A different perspective on GSB life

The GSB as Water Meter

By Joe Melvin '98

Most of us probably remember the moment when we finally decided to come to Stanford for two years of business school. For some, the decision was made after an agonizing process of visiting schools, re-reading application materials and considering the pros and cons of different programs many times over. For others, the decision was made immediately upon receiving The Call and hearing Marie say those three little words: "Congratulations, you’re in."

My decision to attend the GSB hinged on what I would find in one of the Littlefield seminar rooms at 6:00pm on the February Admit Day back in 1996.

It was the Admit Day Diversity Forum. I was about 15 minutes late, as no one had yet explained to me the implications of the letter "L" preceding the room number given on the directions. I walked into the room and surveyed the crowd. I immediately saw the group of people I had come to talk to, but didn’t want to make a beeline toward them as that would be a little too obvious. (Right. Obvious. This from a white Protestant male at the "Diversity Forum".) I weaved my way past the various pools of diversity, casting about smiles and looks of assured confidence in my belonging. Finally, I found myself standing next to a group first- and second- years. Their conversation paused and they turned to me. I introduced myself and we began chatting about gay life at the GSB. Not long after this, my decision was made.

My experience is one of many among gay and lesbian GSBers. There are around 20 people self-identified as gay, lesbian or bisexual in the first and second year MBA classes, with varying degrees of openness observed. During the application process, we had heard that Stanford was among the gay-friendliest of business schools. The admissions materials had profiled openly gay students, and the take-aways from all the business school survey literature were pretty positive. Plus, the GSB’s collaborative reputation and its proximity to San Francisco couldn’t hurt. Yet I for one really didn’t know what to expect. This was business school after all. Gordon Gecko isn’t really a paragon of tolerance and acceptance.

What’s in it for you

I know, I know. Why you should you care, right? Why should the vast majority of straight people at the GSB give a damn about all of this? For those in the GSB-community-building set, one answer is because we’re your classmates and these things are important to us. For the more hard-nosed readers, however, I submit that there is a minor revolution taking place in the benefits, recruiting and marketing departments of many American companies today that you should know about.

Gay and lesbian employees are asking for and getting health-care and other benefits for their same-sex partners. In some industries, notably high-tech, employers are increasingly finding themselves at a disadvantage in the labor market if they DON’T offer domestic-partners benefits. Corporate America is out in front of the rest of society in terms of recognizing and accommodating the needs of gays and lesbians. Witness IBM: the long-time exemplar of conservative button-down shirt corporate culture implemented same-gender spousal equivalent benefits last year. Corporate recruiting of gay and lesbian students is also on the rise. Both McKinsey and BCG hosted recruiting events for gay GSB students this year. Finally, the demographics of the gay and lesbian consumer population are catching the eye of a growing number of marketers. Gays and lesbians are largely professional, with higher than average earnings and a lower than average number of dependents (i.e. more disposable income), and gay households tend to spend gobs of money. The Wall Street Journal has described the gay market as "the most potentially profitable, untapped market in the U.S. today."

As tomorrow’s business leaders, GSBers should be aware of these issues and be ready to deal with them. Your gay, lesbian and bisexual classmates can be an important resource in learning about these business issues. Furthermore, we bring a diverse set of experiences and opinions to the community at the GSB, and most of us believe that this diversity serves to enhance the learning experience. And finally, who throws a better party than we do? Remember the Out4Biz LPF? I rest my case.

How Far We’ve Come

So what is it like to be gay at the GSB? Most gay and lesbian GSBers agree: the GSB is a pretty good place to be. The environment is open and friendly, our classmates are generally accepting, and the administration is very supportive. A 1995 study conducted by GSB alum Jason Lorber ranked Harvard and Stanford as the gay-friendliest among the 22 U.S. business schools surveyed in terms of such factors as non-discrimination and domestic-partner policies, the presence of student organizations and the openness of faculty and administration to gay issues. It should come as no surprise that students who come to the GSB are generally self-selected as a very tolerant and reasonable lot. The GSB administration is, by nearly all accounts, very gay-friendly, particularly in such high-visibility functions as Admissions, Financial Aid and the CMC.

What does it mean for someplace to be "gay-friendly" anyway? For those readers unfamiliar with the gay lexicon, maybe a StratMan-esque bracketing of the friendliness spectrum would help. Remember the Crown Cork & Seal case from Strategic Management S250? Much like the aluminum can industry bounds the lower end of the industry attractiveness spectrum, a "Bubbas for Buchanan" fund-raiser in rural Mississippi would tend to rank right down there with an aluminum extruding factory as a place we’d want to be. Contrast this with, say, a sunny day on Castro street in San Francisco... yep, water meters galore. [editor’s note: This is more S250 lore. The Rockwell International case taught us that water meters were a surprisingly lucrative industry in the 1970s.]

The GSB is a far cry from aluminum cans. The appeal of the GSB can be better appreciated when contrasted to some of the environments from which many gay and lesbian MBAs came. The U.S. military, for example, could not be described as a particularly ‘welcoming’ environment by most of the gay GSB/ex-military individuals to which I’ve spoken. Similarly, the halls and cubicles of some companies can be fairly oppressive. A handful of companies in the U.S. admit to policies of firing employees who are discovered to be gay or lesbian (yes, it is still legal to do this in many places) while many others discourage gay and lesbian openness through less overt means. Geography also plays an important role in the GSB’s appeal. It should come as no surprise that the opportunity to spend at least two years in the shadow of San Francisco is a powerful draw to many.

Many gay and lesbian GSB students left their previous employers never having felt comfortable telling anyone they were gay. Why is this so important? Think about all the social interactions at work which communicate one’s sexual orientation: the picture of your spouse on your desk, the beneficiary listed on company insurance forms, talking to a coworker about weekend plans, company functions to which "significant others" are invited. Now imagine trying to avoid all of these awkward situations and deflect any casual inquiry which may require more information than you are willing to surrender. It’s not easy. Increasingly, gays and lesbians are seeking out workplaces where such deception is not required. The GSB is a great place to search for a professional environment in which one can be happy long-term.

Room for Improvement

Being gay is not all peaches and cream, however, and individual perceptions and experiences at the GSB do vary. For instance, the question of how "out" to be at the GSB looms large for many. An important part of business school, after all, is developing a network of contacts which will be used through our professional lives in many ways. How will being openly gay affect how others will react towards us? While it’s certainly not cool at the GSB to appear bigoted or biased against certain groups, bigotry does exist. For example, I have heard GSBers use the term "faggot" -- not hurled as an insult, but used quietly when no one else was thought to be listening. Do my straight classmates really believe it’s OK for someone to be gay or is it simply tolerated because it is uncool to appear intolerant?

There is always a risk taken when coming out to someone at the GSB. Will they become suddenly uncomfortable? Freeze up? Get that "deer caught in the headlights" look? And the "coming out event" which may illicit this behavior needn’t be a forthright declaration of gayness, but can be something more subtle, such as a comment made during class discussion or even hanging out a little ‘too often’ with an openly gay GSB figure. Let’s face it, the GSB is a pretty small place with an efficient market for rumors. Anyone who wants to be open about his or her sexuality, then, faces a complex and often confusing environment. Does everyone in my new study group know about this, or will someone freak out when I mention a date I had last weekend? How do I communicate this information without it becoming a Big Deal which overshadows everything else I do?

The smallness of the GSB can be problematic in other ways. Social events are very straight-oriented and few involve people outside of the GSB. For a single gay or lesbian GSBer, this is not the optimal environment for landing a mate. One could understand, then, why a trip up to San Francisco with a few friends may be more appealing on a weekend night than, say, a GSB formal. There are some feelings of disconnectedness among gays and lesbians with the mainstream GSB social life.

With all of the changes afoot in the business world alluded to earlier, it is also disappointing that more discussion of gay and lesbian business issues doesn’t surface at the GSB. Last year’s Human Resource Management course did include a case discussion of the issues faced by Lotus Corporation as one of the first companies to implement benefits for their employees’ same-sex domestic partners. Second years indicate that the discussions sparked by this case were very illuminating and helped many straight classmates to better understand the issues and viewpoints surrounding this issue. Unfortunately, this year’s HRM class does not include the Lotus case, and no discussion of this topic occurred. It is unfortunate that many first years will not be exposed to this topic and will likely have no classroom vehicle to examine the broader workplace issues faced by their gay classmates (not to mention their future employees, clients and supervisors).

Beating the Metaphorical Dead Horse

There are as many different perspectives on the GSB as there are students, faculty and staff. This is one that is a little out of the ordinary and may give readers some food for thought. At a minimum, it may change the way you look at water meters.