AT&T Aspire Grants Could Help Additional Iowa Schools - Exec Digital

DES MOINES, Iowa, March 19, 2012 /PRNewswire/ -- As access to skilled workers becomes increasingly vital to the U.S. economy, AT&T* is launching a quarter-billion-dollar campaign to help more students graduate from high school ready for careers and college, and to ensure the country is better prepared to meet global competition.

According to a March 19, 2012 report by Civic Enterprises, the Everyone Graduates Center, America's Promise Alliance and the Alliance for Excellent Education, Iowa has seen a 1.6 percentage increase in 2009 graduation rates, compared with data from 2002.

AT&T Aspire, already among the most significant U.S. corporate educational initiatives with more than $100 million invested since 2008, will tackle high school success and college/career readiness for students at-risk of dropping out of high school through a much larger, "socially innovative" approach. Social innovation goes beyond traditional philanthropy ? which typically involves only charitable giving ? to also engage people and technology to bring different approaches, new solutions and added resources to challenging social problems.? The Aspire effort already has impacted more than one million U.S. high school students, helping them prepare for success in the workplace and college.?

The greatly expanded effort centers on a new, $250 million financial commitment planned over 5 years.? AT&T Aspire will build on that commitment by using technology to connect with students in new and more effective ways, such as with interactive gamification, Web-based content and social media. The company will also tap the innovation engine of the AT&T Foundry to look for fresh or atypical approaches to educational obstacles.? Finally, AT&T Aspire will capitalize on the power of personal connections in the form of mentoring, internships and other voluntary efforts that involve many of AT&T's approximately 260,000 employees.

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"AT&T Aspire works toward an America where every student graduates high school equipped with the knowledge and skills to strengthen the nation's workforce," AT&T Chairman and CEO Randall Stephenson said while announcing the extended commitment during a keynote address at the second annual Building a Grad Nation Summit. The Washington, D.C., event convened by America's Promise Alliance (http://www.americaspromise.org/), Civic Enterprises (http://www.civicenterprises.net/home.html), The Everyone Graduates Center at Johns Hopkins University (www.every1graduates.org/), and the Alliance for Excellent Education (http://www.all4ed.org/) brings together nearly 1,200 U.S. leaders to discuss progress and challenges in ending the high school dropout crisis.

Des Moines East High School, which earned a $10,000 grant under the AT&T Aspire program in 2010, is planning to submit a grant application under the newly expanded AT&T Aspire program.? Des Moines East earned the initial grant for "Project YOU!," a unique peer-to-peer mentoring program designed to encourage fellow students to stay in school and graduate.? The program focuses on attendance as well as career and academic development.? Student mentors in the program work with at risk students to give them somebody that they can turn to with questions or concerns.?

"The value of our school district's relationship with business partners such as AT&T cannot be stressed enough," said Nancy Sebring, Superintendent for Des Moines Public Schools. "For example, Des Moines Public Schools' five-year graduation rate increased by nearly six-percent between 2009 and 2010.? Assistance from community and business partners on our dropout prevention efforts helps to make this success possible."

Lacking a high school degree is a serious issue in the United States, where one in four students ? more than 1 million each year ? drops out, according to a March 19, 2012, report by Civic Enterprises, the Everyone Graduates Center, America's Promise Alliance and the Alliance for Excellent Education. AT&T is the lead sponsor of this report. Education experts believe that the lack of a high school degree significantly worsens job prospects in a rapidly changing, increasingly sophisticated job market.

And, if dropouts find jobs, they earn less. On average, a high school dropout earns 25 percent less during the course of his or her lifetime compared with a high school graduate and 57 percent less than a college graduate with a bachelor's degree.(1)

The situation poses a serious risk to American competitiveness as corporations struggle to find talent, especially in the math and sciences fields. The dropout rate, along with inadequate training and education, is keeping many high-paying Science, Technology, Engineering and Math (STEM) jobs from being filled. And the situation is expected to worsen as STEM jobs grow a projected 17 percent by 2018. Workers in these positions typically earn 26 percent more than those in non-STEM positions.(2)

"We have had a really great time being part of the Project YOU! program,"?said Brooke Wilson, a student at East High School and one of the student leaders working as a?mentor in the grant-winning project. ?"We've not only made a lot of friends?with 9th grade students, but have made high school more fun for everyone. We?love the idea of our school having positive activities promoted around?campus and getting students recognized for their work and achievements."

Although the problem is serious, there are signs of progress according to the report issued today:

• The high school graduation rate increased by 3.5 percentage points nationally from 2001 to 2009.
• In 2001, the rate was 72.0 percent; by 2009, it had risen to 75.5 percent. From 2002 to 2009, six states experienced large gains in their graduation rates; 14 states made moderate gains; and four states made modest gains (Note: 2002 was the first year that state data became available.)
• And the number of "dropout factory" high schools (a high school where 12th-grade enrollment is 60 percent or less than the 9th-grade enrollment three years previously) dropped from 2,007 to 1,550 from 2002 to 2010 ? a 23 percent decrease.

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The new and expanded AT&T commitment builds on the work AT&T Aspire has completed in the last four years. AT&T and the AT&T Foundation have invested more than $100 million in Aspire since 2008 ? and more than $923 million since 1984 in education. The Iowa Aspire investment has amounted to $10,000 since 2008. Organizations that have benefited include Des Moines East High School.

AT&T Aspire will build on that success by focusing on:

• Technology
  • Collaborating with innovators, educators and other companies at the AT&T Foundry (www.att.com/foundry) to blaze new ground in developing solutions to improve education. For example, the company will sponsor challenges or contests for mobile application developers to create cutting-edge solutions to complex problems in our educational system. A June "hackathon" in Palo Alto, Calif., is the first scheduled education/technology development event.
  • Expanding strategic alliances with organizations that specialize in developing and marketing new interactive learning tools which better engage today's students.
    • Incorporating gamification, the Internet, video and social media into educational programs.
    • Enabling students in underserved communities to explore careers before graduation through internships in areas related to 21st-century skills.
    • Collaborating on a new initiative with GameDesk (http://www.gamedesk.org/), pioneers in game-based and digital learning, combining entertainment with high-quality educational content aimed at equalizing education for all students.
• People
  • Because AT&T employees have asked for more opportunities to engage with students and contribute to their success, AT&T will launch the Aspire Mentoring Academy later this year. The academy will enable employees to help students at risk of dropping out of school succeed in the classroom and in life.
    • Building on the success of AT&T's first Job Shadow initiative (http://www.att.com/gen/corporate-citizenship?pid=11547) with Junior Achievement (http://www.ja.org/), the next evolution for Job Shadow will create a program in which employee-student teams learn work/life skills, explore real business problems and form lasting relationships. The initial Job Shadow initiative already has involved 100,000 U.S. students.
    • AT&T employees will provide skills-based mentoring, which pairs them with students based on shared interests to encourage and support career path development.
  • Inspiring more AT&T customers, companies and stakeholders to step up to the challenge of addressing the education crisis.
• Communities
  • Deepening the financial commitment to local education-focused groups that deliver results.
    • Especially groups that embrace social innovation, focus on 21st-century skills, or focus on STEM disciplines for students in underserved communities.
  • Making local contributions to community organizations that specialize in helping students and improving the quality of education.

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"It will take all of us working together and supporting the hard work of the education community to continue to improve graduation rates and preparedness for careers and college," AT&T Regional Vice President Beth Canuteson said. "American business has an enormous stake in the success of our students. It's time to commit more innovation and resources to the task."

Cautionary Language Concerning Forward-Looking Statements
Information set forth in this news release contains financial estimates and other forward-looking statements that are subject to risks and uncertainties, and actual results may differ materially. A discussion of factors that may affect future results is contained in AT&T's filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission. AT&T disclaims any obligation to update or revise statements contained in this news release based on new information or otherwise.

*AT&T products and services are provided or offered by subsidiaries and affiliates of AT&T Inc. under the AT&T brand and not by AT&T Inc.

About AT&T
AT&T Inc. (NYSE:T) is a premier communications holding company and one of the most honored companies in the world. Its subsidiaries and affiliates ? AT&T operating companies ? are the providers of AT&T services in the United States and around the world. With a powerful array of network resources that includes the nation's fastest mobile broadband network, AT&T is a leading provider of wireless, Wi-Fi, high speed Internet, voice and cloud-based services. A leader in mobile broadband and emerging 4G capabilities, AT&T also offers the best wireless coverage worldwide of any U.S. carrier, offering the most wireless phones that work in the most countries.? It also offers advanced TV services under the AT&T U-verse? and AT&T ?DIRECTV brands. The company's suite of IP-based business communications services is one of the most advanced in the world. In domestic markets, AT&T Advertising Solutions and AT&T Interactive are known for their leadership in local search and advertising.?

Additional information about AT&T Inc. and the products and services provided by AT&T subsidiaries and affiliates is available at http://www.att.com.? This AT&T news release and other announcements are available at http://www.att.com/newsroom and as part of an RSS feed at www.att.com/rss. Or follow our news on Twitter at @ATT.

About Philanthropy at AT&T
AT&T Inc. (NYSE:T) is committed to advancing education, strengthening communities and improving lives. Through its philanthropic initiatives and?working with other organizations,?AT&T has a long history of supporting projects that create learning opportunities; promote academic and economic achievement; and address community needs. In 2011, more than $115 million was contributed through corporate-, employee- and AT&T Foundation-giving programs.

(1) "The College Payoff," Georgetown University Center on Education and Workforce [August 2011]

(2) "STEM: Good Jobs Now and for the Future," U.S. Department of Commerce Economics and Statistics Administration [July 2011]

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SOURCE AT&T Inc.

Source: http://www.execdigital.com/press_releases/att-aspire-grants-could-help-additional-iowa-schools

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Surprising state tops anti-corruption list

By msnbc news services

?Despite a reputation for scandals, New Jersey leads all states in the fight against official corruption, according to a wide-ranging study released on Monday.

Five states received a "B" grade for accountability and transparency and eight got an "F" in the investigation by the nonprofit groups Center for Public Integrity, Global Integrity and Public Radio International. No state got an "A."

The 18-month project is the most comprehensive study of state laws and practices that bolster openness and deter corruption, the investigators said.

New Jersey led the way with a grade of B-plus, followed by?Connecticut, Washington, California and Nebraska. The eight failing states were North Dakota, Michigan, South Carolina, Maine, Virginia, Wyoming, South Dakota and Georgia at the bottom. Nineteen states got a "C" and 18 received a "D."

Bad reputation
New Jersey has a colorful tradition of corruption in government, including a U.S. congressman taking a bribe from an FBI agent posing as a wealthy Arab sheik, a Jersey shore councilman caught on tape bragging to an undercover officer that he would never get caught because ?I could smell a cop a mile away,? and a decade-long string of 150 state and local officials who were either convicted or pleaded guilty to federal corruption charges. The cases ranged from Motor Vehicle Commission employees selling fraudulent licenses to politicians peddling their influence for kickbacks.

Cases stemming from the 2009 roundup of 44 people in what was dubbed by the feds as ?Operation Bid-Rig? are still working their way through the courts.

Read the full report from NBC10.com

But that history of corruption also led to strong reforms designed to prevent it in the future. Among them was a law prohibiting campaign contributions by most firms doing business with the state.

New Jersey ranks first in the integrity investigation for ethics enforcement, first for executive branch accountability and fourth for procurement practices.

?It's nice to be recognized for being ahead of the curve,? said Michael Drewniak, a spokesman for Gov. Chris Christie, a former U.S. attorney who prosecuted many of the recent cases. ?The governor is proud of the changes he's made and the resources he's made available to the public in terms of government transparency. Government operates and behaves better when it's open and transparent, and taxpayers feel informed and a part of the process when they can see how their money is spent, who is getting contracts and who's on the payroll and such.?

The result surprised Marc Mappen, author of the book "There?s More to New Jersey Than The Sopranos," who has covered corruption in the state.? "It?s nice to know we?re not as corrupt as people think," he told the Star-Ledger. "New Jersey has some spectacular examples of corruption in its history, but studies have painted a better picture."

According to Nathaniel Heller, managing director of Global Integrity, the finding may appear?"counter-intuitive" but is a tribute to its corruption-fighting reforms

But, he added, "To be at the top of this list is sort of to win a beauty contest where not anybody is particularly pretty to start with."

Fewer watchdogs?
The study comes as struggling newspapers have slashed statehouse coverage or folded, weakening its traditional watchdog role of government, said Caitlin Ginley of the Center for Public Integrity, the project manager.

Almost every state had large gaps between laws on the books and their enforcement, she said.

The index grade measured the risk of corruption based on 330 indicators across 14 categories of government.

New York finished 36th with a "D" grade despite Governor Andrew Cuomo's steering ethics reform through the legislature.

"When the capital (Albany) is mentioned anywhere in New York state, there's usually a guffawing rejoinder followed by 'rats,' 'bums' or 'thieves,'" the report said.

Illinois, where former Governor Rod Blagojevich started a 14-year prison term for corruption on Thursday, got a "C" in a four-way tie for 10th with Rhode Island, Massachusetts and Hawaii.

States with well-known scandals paradoxically often have tough laws and enforcement that then bring them to light, a statement accompanying the study said.

"'Quiet' states may be at higher risk, with few means to (bring to the) surface corrupt practices," it said.

In Georgia, at the bottom of the list, there is a "gaping divide" between legal standards for accountability and normal practice, the report said.

Some 658 state workers accepted sports tickets, expensive meals and other gifts over a two-year period. It has been 12 years since the state last fined a vendor for failing to disclose such gifts, it said.

As a group, executives of Georgia insurance companies, public utilities and other regulated sectors have become the biggest single source of campaign money for regulators.

Methodology for the study was designed by Global Integrity, a Washington group that examines corruption worldwide.

The Center for Public Integrity oversaw the reporting and editing. Minneapolis-based Public Radio International, a transparency campaigner, handled dissemination by social media.

The study was largely funded by the Omidyar Network, an investment group founded by eBay Inc founder Pierre Omidyar and his wife, and the Rita Allen Foundation of Princeton, New Jersey.

Reuters and NBC Philadelphia contributed to this report.

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Source: http://usnews.msnbc.msn.com/_news/2012/03/19/10756707-fuhgeddaboutit-nj-top-state-for-fighting-corruption

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How The New York Times Co. became a small business | Georgia ...

Perhaps for as long as the federal government has reported which of its contracts have been awarded to small businesses, critics have charged that many of those contracts have actually gone to large companies ? often very large companies.

Recently, the American Small Business League, perhaps the loudest of those critics, tried to outline the scope of diversion. The association issued a report that studied the 100 companies that won the most federal small-business contract dollars in 2011 and found that at least 72 of them either had too many employees or too much revenue to be? eligible for government assistance to small business. (S.B.A. size standards vary by industry and sector, but generally a company must have fewer than 500 employees or less than $7 million to be considered small.)

The federal government, the world?s largest buyer of goods and service, is obliged by law to try to direct 23 percent of its purchases to small businesses, though there are no penalties for failure. The government hasn?t reached that goal in years, and while recording a deal with a bigger business as a small-business contract ? whether by mistake or by fraud ? does not necessarily mean that a small company has been denied an opportunity, it does exaggerate the government?s contracting achievement. In the view of Elliott Rosenfeld, of the league, said that in turn undermined the case for stronger enforcement of contracting rules. And by inflating an agency?s sense of achievement, it could weaken the agency?s drive to award more contracts to small businesses.

S.B.A. officials, for their part, insist the league?s analysis is premature. This summer, the S.B.A. will release its own report on the government?s contracting efforts in 2011, said a spokeswoman, Hayley Meadvin, after spending months reviewing the records. ?By the time we release our fiscal year report, we have corrected these mistakes,? she said. ?We spend a lot time making sure our data is as clean as can be.?

Moreover, the league has been prone to sweeping accusations. The group called this latest report, for instance, ?strong evidence that large companies are the fraudulent recipients of the majority of federal small-business contracts every year.? But even if improperly coded contracts are as pervasive as the association claims, is it necessarily the result of fraud?

The Agenda decided to look at one large company, mentioned incidentally in the report, that won small business contracts in 2011, to try to find out: The New York Times Company. The Times was not among the league?s list of 100; it was identified as one of 55 well-known corporations that received small-business contracts last year when it sold $56,821 worth of newspapers to the United States Military Academy at West Point, N.Y. ? 500 daily subscriptions for the 28 weeks school is in session, according to Carol D?Andrea, The Times?s circulation manager for sales to schools and colleges.

In the government?s record of the West Point transaction, known as a contact action report, The Times is described as having $3 billion in revenue ? and 10 employees. (Both figures were wrong: in 2011, the company?s revenue was $2.3 billion and the work force totaled 7,273 employees, according to the most recent annual report.) In a field labeled ?Contracting Officer?s Business Size Selection,? the document describes The Times as a ?small business.? Under government size standards, newspaper publishers must have fewer than 500 employees to be considered small.

Our inquiry began with a call to West Point. The contracting officer who approved the deal, Kathleen Judson, said in a brief interview that she had not designated The New York Times as a small business. ?The only way that could have happened is that it must have been prepopulated,? she said. ?Sometimes the fields come through on the contract action report prepropulated. I know The New York Times is a large company.?

Here?s where it starts to get complicated ? and government officials contacted by The Agenda offered little help in clearing up the confusion. S.B.A. officials spoke authoritatively about the agency?s efforts to correct contracting records, but referred our questions about how those records are created to the General Services Administration, which oversees the procurement infrastructure used across the government. The G.S.A.?s deputy press secretary, Adam Elkington, initially sent us to the Army for answers, then later promised to find us a colleague who could answer basic contracting questions. (He never did.) A spokesman for West Point, Frank DeMaro, wrote down our questions but did not answer them. Eventually, Daniel Elkins, a spokesman for the Army?s Mission and Installation Contracting Command at Fort Sam Houston, in Texas, fielded some of our queries.

This is what we know: every entity selling to the government must sign up with the G.S.A.?s Central Contractor Registration with a unique identification number, known as a DUNS number, from Dun & Bradstreet. The vendor supplies its annual revenue and employee headcount for the entire organization, which the S.B.A. uses to determine whether the entity is a small business. What complicates things is that companies must register each legal division, or any office with a separate location or address separately. The New York Times currently has at least three active contractor registrations. One of these was set up by Ms. D?Andrea and her colleagues in The Times?s Education Sales department in order, she said, to sell the subscriptions to West Point.

The Times is not identified as a small business in the Education Sales department?s registration. It turns out, though, that West Point did not use this registration to pay The Times. Instead, the contract refers to the DUNS number used by another registered Times Company entity, this one made by the TimesCenter, an event hall at the company?s headquarters on Eighth Avenue. In that registration, The Times did identify itself as a small business.

A Times Company spokeswoman, Eileen Murphy, said by e-mail that the employees who initially registered the TimesCenter were no longer employed there. But, she said, when the TimesCenter first opened, ?it was operated as an independent business, separate from The New York Times Company. It is possible that the small-business designation was one that fit at the time, but again, we do not know for sure.? Ms. Murphy said she did not know whether the TimesCenter was independently owned at the time or just operated as if it were. Today, she said, it is operated as part of The New York Times. Nor could she say whether, or why, a Times employee entered the inaccurate revenue and headcount figures.

At West Point, neither Ms. Judson or Mr. DeMaro have explained why Ms. Judson used the registration from the TimesCenter rather than the one from the Education Sales department. (In an e-mail, the Army?s Mr. Elkins said ?multiple actions between the N.Y. Times registration of DUNS numbers and contracting officer actions makes it difficult to identify the exact sequence of events.?) But Ms. Meadvin of the S.B.A. disputed the claim that the business size field was automatically filled in, saying, ?to our knowledge? it is ?the only field that is manually entered.? Mr. Elkington of the G.S.A. did not respond to our request seeking clarification.

In any event, government contracting officers like Ms. Judson are not supposed to rely on information from the Central Contractor Registration to determine whether a business is small ? the registration record says as much at the very top. Instead, they are obligated to verify size, or any other claims a company makes, with a separate database known as the Online Representations and Certifications Application, or ORCA ? which imports size information from the Central Contractor Registration. (Filling out this form, Ms. D?Andrea said, ?is worse than filling out your taxes. Just the password is 16 digits and you can?t have repeating letters and numbers.?)

However, while the Education Sales department submitted an ORCA form ? and did not claim small-business status ? the TimesCenter, the entity on the contract, never did complete the form. According to Mr. Elkins of the Army, ?Before the contracts were awarded, the contracting officer observed that there were no Online Representations and Certifications Application records for The New York Times.? The officer then tried to verify The Times?s size, Mr. Elkins said, by turning to yet another database, the Dynamic Small Business Search maintained by the S.B.A., ?using the DUNS that was initially provided by The N.Y. Times.? But, said Mr. Elkins, ?this procedure was improper and led to the miscoded award; the Army should have asked for this information from the N.Y. Times, rather than relying upon the D.S.B. search engine.?

But if a record for a Times entity existed in the Dynamic Small Business database last year, it is gone now, and this explanation raises additional questions. Which DUNS number did The Times provide to the Army ? the one that ended up on the contract, from the TimesCenter, or one from the education sales department? Moreover, if Ms. Judson knew The Times was in fact a large business, why would she conduct a Dynamic Small Business search in the first place? Finally, the actions described here suggest Ms. Judson did in fact have to manually enter the vendor?s business size in the contract, as the S.B.A. has maintained. (Mr. Elkins has not responded to requests for further explanation.)

As it happens, three other federal agencies have used the TimesCenter registration as the basis for contracts in recent years ? apparently erroneously, since these agencies were buying newspaper ads, not renting out an event space ? and in most of those contract action reports, The Times is described as ?other than small.? And yet, for one contract with the Securities and Exchange Commission, The Times was again deemed a small business. The contract officer in that instance referred the Agenda to the S.E.C. press office to set up an interview, which a spokesman has thus far declined to do.

And that?s as far as we have been able to get. We still can?t say with certainty how The Times ended up with a small-business contract. What we did find was a record-keeping system so complex that it invites confusion and error from all parties. ?We hear from our small-business members that navigating the federal marketplace is extremely confusing and complex,? said Molly Brogan, a spokeswoman for the National Small Business Association, an advocacy group based in Washington. ?Perhaps some level of simplification ? along with enhanced oversight and repercussions for those that knowingly miscode a large business as small ? would alleviate some of these issues.?

Things may improve this year, when the G.S.A. is to merge the two separate contractor databases into one as part of a bigger move to consolidate all of the different systems ? nine of them! ? that constitute the government?s ?Integrated Acquisition Environment.? According to Ms. Meadvin, the S.B.A. believes that eventually the system will operate the way the people at West Point seem to believe it already does: business size representations from ORCA will be among the data automatically entered into the contract action report.

But for now, small-business advocates bemoan a system that allows everyone involved to evade responsibility for their actions. ?The ?pass the blame? game you?ve seen from the S.B.A. and the Army is highly indicative of a lack of accountability by the federal employees whose duty it is to ensure that the contracting process is handled professionally and fairly,? said Mr. Rosenfeld of the league. ?The erroneous entry into C.C.R. by The Times is also an example of how a large company?s negligence can contribute to the problem.

?Contract error and mismanagement amounts to tens of billions of dollars? worth of contracts a year being diverted away from small business,? he added. ?With such faulty standards of oversight, accountability and transparency, we wonder how easy it must be to hide fraud in the federal contracting process.?

? by ROBB MANDELBAUM, The New York Times, Mar. 15, 2012; this article appears at http://boss.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/03/15/how-the-new-york-times-became-a-small-business.

Source: http://gtpac.org/2012/03/how-the-new-york-times-co-became-a-small-business/

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Students Challenge Yale's Infamous Sex Week

Since its inception in 2002, Yale?s infamous ?Sex Week? has held pride of place among efforts to further the apparently never-ending cause of college students? sexual liberation. The biennial event, always held the week leading up to Valentine?s Day, offers a full schedule of lectures, panels, and workshops dedicated to increasing ?self-awareness and understanding of sexual topics.? Over the past decade the model has been adopted at numerous other universities, including Northwestern, Duke, Brown and, starting this year, Harvard.

Yale?s Sex Week bills itself as a neutral forum simply dedicated to ?engaging and meaningful discussions about sexuality, intimacy, and relationships.? In practice, however, Sex Week has always stood for a very particular ideology of sexual license, narcissistic hedonism, and reciprocal objectification. Even this year?s Sex Week, which ostensibly sought to correct the sensationalism of past years in response to administrative concerns, featured such salacious events as a BDSM workshop and a lecture titled ?Fornication 101,? intended ?to introduce students to carnal knowledge.?

This February, however, Sex Week wasn?t the only forum for discussion of relationships and sexuality.

My classmates and I founded a group called Undergraduates for a Better Yale College (UBYC) in order to address the one-sided agenda in Yale?s Sex Week and similar events: namely, the lack of any attempt to put forward a positive vision of sex, its meaning, and its purposes. UBYC hosted a slate of eight speakers (and one film screening) under the name ?True Love Week.? With True Love Week, we provided an opportunity for Yale students to hear an alternative perspective to that of Yale?s Sex Week, one that treated sex less as an end in itself and more as a texture in the complex fabric of human love.

As UBYC wrote at the beginning of the year,

Sex Week reflects and reinforces students? assumptions that the physical pleasure of sex is its most important purpose, with its interpersonal aspect coming a distant second; that there is no intrinsic difference between the solitary pursuit of pleasure embodied in pornography and masturbation, and the sex that expresses a couple?s mutual love; that the body is only raw material that we can legitimately use however and whenever we feel like it; that it is natural and healthy to be obsessed with sex; and that transgression is synonymous with progress.

At True Love Week, meanwhile, students could hear Dante translator Anthony Esolen extol the beautiful challenge of giving oneself to another entirely in love; philosopher Christopher Tollefsen recommend chastity as essential to the virtue of integrity, a mode of life characterized by unity of intention, not domination by transient desires; and sociologist W. Bradford Wilcox discussed the ingredients and the rewards of happy marriages.

In cynics? eyes, of course, these speakers were ill suited to address the realities of college life: too romantic, too unrealistic, too idealistic. I think these dismissals give Yale students too little credit. If the rhetoric with which we and our peers are continually bombarded is true?if we really are the gifted, talented, passionate leaders of tomorrow our administrators say we are?then it?s hardly expecting too much of us to think we might lead our sexual lives with the same maturity, integrity, and intentionality we aspire to in other aspects of life.

The need for reforming Yale?s sexual culture has been obvious to virtually everyone, save the most complacent, since 2010?s Delta Kappa Epsilon incident in which male students marched through campus shouting ?No means yes.? In 2011, a group of current and former students filed a Title IX complaint against the university, charging the administration with chronically inadequate responses to reports of sexual assault.

Yet there remains disagreement about the kind of reform most needed. Sex Week and its partisans think that debauchery?so long as it?s consensual debauchery?is the antidote to sexual assault and disrespect between the sexes. (Here one might cite the adage about ideas so foolish only intellectuals can believe them.) We who make up Undergraduates for a Better Yale on the other hand, propose that a renewed sense of the seriousness of sex?as opposed to the juvenile frivolity of campus culture?is the key to a sexual culture grounded in the beauty and dignity of human love.

Fix Contributor Bijan Aboutorabi is a junior at Yale and a founding member of Undergraduates for a Better Yale College.

Source: http://www.thecollegefix.com/post/10342

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HR practitioners 'need business savvy' | Human Resource Vetting

Stephen Wilkinson

Human resources professionals need to develop a better understanding of wider business issues, a new survey has suggested.

Three-fifths of HR practitioners interviewed by the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development (CIPD) agree that the profession needs to improve its appreciation of business issues.

However, respondents offered the view that developing ?business savvy? can be easier said than done.

CIPD is urging HR to use its unique insight into the interrelationship between people, the organisation and the wider context in which it operates in order to drive organisational performance.

In a new report, the body explores the key foundations required for HR professionals to pursue their stewardship role from a grounded business perspective.

Business savvy gives HR credibility and the courage to challenge the relentless pursuit of short term goals that can be detrimental to the long term success of the organisation, it stated.

According to CIPD, HR practitioners need to understand the business model at depth, appreciating where value is created and destroyed within their organisations.

They should be able to identify people-related improvement points which drive value and enhance organisational performance, it said.

HR staff should also be able to generate insight through evidence and data, CIPD claimed.

?The most effective HR professionals have the courage to ask questions and look for explanations even when the knowledge required seems masked in technical or professional jargon,? the report noted.

Next, they should demonstrate curiosity about why and how the business operates, with the purpose of identifying opportunities for improvement.

?HR professionals should not wait to be asked but should take a proactive approach to making connections across the business and collaborating at all levels,? CIPD suggested.

And finally, they should lead with integrity, consideration and challenge, serving stakeholders by retaining a strong stewardship role.

Stephanie Bird, director of HR capability and public policy at the CIPD, commented: ?We know that many HR practitioners find it hard to understand what business savvy really is, and how to develop it.

?This report is the first step in helping them to understand just that. It is also clear that without it their credibility as professionals is damaged, and their ability to challenge flawed pursuits is fatally undermined.??

John McGurk, learning and talent development adviser at the CIPD, added that business savvy practitioners at all levels are ?essential? if HR is to fulfil its potential to be central to organisational strategy.

Source: ashdowngroup

?It is encouraging to see that the majority of HR professionals get this and continually and instinctively step up to the challenge,? he noted.

Source: ashdowngroup

http://www.ashdowngroup.com/news/hr-practitioners-need-business-savvy?news-801320365

Source: http://hrvetting.com/2012/03/19/savvy/

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Mexico says G20 to look at smoothing capital flows

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Source: http://news.yahoo.com/mexico-says-g20-look-smoothing-capital-flows-194521662.html

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