IN

PRACTICE

THE BUSINESS OF DOING GOOD

A CREATIVE COLLABORATION

Matt Matsuda and David Williams report on a successful collaboration

between academic and student services that resulted in a
Rutgers University Byrne Seminar on social entrepreneurship.

By Matt Matsuda and David S. Williams II

H
OW CAN ACADEMIC AFFAIRS AND STUDENT AFFAIRS
work together to engage undergradu-
ates whose majors range from business
and economics to social justice and
human rights? One response comes
from a compelling 2009 collaboration
between undergraduate education and
residence life, in which a dean who is a professor of
history worked with residence life professional who
holds an MBA degree to create a seminar dedicated
to first-year students’ learning the fundamentals of an
up-and-coming phenomenon—social entrepreneur-
ship. The course, entitled The Business of Doing Good:
Combining Business Practices with Social Activism, was
designed to inspire the next generation of change mak-
ers, providing them with accelerated course work to
help them understand social justice issues as well as
basic business practices and strategies. Conveniently
located in a first-year residence hall, the course covered
the history of social justice, nonprofit case studies, and
the work of contemporary philanthropic leaders such as
Muhammad Yunus, Bono of the rock band U2, Oprah
Winfrey, and Bill Gates, all the while fostering a team-
oriented and project-based atmosphere.
The endeavor was part of an institutional com-
mitment to connect prominent faculty members with
first-year students at the onset of their collegiate career
through an initiative called the Rutgers University
Byrne Seminars. The Byrne Seminars are intended to
enhance new undergraduates’ collegiate experience
without competing with other course work. Students
meet with faculty in groups of no more twenty on sub-
jects of mutual interest for ten sessions and receive one
credit on a pass/not pass basis without graded exams.
The Byrne Seminar program was created to
allow students to learn about subjects that are of par-
ticular interest to faculty but not readily available in
departmental curricula, opening up opportunities for
experimentation with new and exciting material. The
idea for The Business of Doing Good stemmed from

Published online in Wiley InterScience (www.interscience.wiley.com).

© 2010 by American College Personnel Association and Wiley Periodicals, Inc.
DOI: 10.1002/abc.20005

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ABOUT CAMPUS / January–February 2010
conversations between undergraduate education and room environment and hands-on learning,” which led
student affairs on the need to create an experience for to authentic class discussions, presentations, and group
students who want to make a difference in the world projects on social issues that spanned the entire course
yet are also driven by the imperative to make a liv- and continued outside the classroom, given that over
ing. Discarding the notion that these were either-or 75 percent of the seminar’s students were residents of
propositions, the collaboration of a history professor/ the building in which it was held. These strategies of
dean and an student affairs active and collaborative
professional/MBA was learning are also highly rec-
intentional. These two ommended in the literature
individuals brought a com- The Byrne Seminar program on how to improve student
mon mission but different success in college.
talents, skills, and expertise was created to allow
to the classroom. One stu-
dent pointed out, “I think
the instructors represented
students to learn about H
nar
OW EXACTLY did the semi-
nar work? The semi-
began with students
subjects that are of
the demographics of our engaging in dialogue with
class: the business-minded particular interest to one another about what
and the activists (not that they believed social entre-
there isn’t overlap, but had faculty but not readily preneurship to be, why
it been taught any other available in departmental they had taken the course,
way, it would have been and what they hoped to
like a piece of the puzzle curricula, opening achieve. Students then
was missing).” Within the took a pre-test to reveal
institution, the instructors up opportunities for preconceived notions they
served higher education experimentation with new had about social entre-
in different capacities, and preneurship and business
their successful collabora- and exciting material. planning. Responses varied
tion illustrates the value from “The whole concept
of cross-unit initiatives. In of social entrepreneurship
her book chapter “Under- was new to me” to “Busi-
standing the Role and Work of Faculty” in The Mid- ness solving social problems, never ever thought this
Level Manager, Barbara Bender describes research that sentence could be a true and plausible statement.”
shows the many ways that faculty and staff can build The students then discussed global challenges such as
successful relationships. George Kuh, Jillian Kinzie, unequal access to education, problems of sustainabil-
John Schuh, and Elizabeth Whitt and their colleagues ity, violence, health care, poverty, and environmental
recommend bridging the gap between academic degradation.
affairs and student affairs in Student Success in College, By the second meeting, students had formed teams
and among the recommendations is team teaching of that corresponded with their interests. Each team was
courses such as first-year seminars. required to balance its members with potential social
Although the collaboration itself was significant, activists as well as future business leaders. Once teams
the format of The Business of Doing Good promoted were formed, each was charged with identifying a
student learning by keeping the class size small and social problem to focus on. The goal of each group
intimate. Students favorably noted the “small class- would be to work collaboratively throughout the
remainder of the course to create a business plan that, if
implemented, could help to address the targeted social
Matt Matsuda is professor of history and dean of the College
Avenue campus at Rutgers University–New Brunswick. problem. The groups that formed became known as
Enterprise Relief, dedicated to providing health care for
David S. Williams II is community director in the
Department of Resident Life at the University of Maryland- impoverished residents in the local township; Turn the
College Park. Page, whose members wished to create opportunities
for hospitalized children to write their own storybooks
We love feedback. Send letters to executive editor Jean M. and stay invested in education; and RU Mentors, which
Henscheid (aboutcampus@uidaho.edu), and please copy focused on opportunities for urban youth to learn more
her on notes to authors. about the collegiate search process that would lead to

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ABOUT CAMPUS / January–February 2010
an increased percentage of inner-city students going on Peer interaction was a significant part of the active
to higher education. learning in the course. Active learning with peers
Students learned the principles of social entrepre- took several forms. First, students spent a lot of time
neurship through the team teaching of the instructors. discussing and negotiating the progress of the proj-
Alternating lessons and interweaving their expertise, ects pertaining to entrepreneurial social action and
they examined the historical foundations of charity business planning. Second, participants were able to
and philanthropy as they developed along with strug- connect with two students who worked as research
gles for social justice; in addition, they discussed the fellows for the course and created portfolios of ref-
contemporary formation of social entrepreneurship. erences, information, and class materials, including
Students engaged in conversations about the United case studies from business plan competitions, campus
Nations’ Millennium Development Goals as targets resources and events, and media reports on the con-
for international global cooperation in the twenty- cept of social entrepreneurship. A third highlight of
first century. Students learned how social entrepre- the course was the dialogue that students were able to
neurship is not just for have with two senior stu-
those studying business or dents who actually started
public policy but for stu- a social enterprise in the
dents in any major who While students were being heart of New Brunswick,
wish to apply their knowl- New Jersey, based on the
edge to the rest of the exposed to case studies of concept of microlending
world. “This course made exemplified in Muham-
social enterprise, they also
me realize the power of mad Yunus’s Grameen
social business and how learned the fundamentals Bank. This dialogue
it can affect change in the involved a reality check in
world” was one student’s of business planning. which the first-year stu-
reaction. Throughout the dents formally presented
semester, students dis- their group projects to the
cussed the effects of con- seniors for critiquing and
crete examples of social enterprise, including Bono’s some very honest and candid feedback. The prac-
(Red) campaign and the Grameen Bank and the work tice left the students vulnerable to some fairly blunt
of 2006 Nobel Prize winner Muhammad Yunus, critique but also exposed them to peers who, like
who innovated the modern practice of microlending, themselves, were strongly motivated and had signifi-
a practice that some students greeted with skepticism cantly more experience as both college students and
at first. One student reported, “When I heard about social entrepreneurs. The feedback seemed appropri-
the microlending process, I was very surprised and I ate to one student, who said, “The critiques of the
definitely would have never thought that a business business plans were a great help to us, the critiques of
like that would work.” the projects is when I said, ‘I never thought of that
While students were being exposed to case studies before’ to myself.”
of social enterprise, they also learned the fundamentals In the final session, the students showed off their
of business planning and drafting an executive sum- hard work by presenting their business plan to their
mary. Students then applied their knowledge of the peers. The students performed as if they were pre-
necessary elements of a “mini-MBA” by writing up a senting their project to a group of venture philan-
mission statement, working through financial planning, thropists. They wore professional attire, and each
and developing a multi-criteria action plan, covering group made a detailed PowerPoint presentation that
everything from markets to financial and social impact. required the participation of every member. The
A video study and an examination of the work of entre- class was charged with asking tough questions about
preneur Randal Pinkett, winner of Season Four of The whether the project should advance. Though a ten-
Apprentice, author of Campus CEO, and alumnus of Rut- session short course was clearly too brief to allow any
gers University, further illustrated the practice of business of the plans to be implemented during the course,
planning. Pinkett’s work drove home the importance the intention of the instructors is to follow up with
of market research and analysis, financial planning, net- any of the teams that wish to pursue their initiative
working, and seeking out campus resources. further, even to the point of possibly using seminar
Most of the instruction in the seminar, how- support resources to provide a small amount of seed
ever, was not based on lectures or presentations. capital for such participants. Any projects that are fur-

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ABOUT CAMPUS / January–February 2010
ther developed by the students into workable small the various educational and professional backgrounds
enterprises will become the ultimate assessment toolthat the teachers are from.” Another student simply
for the seminar. called the collaboration “a
dynamic pairing.”

O VERALL, student feedback

has been enthusiastic.
One student commented
Students walked away
The Byrne Seminars
represent Rutgers Uni-
versity’s commitment to
in an evaluation that “The with intellectual and student learning. In this
material was like nothing I case, expanding that model
conceptual tools they
have ever learned before— into a development and
very empowering and had never imagined and teaching experience that
exciting.” Another noted, involved both academic
“The seminar opened training in practices and affairs and student affairs
my eyes to a new way of has resulted in a unique,
skills they highly valued.
thinking that allowed me successful, and valuable
to see that business could opportunity for faculty and
be used to aid the needy students alike.
and do good in the world.”
In the end, students walked away with intellec-
tual and conceptual tools they had never imagined and Notes
training in practices and skills they highly valued. The Bender, B. (2007). Understanding the role and work of
collaboration of undergraduate education and resi- faculty. In R. Ackerman (Ed.), The mid-level man-
dence life was indeed a success! In their evaluations, ager in student affairs: Strategies for success (pp. 67–78).
many students focused on the intentionally collabora- Washington, DC: National Association of Student
Personnel Administrators.
tive approach of the instructors; one student noted that Kuh, G. D., Kinzie, J., Schuh, J. H., Whitt, E. J., &
“it allowed for each to complement the other and also Associates. (2005). Student success in college: Creating condi-
gave the students a wider range of resources because of tions that matter. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.

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ABOUT CAMPUS / January–February 2010