sent an information

flyer to local businesses for computer hardware and software donations for the

newly built Northport Packers community center. They obtained software donation

from a local business. * Students connected Carmen Porco of

Northport Packers to the Wisconsin

Community Information Partnership

(WiCIP), a state-wide group which wants

to set up an information superhighway pilot

project for low-income residents. * Students performed a business analysis to

help Kennedy Heights expand its Early Childhood Program from three to five

mornings a week, an idea that originated from a previous daycare student group.

* Students performed a business analysis for

Community Wheels, a non-profit trans

portation firm developed by a resident of

Kennedy Heights, and helped the organi zation with expanding its customer base.

* Students conducted interviews with several

social service agencies that were not taking

advantage of United Way volunteers or its

Management Assistance Program to deter

mine how these United Way services can be

more user friendly. * Students drafted a voucher system proposal

and sample administrative forms that are

being examined by several low-income

communities for implementation purposes. * Students developed a marketing plan and

SWOT analysis for a potential new restau

rant that would provide job training to

residents of a Single Resident Occupancy

(SRO) housing facility. Five nearby restau

rant managers were surveyed about their

willingness to employ training program

graduates.

As noted earlier, the Executive MBA project

assignment consisted of developing a business

plan for servicing the needs of a low-income

neighborhood. I assumed that little would be

accomplished because the executives had only two weeks to complete the assignment. During those two weeks, the executives worked full-time

jobs, volunteered at the homeless shelter, com

pleted other homework assignments for me, as

well as homework assignments for another

Executive MBA class they were taking at the

same time. Surprisingly, 15 of the 27 executives

managed to initiate some formal change processes

during these two weeks. Some of these action

oriented executives saw this assignment as an

opportunity to follow-through on something

they had previously thought about doing. Other

executives simply thought that the class speakers made a lot of sense and wanted their firms to

respond to this community need.

Twelve of the fifteen process changes related

to issues of job training. The most impressive immediate outcome were two proactive job

training programs for residents of three low

income neighborhoods. Two executives jointly attended a community meeting held at the Vera

Court community center and told those in

attendance that their firms had job openings.

Community leaders volunteered to screen

residents for these openings because they were

convinced by the executives that the first person in the program had to be an immediate success

in order to show other managers that this could

be a viable company program. The executives, in

turn, promised the community leaders that they would develop plans to overcome some of the

major barriers for low-income residents who

obtain work, such as lack of mentors, daycare



80 Denis Collins

expenses, transportation to work, and gaps in

insurance coverage. One executive provided leads

to community leaders in terms of getting a

donated van from a local car dealership because

it would be unfair to other low-income

employees if the company provided transporta tion for residents of these neighborhoods.

Other ideas that were under consideration by

company personnel by the end of the course

included:

* A summer internship program for a disad

vantaged high school students. The students

would be matched to a mentor four days a

week during the slower summer months

and attend training seminars on the six

Fridays that the company closed its manu

facturing facility. * A series of informational seminars on job

opportunities at local hotels. * A partnership between an engineering firm

and a local technical college. The company would donate machines and work with

faculty so that graduates could be easily

employable by the company. *

Extending use of a company's computer

training center to residents of low-income

neighborhoods. *

Permitting a low-income neighborhood to

use company vehicles to commute children

to free clinics for necessary immunizations. *

Using human resource department skills and

materials to sponsor a seminar at the neigh borhood community center on how to train

for a job interview.

Five executives also noted that they would

adopt the class homeless shelter project by

organizing company volunteers to service

homeless shelters. One executive wrote that

"many managers in my organization actually

laughed at the fact that I was to work one night at the homeless shelter". While at the homeless

shelter he observed that "there is not much help to assist in preparing and serving the food" so his

firm would take responsibility for one day a

month. He hoped "this would start the process of getting certain people educated about the

situation".

Naturally, to what extent each executive

follows-through on these early ideas is unknown.

I told the executives that I would contact all of

them in a year to determine what, if anything,

actually happened. However, one month after the

Executive MBA class ended I received a flyer from the Northside Planning Council

announcing the formation of a job training coalition consisting of representatives from the

Marshall Erdman Techline (a student's company), the Dane County Job Center, the Meridian

Group (associated with Future Madison),

Kennedy Heights, Northport Packers, Vera

Court and Vera Court Joining Forces for

Families. Also, I was informed by the Homeless

Shelter management that the three executives

who protested against the homeless shelter visit

the first day of class went back to the homeless

shelter after the semester to fix some broken

bunk beds.

Lastly, there are community benefits that

occur, for the most part, without my awareness.

For instance, at alumni gatherings graduates shyly inform me of their new volunteer activities. They

were reticent to tell me because they (wrongly!) believed that their efforts were minuscule

compared to what I expected of them. Similarly, I was informed by a member of the United Way

Allocation's Committee that when she ques tioned why a business volunteer, who was the

youngest committee member by about ten years, was serving on the committee, he replied that it

was a result of being sensitized to these issues

while enrolled in my course.

Obstacles

There are several perceived and real obstacles that

professors should consider prior to adopting this

project. These obstacles can be *

grouped

according to (1) student complaints, (2) grading,

(3) professorial time commitments, (4) organizing activities where students and residents interact,

(5) low workshop turnouts, and (6) legal liabili

ties. All of them can be managed.

Student complaints. The most common student

complaints, and my most common responses, are

the following:




* "I don't see any relation between this

project and the purpose of an MBA educa

tion". Response: Relax, this is just the first

day of class, it'll make more sense as the

semester evolves. But in a nutshell, for

capitalism to be a viable economic system it must reduce poverty, and to reduce

poverty business people must meet and

serve those who live in poverty. * "I'm already doing volunteer work, why

can't I count that?" Response: Because I

want everyone to have the same community

experience. For instance, when somebody mentions the fog in the smoking room at

the homeless shelter I want everyone to

know what the student is talking about. It's

only three hours. * "It's only three hours, is it really worth it?"

Response: Three hours is three more hours

than no hours. Speak with several students

from last semester about their three hours

of experience. It's an intense three hours. * "It's not fair to require us to volunteer*."

Response: If I don't require it then only those who are already predisposed to

volunteering will do so. I want to make sure

that those who are not so disposed have this

experience. * "The community involvement project is too

ambiguous. We need clearer direction from

you on what to do next". Response: Sorry, as managers you will have many ambiguous

assignments that you must determine how

to make sense of. Good luck. Just remember

to document all of your decisions so I can

evaluate them. Meet with me again after

you've made a few decisions about what to

do.

* "Let us individually choose what project to

work on, don't assign it to a team".

Response: Great idea! During the Fall 1993

semester I assigned projects to specific teams

and this caused some student resentment

because some team members -

due to

interest, experience and/or community connections -

preferred to examine another

team's issue. As a result, early in the Spring 1994 semester I passed around a list of all

the projects and asked each student to rank

his or her top three choices. I then created

teams around their preferred individual

choices.

Grading. Generally, students do not like team

grades because they cannot control the behavior

of their teammates. I counter this in several ways.

First, the group project paper is worth 25% of

the student's course grade; the remaining 75% is

based on individual performance. Second, upon submission of the paper teammates are asked if

any person deserves higher than, or lower than, the paper grade due to his or her unique con

tribution. For instance, if everyone on the team

agrees that because of Shelly's unique contribu

tion she deserves higher than the product grade, I increase her grade. But if everyone claims that

all teammates contributed equally, then each

team member receives the product grade. Third, students are taught how to work on teams. One

homework assignment requires students to write

about their best and worst team experiences.

They must then read their answers to their new

teammates and determine how the new team will

have a great experience. In addition, they assess

their teammates' performances, and discuss them, one week prior to paper submission. Fourth,

organizations that employ them are all adopting teams so this team project should be viewed as a

learning experience to be applied to their future

employment. I did not grade the Executive MBA commu

nity involvement projects. Instead, their business

plans were treated as a regular homework

assignment that received a check mark upon sub

mission. I did not want the executives to

compete as to who could create the most theo

retically sound business plan. Rather, I wanted

each executive to give an honest assessment of

his or her firm's capability and willingness to

engage in an innovative community involvement

project. In addition, some executives had more

organizational leverage to direct their firm in this

matter and some companies were already engaged in a community involvement project. If a graded

assignment, these conditions would give some

executives an unfair advantage. Lastly, a few

executives thought it was unethical for me to

impose the community involvement agenda on



82 Denis Collins

their firms. Unfortunately, I didn't hear this

complaint until after everyone submitted their

homeworks. Thus, the instructions shown in

Table III contain the following two optional

assignments: (A) how to expand your company's

existing community involvement project, and (B)

why it's unethical to ask your company to

develop an innovative community involvement

project.

Professorial time commitments. Most of the time

commitment for organizing this project occurred

during the first semester of both projects. Initially I had to obtain permission from the adminis

trators at several homeless shelters. I did not

personally visit any of the shelters for two

reasons. First, I had previously worked with

low-income people prior to becoming a pro fessor and felt secure about the project. Second, I lacked the time to volunteer at all five shelters

so I didn't volunteer at any.

However, after some students had unpleasant

experiences at several shelters it became obvious

that my lack of personal experience with these

particular homeless shelters was a mistake. I then

volunteered one evening between semesters at

the most well organized homeless shelter. I just showed up, served food, watched television and

played cards with the residents so that I would

experience what my students were experiencing.

Half-way through the evening I more formally introduced myself to the night manager. He had

many stories to tell me, mostly about how he

would see these volunteers, unlike other volun

teers, challenge themselves to talk with shelter

residents. I also sat with the social worker per

forming intakes and he assured me that he

welcomed students helping him with the inter

view system. In terms of the low-income community

project, I met with David Haas and Ron Chance

twice to discuss the nature of the student papers and how to organize student interactions with

residents of Bayview and Kennedy Heights.

Organizing the Finance Club workshop took

much more time than I anticipated. I met with

members of the Finance Club, advised them on

the workshop, made several phone calls to locate

a Hmong translator, contacted several banks to

obtain funds to pay for the translator, organized the canvassing efforts, and provided child care for

the children of parents attending the workshop. Based on this time-consuming experience, I

decided to assign the responsibility of developing and organizing workshops to one of the teams.

Nonetheless, beginning with the Spring 1995 semester, all students are required to volunteer

for three hobrs at a low-income Neighborhood

Community Center, in addition to the homeless

shelter. Students volunteer for either children or

adult programs, such as an after-school daycare

program or a sewing class.

In terms of class time, four of my thirty allo

cated seventy-five minute class sessions are solely related to these projects. One class has a project related homework assignment and another class

has fifteen minutes set aside for teammates to

discuss their past experiences working on teams.

Table IV provides a time outline of how the

community involvement project is currently

integrated into the course.

Organizing student/resident interactions. As noted

earlier, this was much more difficult and time

consuming than I anticipated. At the homeless

shelters the students talk a little with the residents

while serving them. Those who are naturally

outgoing join them for dinner or a card game. Those who are shy struggle with asking anyone

any question. This is the case whether they do

one or two three-hour shifts, though everyone

reports being more relaxed during the second

shift. Executive MBAs, exhibiting the self-con

fidence that it often takes to be a good execu

tive, were much more outgoing in their

interactions with the homeless.

After volunteering at the homeless shelter I

made arrangements with the manager to allow

students to sit with the social worker when

intakes are conducted every evening. This

permits students to hear the homeless tell their

stories. I was initially concerned about confi

dentiality issues, but the homeless shelter

manager and social worker said they didn't think

this was a problem. It was a challenge to plan a way for the

students to meet and talk with low-income

residents in a comfortable, natural surrounding.




TABLE IV Class project time line*

1) Class 2. Homework assignment due for Class 2 consists of reading about the 16 class projects (a summary of each appears in the syllabus) and students pick their first, second and third choices.

2) Class 4. Homework assignment due for Class 4 consists of a reading about working on teams. Students

summarize their best and worst team experiences based on the reading. With 15 minutes remaining in class, students are informed what project they will work on. They meet with their new teammates to discuss the

homework assignment about their previous team experiences.

3) Class 6. Two guest speakers. A manager from the homeless shelter discusses life at the shelter. A commu

nity activist provides information relevant to the class projects.

4) Class 7. Students meet on teams to plan their community involvement project based on the prior class meeting

presentations. Students also discuss their views of, and experiences with, people in poverty.

5) Second month of the semester the students volunteer for three hours at the homeless shelter and three hours at a low-income neighborhood community center.

6) Class 22. Students meet on teams to organize finishing their papers. They must also discuss their current

evaluation of each teammate's performance and their homeless shelter experiences.

7) Class 24. Students discuss their homeless shelter experiences with the entire class. Each team is provided three minutes to summarize what has been accomplished so far regarding the team project.

8) Class 26. Papers are submitted.

* A semester consists of 30 class sessions. Each class session is 75 minutes.

Some students learn a lot just by walking around

the neighborhood, observing the nature of the

beat-up cars in the parking lot or the external

condition of the apartments. The community directors and I decided that interaction could

occur by having the students going door-to-door

to advertise the Finance Club's money manage ment workshop. Students could also ask the

residents about the issue they were writing about.

Having previously solicited low-income neigh borhoods, I assumed the students would share my

experience of being invited by a few residents

into their apartments. The first issue that arose was how to motivate

residents to attend the workshop. I contacted a

local bank that agreed to provide free calcula

tors for anyone who attended the workshop, in

exchange for its name on the flyer. Because both

neighborhoods had Hmong residents, the bank

also donated money to pay for a Hmong trans

lator, who lived at Bayview, to join the students

going door-to-door. A student in the class vol

unteered to design a one-page flyer announcing the workshop. I then organized the canvassing so that one group would personally invite l/8th

of the residents and then meet the next group at

the community center to pass them the address

list until all eight groups had canvassed all the

apartments.

The end result was not what I had expected. An abnormal cold front moved in the day prior to the canvassing, dropping the temperature from

60 degrees to 30 degrees over night. Hardly

anyone was invited into an apartment. Rather, most of the students simply met residents at the

door and told them about the upcoming

workshop. The resident said "thank you very much" or "I'm busy watching a ballgame right now", and closed the door. Many students felt

that although they didn't get to speak much with

the residents, it was worthwhile just to get a feel

for the neighborhood. I was told that one student

became fear-struck and refused to get out of the

car. Several opponents told me it was a waste of

their time.

We discussed in class how students enrolled in

future classes could have a more worthwhile

experience. Many students believed that they could have had more conversations with residents

if the handout contained detailed information

that would be discussed at the workshop, such

as the pros and cons of getting a credit card, rather than simply announcing the workshop.

Workshops have been temporarily postponed



84 Denis Collins

until the group project on how to do this is com

pleted. Currently, students are asked to visit

Kennedy Heights and Vera Court because they are writing papers about them.

Low workshop turnouts. The Fall 1993 workshop attendance included five residents at Bayview, nine residents at Kennedy Heights and three

residents at Vera Court. Our incentives for

resident attendance included free calculators, brochures on banking, a translator, snacks and

free child care. I forewarned the Finance Club to

expect one person to show up, and consider it a

success if two people attended because we were

strangers to the community laying the founda

tion for a new tradition. Nonetheless, both the

Finance Club members and the students who did

the canvassing were disappointed with the low

attendance totals. If a tradition can be established

I would expect more people to attend. In retro

spect, we should have asked the residents in

attendance why they came and others didn't and

what types of workshops they would like to see

in the future.

Legal liabilities. Prior to beginning the homeless

project I contacted the university's Legal Services

Office to determine liabilities in worst-case

scenarios. According to the manager of the

largest homeless shelter, no volunteer had ever

been harmed by a resident. However, it seemed

wise to find out what would happen if a student

was killed or raped and sued me, the business

school and/or the university. The University of

Wisconsin-Madison has liability protection for all

claims against employees. As long as students are

made aware that there are always some risks and

that they should leave immediately if they feel

uncomfortable about a situation, then I am

protected for allegations of negligence. This is a

fine line to walk for the instructor. You need to

inform the students of the potential risks, but you don't want to scare students or reinforce their

prejudices. Safety precautions include having students volunteer in pairs, but upon arrival they should go their own ways and have their own

unique experiences. So far there has only been one liability issue.

Apparently, a resident of a low-income commu

nity scratched the entire side of a student's car

with a pointed object. The student had a $100

deductible car insurance policy and the damage was about $150. Legal Services informed me that

the student could not be reimbursed by the

university. The student did not want to ask the

two classmates whom he drove there to share the

expense so he paid the deductible. I suggested that this should be seen as a learning experience and we should explore what lesson could be

learned. His response went something like this:

"I parked my car far away from all of the other

cars in the parking lot. I didn't trust that the

residents wouldn't crash into it because their cars

were all beat-up. I thought they wouldn't care if

they hit me or not. Instead, the car stood out like

a sore thumb and somebody attacked it. Next

time I either take the bus or park with all the

other cars".

Concluding comments

These projects, like life in general, are works

in-process. Next semester's teams will follow the

next logical step for each paper topic. As of this

moment, these projects have been a win-win for

everyone involved. The students are becoming more sensitive to issues of poverty and have the

experience of being change agents. I learn a great deal from their papers and experiences. The

business school has received a significant amount

of publicity regarding these projects. The uni

versity, with the aid of students from the class, is

now in the process of centralizing its volunteer

activities. The homeless shelter receives volun

teer hours. The low-income communities receive

essential input and are developing new partner

ships. What all of this will evolve into is

unknown, exciting to anticipate and liberating for almost everyone.

References

Collins, Denis and Thomas O'Rourke: 1994, Ethical

Dilemmas in Business (South-Western Publishing

Company, Cincinnati). Collins, Denis and Laura Page: 1995, 'Shifting from

the Immanuel Kant to the Ted Koppel Paradigm




for Integrating Business Ethics in the Curriculum: A Case Study', Working paper.

Collins, Denis and Steven L. Wartick: 1995, 'Business

and Society/Business Ethics Courses: Twenty Years at the Crossroads', Business & Society 34(1), 51-89.

Freir?, Paulo: 1971, Pedagogy of the Oppressed (Herder and Herder, New York).

Galbraith, John Kenneth: 1992, The Culture of Contentment (Houghton MifBin, New York).

Rawls, John: 1971, A Theory of Justice (The Belknap Press of Harvard University Press, Cambridge,

Massachusetts).

Schwarz, John E. and Thomas J. Volgy: 1992, The

Forgotten Americans: Thirty Million Working Poor in

the Land of Opportunity (W.W. Norton & Company, New York).

School of Business,

University of Wisconsin-Madison, 915 University Avenue,

Madison, WI 53706, U.S.A.

Email: [email protected]



Documents

Serving the Homeless and Low-Income Communities through Business & Society/Business Ethics Class Projects: The University of Wisconsin-Madison Plan