At Harvard Business School, diversity remains elusive

For seven years, Steven Rogers has been unrelenting in his push to include more diverse voices in Harvard Business School’s celebrated case studies, its primary tool for helping students understand how real-life business executives tackle crucial decisions.

But this past year, Rogers, one of a handful of black professors at the business school, faced an executive dilemma of his own: What do you do if you are frustrated by your employer’s lack of African-Americans in its faculty, leadership, student body, and featured in its curriculum?

For Rogers, 62, the answer was retirement. The senior lecturer, who has been featured in Harvard’s internal publications for his efforts to excavate and study the stories of overlooked African-American business leaders, said he will step down from teaching at the country’s premier business school, discouraged that the institution has given short shrift to the black experience.

“I love the place, but I’m disappointed,” Rogers said during a recent interview in his corner office above the business school’s Baker Library. “After complaining and making a statement about that, it’s time for me to go.”

Read more: https://www.bostonglobe.com/metro/2019/06/01/harvard-business-school-diversity-remains-elusive/bpyxP4cE1iCQJdLbHQEaQI/story.html