Winter 2009

Higher Education in the News

Women to emerge from obscurity

Hard academic competition becomes harder when you’re a woman. Given that the University of Geneva (UNIGE) counts 17.8% of female professors for 61% of female students, the institution has decided to strive towards a greater balance. UNIGE has launched the ‘Grant Holder of Excellence’ program designed for female brilliant post-doc scientific researchers to help them fill out their scientific project. A three-year mandate as senior lecturer, of which just 20% is devoted to teaching duty, will enable grant holders to develop a research project and accumulate publications in order to bid for professorship. UNIGE thus shows its intention of reaching sexual-parity up to the highest academic levels.
www.unige.ch/rectorat/egalite

CEMS MA of International Management wins 3rd place in the FT Ranking

The Financial Times (FT) has published a ranking of the Master of Science Programmes in Management for the third time. The University of St.Gallen (HSG) is indirectly represented in this ranking, namely in second place through the CEMS Master of International Management Program (CEMS MIM) – a double-degree program jointly run by 23 leading business universities around the world. In Switzerland, this course is exclusively open to students of HSG in the fields of Business Administration, Economics, Law and Economics, as well as International Affairs, and can be attended in parallel with another Master’s course. Every year, some 30 HSG students are admitted to this program on the strength of an assessment and of outstanding degree course work. In addition, alumni and about 55 corporate partners provide graduates with an attractive network.
www.unisg.ch & rankings.ft.com/masters-in-management

CHF 110 million donation to Fribourg University

Last winter retired manufacturer Adolphe Merkle created a foundation endowed with CHF 100 million to develop the Adolphe Merckle Institute (AMI) dedicated to nanosciences – especially nanomaterials. He has now just donated CHF 10 million more to provide AMI with a structure of 4,000m2/43,056sq ft able to welcome 160 researchers in 2012. Holder of a PhD in economic sciences from the University of Fribourg, Adolphe Merkle has found with the institute a way to “give Fribourg something back”.
www.unifr.ch

Sachs to the Editorial Board of ‘Business & Society’

Full Professor and Head of the ‘Centre for Strategic Management : Stakeholder View’ at the Zurich University of Applied Sciences in Business Administration, Sybille Sachs has been accepted to the editorial board of the prestigious Business&Society Journal – the only peer-reviewed scholarly journal devoted entirely to research on the relationship between business and society.
www.fh-hwz.ch

A think tank dedicated to the service sector

Service plays a major role for the Swiss economy : the service sector comprises about 70% of the GDP (2001), 72% of the workforce (2003), and trends point to continued growth. In addition, an increasing part of the Swiss manufacturing industry is related to services rather than to production. Major changes have radically altered the service industry during the last 20 years. Many of the new opportunities are not yet exploited, generating a wide field of possibilities. The Swiss Institute of Service Science (SISS) has thus been recently founded to create a unique and powerful think tank with a strong impact on the Swiss service economy. It is a joint venture of the School of Engineering at Zurich University of Applied Sciences, the Geneva School of Business Administration at the University of Applied Sciences Western Switzerland, and the School of Applied Psychology of the University of Applied Sciences North-West Switzerland. Application areas include banks and insurance companies, telecom companies, government agencies, health care and senior citizen care industries, and travel agencies.
crag.hesge.ch/service-science/welcome.html

Exclusive interview
with Micheline Calmy-Rey,
Head of the Federal Department
of Foreign Affairs

“Our aid is recognized and appreciated because it reflects certain characteristics of our country; first of all, we do as we say we are going to do”

Could you explain Switzerland’s humanitarian and pacifist tradition?
Since 1515 and the battle of Marignan, Switzerland decided not to use arms against other countries but only in the case defence. Our neutrality is born in the spirit of a message of peace and Nicolas de Flue’s belief of non-intervention in foreign affairs (Ed. note: see our gossip column, p.30) which even today still has repercussions on our peace policy.

And Switzerland’s credibility in resolving conflicts?
Switzerland is home to the Geneva Convention as well as the headquarters of the Red Cross. This is because Switzerland has always tried to find solutions through dialogue and mediation and thus benefits from a high credibility. Other countries therefore pay a lot of attention to what Switzerland has to say. We also endeavour to have the role as a bridge builder between different parties in conflict; this role is sometimes difficult but crucial when trying to resolve conflicts.

What brought you to support the creation of the Academy of International Humanitarian Law and Human Rights at the Geneva University?
This academy is right on the line of the humanitarian tradition of our country. The new academy provides a high level of education in international humanitarian law and human rights, it promotes research in these domains as well as international penal law and the rights of refugees; furthermore it organizes conferences and provides important legal expertise. The academy also contributes to the influence of Geneva as an international centre. Furthermore, thanks to the academy the city of Geneva, which already houses the human rights headquarters of the United Nations, is in the process of becoming the centre for human rights. Switzerland’s development aid is often used as an example by international organizations even though our budget appears to be like a drop in the ocean. First of all Switzerland has developed a policy for neutral development aid. We have never wanted to use this aid for any other goals, be it political or economic. Even though the budgets are modest, we stay near the people. Our aid is recognized and appreciated because it reflects certain characteristics of our country; first of all, we do as we say we are going to do : our work is carried out with precision on a solid base; and finally we do not want to draw out our presence in a country. Our objective is that the local communities can thrive with our projects.

Could you present to us a few projects of development aid within the education sector?
Synonymous with independence, education improves the chance to get paid employment and emerge out of poverty. The Federal Department of Foreign Affairs has made a pledge the right to education for the poverty stricken and underprivileged – notably minorities, the young and women – opening up for them the road to a social, political and economic life. Education is an essential factor in the economic growth of a country, in the demographical evolution and a democratic society. The current offers are often limited to urban zones and are based on a formal economy. They are, therefore, not well adapted for the needs of the current existing economy. This is why, for the past 30 years the Federal Department of Foreign Affairs has aimed to favour basic education and professional training in developing and transitional countries promoting the creation of an educational system that is accessible to people who have only had a rudimentary education, allowing the re-insertion of the jobless to employment, and is focused on the needs of the informal economy as well as the rural populations.

Scholarships are also distributed each year, what is the objective of this?
Switzerland attributes each year between 250 and 300 federal scholarships to foreign students or scientists. These scholarships are an integral part of our international politics allowing researchers to concentrate on their scientific studies. In return for these scholarships Swiss students have access to research institutes in various countries.

A foreign student hesitates between Switzerland and another country. As the Minister of Foreign Affairs what would you say to him in order to convince him that Switzerland is the right choice?
Obviously, I could not but recommend Switzerland highly as a country for further education as we already have an excellent reputation abroad. The universities and the Universities of Applied Sciences offer foreign students a large choice of subjects on different levels. Studying in Switzerland is a big plus for improving their careers in any country around the world! Take a look at the Swiss representation website in your country. There you will find useful information and links enabling you to access the university or the school of your choice. Or contact one of our colleagues in your home country.

Cheerfully at ease

In some countries, being sent off to boarding school was often understood to be synonymous with being punished for bad behaviour or weak scholastic aptitude. Today it is viewed as a fun experience which prepares students to blossom in any environment. However, one could think that the first weeks of boarding for a junior would still be rather intimidating. The endearing kids we met at Institut Le Rosey four weeks after the semester started proved us wrong.

No sooner had the fire drill started than 52 pupils burst out from Maison Hughes, home to the Le Rosey juniors – boys and girls aged between 8 and 12 years. Despite a few drops of rain, participants in the practice bantered and laughed heartily on the front lawn, delighted to miss a few minutes of class. Among them, Michael, 10, keeps to himself. Considering that he arrived from Russia one month ago speaking neither French nor English, if he’s still having a bit of a hard time, it won’t last long. “You always find means to communicate, first using hands, signs, or being helped by a compat-riot who translates”, asserts Junior Campus director of boarding Patrick Bacher, himself a native of Gstaad. “But I’m still amazed at seeing that those kids learn so fast. Once he breaks through the language barrier, Michael will be well integrated.” Creating One’s Nest An average of three-to-four weeks is needed to adjust. And even if the entire staff is mobilized for the first two nights, kids always sleep very well, apart from late night whispers due to the excitement of a new experience. Usually the youngsters settle in easily by discovering their roommates and getting used to their environment. The girls’ dormitory is easily located: white sequined chiffon butterfly ornaments along with giant autumn leaves decorate some doors. Veronica, 10, from Lutry, Switzerland, shares her room with Hannah, from Taiwan. She brought a white Teddy bear and a beige fluffy tiger, a piccolo, her pink Hello Kitty cell phone, a pink cat-shaped alarm-clock, another pink Japanese cuddly toy and books. Behind the door hangs her red Hello Kitty raincoat. “Of course, there is a limit on the amount of personal belongings you can bring with you. But we can always discuss it if kids are tidy”, explains Bacher. Celine, from Australia, and Melissa, from Thailand, felt free to cover their walls with Miley Cyrus and the Jonas Brothers’ posters, drawings, tickets from cinema and museums, rosettes for the Junior Swimming Championships and birthday cards as they piled framed photos and school stationery onto their desks.On the boys’ side, the whole reflects simplicity. At Cristoforo’s, 11, from Naples, Italy, a Milan AC toiletry case has pride of place on his desk besides his laptop. A black guitar case stands near the window. On roommate Edmond’s shelf, who holds dual French and American citizenship, a black Olympic Lyonnais cap – a rival club of major league football – ended up next to a couple of textbooks and dictionaries. On Hugo’s bed, a chocolate slab–shaped pocket calculator betrays his Swiss nationality. By then every room had a warm feel showing that the kids were creating a small personal ‘home away from home’.

Too Busy to Be Homesick

Homesickness tends to arise the second week when kids suddenly realize that the first term lasts two months. Overseas boarders accustom themselves faster than Europeans because they’re well aware that they won’t go back home every weekend. A child with siblings, ditto. Should homesickness pangs occur, however, house parents’ door is always open. Whichever kid they speak to, they will encourage them to share their problems and make sure that they are temporary: they talk a lot and listen, show full understanding, help to maintain an emotional bond with the family as well as hug and kiss good-night if necessary. “Children cannot spare the time to be unhappy”, assures Bacher. Indeed, they’re immediately engrossed in activities, so much so that, thrilled to have hectic days, most of them look forward to staying at Le Rosey over the weekends. Veronica is hooked: “That’s cool!” she exclaims, “I’m part of the theatre group, I am learning to cook, do silk painting, and I’m handcrafting a robot with our science teacher.” Not mentioning the numerous sports teams, the green team devoted to ecology on the campus, and, most of all, 53 nationalities to live with: “what’s great here is you can have so many different friends and learn foreign languages, or at least a couple of words, to best communicate with each other”, adds Cristoforo, already speaking Italian, English and French (see the ‘Aiport Kids’ review p.16).

International Education

While integration rests on multiple programmes aimed at blossoming, it doesn’t ignore educational duties. “We run the house as we would run our home”, says Sandra Bacher, the wife of boarding director Patrick Bacher, “but with slight differences obviously. Although we cannot require as much from 36 boarders as from a couple of kids, they’re expected to observe morning and evening routines as well as a set of basic rules: daily hygiene, tidiness of rooms, table manners, harmonious relationships with roommates as well as with house parents, respect of authority, and self-control.” Besides, since the community is made up of various cultures, some kids are bound to put in a lot of effort, like the Japanese who have to learn eating with knives and forks instead of using chopsticks or their hands. Less spectacular, but as demanding, is the attention focused on what could sound like details but eventually matters. For instance, every child has to eat a little bit of everything, including greens and fish. “Unlike what happens most of the time at home, we train them to manage quantities out of consideration for underprivileged children: they shouldn’t give themselves a very big portion and just nibble”, explains Sandra. “We also carefully control expenses at the shop. Some children don’t bother looking for a pen, or any other stationery, if it’s not right under their nose. They rather give up and buy another one just like that. We try to inculcate them with a sense of moderation and effort.”

Partly because everyone without exception has to play by the rules, and partly because they’re gently helped by the friends and staff they surround themselves with, discipline doesn’t seem to affect them anyway. While extremely polite and well-behaved, Le Rosey juniors never lose an occasion to engage in games, frolic around, often triggering a bout of giggles, like Veronica who, hearing that a game of table tennis had started during the morning break, ran to join, exclaiming: “How annoying to spend hours glued to the television!”

Airport Kids

Last June, ‘Airport Kids’ sold out even before performances began at the Théâtre de Vidy, Lausanne. Is it the catchy title that attracts audiences or the curious blend of fact and fiction that is the co-director, Kaegi’s hallmark? Either way, there is a form of delightful deception, since the production is not a play, but the sensitive orchestration, often in music, of the voices and lives of nine children whose parents, from at least twelve different countries, are the real ‘airport kids’.
They are the ones who travel, leaving their families or their country behind.

Upcoming Performances :
March 21-22, 2009
Kurtheater, Baden, Switzerland

March 27-28, 2009
La Filature, Mulhouse, France

April 6-9 2009
Le Maillon, Strasbourg, France

Stepping out
of a comfortable cocoon

The world has discovered with stupor that its great bankers are no longer controlling the sophisticated instruments of financial ingenuity which have been put into place without any serious limits or controls. The absence of ethics and the avidity to always gain the most without discernment or long term vision as well as the absence of any state control has driven us to an unparalleled financial crisis.

In the meantime, the poverty stricken continue to suffer, away from the cameras and the financial preoccupations of the rich. The continuous denunciation of these undeniable facts has been made by many brilliant personalities such as Jean Ziegler, who upset the moral comfort and rocked the cradle from time to time but in the end failed to change individual behaviour.

Our approach, as those who are responsible for the education of children coming from around the world, is very different. We organize targeted actions useful to who we wish to help, limited but efficient, because it is done with careful planning and is followed-up on a daily basis. In the long term, our pupils will have acquired the habit of thinking about gests of solidarity on a local and international level and will conserve the habit of reacting rather than making a lot of noise.

All Swiss boarding schools share this vision and promote these programmes, encouraged by the CAS programme integrated in the International Baccalaureate. At Le Rosey we have built a school in Mali, which welcomes several hundred students from extremely underprivileged families, offering exceptional working and studying conditions. Our parents participate in this effort via the programme ‘One Rosean in Switzerland, One Rosean in Bamako’. The students that go to Mali participate in public utility work. Another solidarity project in Nepal, where a group of seniors after a trip to the country evaluate the needs, are piloting a micro credit programme within several village communities: this way they learn how to use each franc received from various operations in Switzerland in development projects.

Drops of water in an ocean but these small projects, if emulated and multiplied, could perhaps change the world and is this not one of the goals of international education?

Philippe Gudin, Director General of Institut le Rosey

A direct impact on communities

Onlookers may feel that in such prestigious schools as ours, our students become blasé and take their privileges for granted. One criticisim sometimes levelled at private schools, wherever they happen to be is that the students live in a kind of ‘huis-clos’, severed from community life and indifferent to world events.

Brillantmont International School is very excitedly joining for the first time, Habitat for Humanity, a non-denominational Christian charity dedicated to eliminating poverty housing. Teams of volunteers of all ages build and renovate simple, affordable housing in different locations throughout the world.

The Brillantmont team headed to Cluj in Romania last summer, where a week was spent on a building site, working side-by-side with local people and the prospective homeowners, hammering nails and mixing cement!

Mrs Julianne Brown, the school nurse and maths teacher Ms Amy Ho Tai, in charge of the project, feel strongly that “rather than simply donating money to a cause, active participation in humanitarian efforts is more challenging and rewarding and can tremendously impact the lives of the ‘givers’ as well as the ‘receivers.”

They chose to work with Habitat for Humanity because it provides this practical, ‘hands on’ experience. They wanted the students to explore life outside of their ‘comfort zone’, but also needed the reassurance that an organised trip can offer. Habitat for Humanity has experience of working with international schools and seemed the ideal choice. It is hoped this experience will enable them to appreciate that life for so many people around the world is a daily struggle and that we all have a responsibility, and the ability, to help change the difficult situations of others.

“It’s my chance to give back to those in need”

Collaborating with a local cinema, the students sponsored a public cinema night, with all members contributing to a presentation explaining the objectives of the project. Ribbon bracelets and cookies were sold, in addition to the entrance tickets and individual donations were collected. In addition to raising money, this evening raised awareness about Habitat for Humanity within the community and generated great interest from other students who wish to become involved next year.

These activities prove that even in a small school such as Brillantmont (150 students), it is possible to successfully run activities, which, at their very core, force the students to reflect upon their values and lifestyles. As Maria Helena Carvalho from Brazil, who is involved in Habitat for Humanity says, “I know I’m so blessed to have what I have and to have the opportunities I have. I just want to give that to someone. This experience will change my life and make me start appreciating a little bit more what I have. It’s my chance to give back to those in need.” This feeling is reiterated by Fraser Mc Beth from Scotland who says, “Habitat appealed to me because I would be doing something for people living in poverty and I will be able to see what I have given them.”

Extra-curricular activities such as this provide an ideal opportunity to sensitise our students to different lifestyles, to create cultural awareness and to impart the values with which we want our students to enter the world.

Michaela Aurenz

Rosenberg alumni Michaela Aurenz, 23, was recently appointed managing director and board member of ASB Greenworld, her family’s 70 million euros turnover potting soil company based in Ludwigsburg, Germany. Thematic portrait of a brilliant yet unflinching business woman.

Jealousy Given the difficulties German public schools face, especially since “you only advance as fast as the slowest members can advance”, and knowing that an increasing feeling of jealousy between classmates regarding her international profile became an issue, Michaela longed to enhance her great skills along with kids of the same background.

The City The fact that Rosenberg was close to Saint-Gallen, with its numerous cultural and leisure opportunities and lovely spots to go out or simply interesting to stroll about, won the day.

Bungee jumping While the three-month stint training for bungee jumping and trapeze, for the annual Rosenberg Autumn Ball shows, may have been intensive, they remain a favourite memory for Michaela and her friends. Next to Cirque du Soleil performers, they learnt about life probably more than anywhere else: “it is about team work, for countless hours, to gain so much confidence in yourself and trust in others!”

Speed Advanced Placement courses were a great bonus especially because they were well accepted by colleges as university courses. For Michaela they made perfect sense to speed things up and she left high school with eight completed AP courses that enabled her to start straight into the second university semester.

Novosmolenskaya nab., St. Petersburg Trade shows and conferences in Canada, Estonia, India, and Japan are planned to follow on from each other until the end of the year. Michaela’s international exposure has been furthered by three foreign languages she learnt, notably at St. Petersburg State University and the American Business School in Paris.

Summa cum laude It seems likely that she made quite a habit of it! Indeed, she graduated both from high school and the ‘Public Ivy’, College William&Mary (majoring in International Business), with high honours – as she mentioned unabashed.

Chance “While I did fancy being independent and an entrepreneur, I always kept my father’s company in view. There’s a close emotional connection when family business is concerned.” Nearly one year after she took over running it, she obviously fits in. A flawless career path that reveals one secret: so far, Michaela has not let anyone lead her astray while nothing has been left to chance.

Will Finance die from selfish greed?

As the author of a ‘Manifesto for finance that serves the common good’, Professor Paul Dembinski, founding director of the Observatoire de la Finance – a Geneva-based think tank – wouldn’t demur at expounding on the challenge issued to capitalistic societies given where finance is leading them. Here, an insight about the underlying immorality he sees behind current excesses, and why giving an utter engagement to ethical behaviour is not optional.

Where’s the pitfall today? Finance and money have merged. You cannot draw a line between where money stops and finance begins” introduces Paul Dembinski. In 30 to 40 years, finance has undergone enormous change, rendering a clear-cut definition of the term ‘finance’ obsolete. To give an accurate one was probably the most challenging part of the interview, but Dembinski accepted it without striving for effect and stated with a mischievous smile that finance has become ‘everything beyond pure cash’… no less! Finance thus involves an extremely broad range of instruments, transactions and institutions that rule over everyday lives considering that even a credit card is regarded as a financial asset to be managed. As it happens Dembinski denounces what he calls ‘financialisation’. Starting with the financial strategy of invading the marketplace with ‘nomadic’ transactions (i.e. transactions hastily jumping between investors), it ends with an ideological drift towards making use of human relationships. With ‘financialisation’, people not only seek capital gain – that’s transaction – but also transpose this mechanism to social behaviour. For instance, chewing over what one can get from a company in order to boost one’s career and bank account rather than
initiating mutually beneficial relationships tends to be a standard reaction.

Danger arises when perverting human relations instead of building trust and sustainability becomes a norm. What kind of danger? The professor has identified three risk areas: polarisation of incomes leading to the development of a new feudalism within countries; expanding complexity that has reached a point where, economically speaking, it is unsustainable because it requires more control, regulations and sanctions, which have a cost (and who is going to pay?); and finally, increasing distrust that is about to revive the biggest fear of totalitarian regimes – who will control the controllers? – while, at the same time, it kills creativity as one person can’t help but suspect the other of wanting to steal his ideas. Should the whole system be rotten to the core, how did we get there?

‘Infectious Greed’

Dembinski shares Alan Greenspan’s view on selfish greed. Addressing the Senate in 2002 in the wake of the Enron and WorldCom scandals, the former Chairman of the US Federal Reserve Board crafted this memorable formula: “An infectious greed seemed to grip much of our business community”, and pleaded the cause for government regulations. In doing so, he contradicted his mentor, the objectivist philosopher Ayn Rand, for whom liberalism as “a pure, uncontrolled, unregulated laissez-faire capitalism – with a separation of economics, in the same way and for the same reasons as a separation of state and church [‘The Objectivist Ethics’]”, represents the only system morally and economically good for humanity because it “demands the best of every man – his rationality – and rewards him accordingly. It leaves every man free to choose the work he likes, to specialize in it, to trade his product for the products of others, and to go as far on the road of achievement as his ability and ambition will carry him [‘For the New Intellectual’, 1961].” Idealizing purity often makes up every system’s core but it rarely survives the ‘reality test’. An optimistic assessment of human nature disregards that man, both as an individual and a fortiori collectively, doesn’t obediently chase common good.
Liberalism wouldn’t be made the scapegoat. It remains intact and human nature is the one to blame. Man being a sinful creature like the Bible says, greed has not extended. Instead the capacity to put it in action has, owing to ‘financialisation’ topped with a present-day reversal of values that turns the vice of greed into a virtue. As long as the stock market rises and investors make a great deal of money, far beyond being a shame, greed is a blessing – also for the share-holders of the bank – until the system comes to a crisis point. And didn't The New York Times report on September 14 that “Merrill Lynch agreed to sell itself to Bank of America for roughly $50 billion to avert a deepening financial crisis, while another prominent securities firm, Lehman Brothers, filed for bankruptcy protection and hurtled toward liquidation after it failed to find a buyer”?

Ethical Alienation

Given the situation, designing appropriate solutions on both personal and political levels, that is to prize moral behaviour and introduce new rules, appears almost too easy. Unfortunately, it’s not. According to Dembinski, “Financial experts are loath to enforce ethics in their field because it challenges the fundamental mechanisms of finance. With greed as the motto of finance, ethical self-restraint is seen as a spoilsport!” He deplores the overcautious consensus that says macroeconomics, rather than society or immorality is to blame for the present situation.
That’s wrong, emphasizes he. There may be a deeper systemic problem rooted in self-interest, coupled with deliberately blind institutions that he summarizes this way: “If you have a foothold in the workplace, you either cannot or choose not to understand the bigger picture as well as the ultimate purpose of what you’re doing – you do not take upon yourself to reckon with long-term consequences eventually – and it smooths the way. Societies have planned to repress ethical questions. Totalitarianism is not that far behind, and relies on the same kind of behaviour, which is: I don’t want to see what’s going on, so I don’t see” (Ed. note: Dembinski was born and raised in 1960s Poland, a part of the communist bloc; he readily admits it definitely influenced the economic model based on political and economic freedom he stands up for).

Viscosity vs. Flexibility

The dirty job then remains in warning-givers’ hands, goodwill ambassadors helping to alert. Among those who grow a thicker skin, Paul Dembinski, who urges politicians to ponder whether to usher in regulations; academics to articulate these standards; and CEOs, to set the example of honest and ethical behaviour for others to follow. One key strategy would be to reconsider the flexibility allowed with regard to transactions, which would presuppose to go against the last 20 years’ trend dedicated to making them easier to make. Is the future in viscosity ? Maybe. Dembinski also suggests a slight increase in transaction fees so that investors would think twice prior to buying or selling. Whence they’d mature into responsible partners instead of nomadic self-interested persons eager for getting the lion’s share within companies. Financial markets would escape from the ambient frenzy. Another option might be to impose a minimum waiting period on budding entrepreneurs, allowing them time to adequately nurture and solidify their projects.

What’s at stake is not to challenge liberalism, but certainly to allow the system to fulfil its function of serving society and the greater good. “A liberal society is our most precious treasure”, raves Dembinski. “It rests on democracy and the free market, but these are very fragile mechanisms.” Actually society needs finance on account of bringing a great deal of services that are fundamentally useful although too much finance can harm people.
It’s a question of balance. As always.
www.obsfin.ch/english/index.htm

Beth Krasna

Independent board member, author of the blog ‘Thinking Ethics’

If moral has to do with right and wrong, then ethics is its application in society. Unfortunately, the term ‘ethics’ is being overused in too many instances and is losing its meaning. It is crucial to heighten schoolchildren’s awareness of ethical issues since they tend to keep on asserting their rights while forgetting their duties.
I believe we should educate people through case studies because we cannot interest the young generation in ethics by starting with the big names – Aristotle, Kant, etc.. Individual responsibility is decreasing, but society is expecting more from institutions to take care of the environment, sustainability and social responsibility.

Taking part in Paul Dembinski’s discussion group ‘L’Echo de l’Ethique’ at the Finance Observatory in Geneva reflects my commitment to applied ethics. My experience as a CEO of large companies and start-ups provides them with concrete everyday examples to debate. For example, take the dilemma of a wealth manager with an elderly client who is giving a lot of money to one of her children, although she has several. Should the wealth manager inform the others? Morality dictates to protect the client and her interests, but banking rules impose to preserve bank secrecy. What should be the answer?

Co-founder of the creative commons ThinkStudio, I develop business models suitable for the emerging ‘direct econo-my’ with Xavier Comtesse, Geneva branch director of Avenir Suisse – a think tank founded in 1999 by 14 internationally operating Swiss companies – and Jeffrey Huang, professor at EPFL. One can apply the model to corporate social respon-sibility, and the stages of ‘Self-Service’, ‘Do-It-Yourself’ and ‘Co-Design’, show the various degrees of application introduced in companies. At the highest level, ‘Co-Design’ suggests that every employee and stakeholder take ownership and institute a kind of self-control allowing them, for instance, to sound the alarm bell internally in case of an ethical lapse. Nike perfectly embodies this model, having established a code of conduct, pulled together an international team to promote and propagate it, worked with their suppliers to transmit it to them and get them to adhere to it, and engaged with stakeholders.

To spread the word and start the discussion is the first step towards a collective awareness. For companies who take corporate social responsibility seriously, the issue is not about maximizing profits, but rather optimizing them. When the stock market reflects this aspect also, then we will have progressed.
thinkingethics.typepad.com
www.thinkstudio.com

Is global warming happening
yet or not?

Since the UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) concluded as an ‘unequivocal’ scientific evidence of a warming trend on February 2, 2007, the question proves irrelevant. But towards where are we heading ? An invigorating update with expert insider Professor Martin Beniston, head of the University of Geneva Research Group on Climatic Change and Climate Impacts that has been linked to the 2007 Nobel Peace Prize.

A wash in materialism and consumerism, the last generation strove for relying on the widespread misperception that the scicence of climate was too immature to predict certain global climate change. Today, a broader public stopped struggling over whether the increased discharge of greenhouse gases such as carbon dioxide (CO2), nitrous oxide (N2O) and methane (CH4) is clearly associated to global warming. Man must prepare to endure long-term fluctuations in temperature, precipitation, wind, and all other aspects of the Earth’s climate he contributed to cause – without hiding behind inevitability.
Despite being in a good position to know what’s really going on, Professor Beniston won’t compromise himself with unnecessary alarmist opinions. Although level-headed, he is not averse to bring specific issues into sharp focus. Indeed, might he be very pleased about individual initiatives enjoying a vogue, he actually deplores politicians’ cowardice that put a brake on counteracting climate change efficiently.

What climatic issues do we have to face today?
Where to begin? Everything’s linked within the Earth system. The least change, if I may say, snowballs into far-ranging effects. Naturally, keeping on discharging greenhouse gases into the atmosphere enhances pervasive impacts on climate. Global warming is but one of many issues to be faced.

For instance?
Water scarcity in densely populated regions increases risks of internal, cross-border and regional conflicts to appropriate resources and the chances are that populations migrate massively. Every tropical country facing a drop in rainfall ditto. We’ve already observed growing tensions that could degenerate in armed conflicts in the Middle East along the Nile, or between India and Pakistan. Also worrying is the rise in sea level since two thirds of the world’s population live within 60km of shorelines. The following regions could have their existence threatened: the Nile delta (Egypt), the Ganges-Brahmaputra delta (Bangladesh), the Dutch polders (Netherlands), the Maldives (Indian Ocean), and the Marshall Islands and Tuvalu (Pacific Ocean). If the whole of glaciers together with the Antarctic should melt, the sea level would be 100 metres higher. Fortunately, we’re not close to this scenario.

Any regional-scale changes?
The last IPCC report (released on November 2007) projects contraction of snow cover area; increase in frequency of heat waves and heavy precipitation; increase in tropical cyclone numbers; and precipitation increases in high latitudes and decreases in most subtropical land regions.

Which predictions could we rely on?
There is some uncertainty as to sea-level rise by 2100, which will be heavily dependent on the rate of melting of the Greenlandice cap. It is for the moment unclear whether Greenland is melting more rapidly than what was estimated a few years ago; accurate satellite measurements should be in a position to answer this question more precisely in coming years.

Actually, why such a large disparity exists among various climate models?
Uncertainties in predictions result from many variables coming into play: demographic evolution, economy, the management of oil resources, volumes of energy spendings/savings, the future course of industrial growth, etc. Models are synthetic tools that enable us to test a number of hypotheses related to the system’s sensitivity. They are built from well-known laws of fundamental physics that are represented by multiple sets of equations, themselves translated into computing language. Change a single variable, it modifies the tested hypothesis and therefore the model results.

Do climate trends lead to the irreversibility of certain damage related to global warming?
Indeed. Thousands hectares of Amazonian Forest being cleared, it modifies surface vegetation while altering climate. Very roughly, deforestation modifies the moisture balance over large regions that in turn influence climate from the continental to global scales. Resisting species and fast-growing trees contain less biomass that store less carbon and indeed discharge CO2 from dead trees. Joint effects of global warming and disturbance in rain belts dry out soils so that they ultimately become unviable for cultivation. Take another example: mountainous ecosystems. If the surviving strategy of plants consists in gaining altitude, soon there’ll be nowhere to climb to and the flora and fauna will disappear. It is worth asserting that in many instances, we won’t revert back to the original states of many systems.

Does it reflect the chaos theory – miscalled butterfly effect?
Absolutely. Forest clearing typically falls within a chaotic mechanism.

And regarding the Earth’s atmosphere?
It’s tricky for me to give you an answer.
The field of chaotic dynamics – or the mathematics of erratic dynamical systems – pioneered by Prof. Edward Lorenz and later by Dr Mitchell J. Feigenbaum in the ‘70s describes non-linear systems during their transformation from orderly to disorderly. Be it physical, biological, economic or social, every non-linear system is made up of successive levels. From one stable point, the system will bifurcate to an oscillation between two states, then again to an oscillation between four values and so on. Once a critical level has been crossed the system goes into a totally different state. As for the atmosphere, we don’t have a clue which levels would be crossed and what reaction triggered off. Moreover, we don’t know what should be the stable point to start from. So should we take the risk to flirt with unknown levels? Are we ready to test the system? We did observe certain levels in the past that made us leave the Ice Age. But we don’t know today towards where we’re headed. For example, polar ice over the Arctic Ocean is melting faster than expected. The more it melts the more the system may race out of control.

Actually, the Earth already underwent changes in temperatures. So, why making such a fuss about an average rise of 2°C/ 3.6°F?
Because that’s never happened before! Until now climate changes happened on much longer scales, between 10,000 and 100,000 years, which gave enough time to the system to adapt. Besides human activities had no influence. During the last 10,000 years, the system was more or less balanced to within about 0.5°C/0.9°F
allowing us to consider that this range of past climate has been the norm of natural fluctuation. Now we talk about an average rise of 2°C/3.6°F in a few decades – which means a potential rise of 6 to 8°C/10.8 to 14.4°F during midsummer heat waves. It will entail a tremendous imbalance whose consequences are unclear. The IPCC’s last report predicts that such a rise would result in the extinction of 20 to 30% of living species. With a rise of 4°C/7.2°F, no figures are put forward but we might
suggest a number around 80%, at least a significant wave of extinctions.

What are the political answers?
Close to zero. The long time scales associated with climatic change are incompatible with a four-to-five-year term of office. Taking unpopular measures that would be effective in 100 years doesn’t help to have one’s mandate renewed. There’s an hypocritical consensus about maintaining the status quo.

Even in Switzerland, although it led the green movement in Europe in the ‘80s?
I know it shows a lack of political intelligence, but still noone dares to propose a bill for fear of enduring critics. They sometimes seek advice from us and we provide syntheses neither too big nor too extensive, that’s it. In Geneva alone, 60% of energy is used either to warm up or to cool buildings. Technical solutions exist today that could actually reduce energy bills by 60% without sacrificing one’s comfort. Even if it’s essential to support individual initiatives we must bear in mind that the initial impetus can be given by political circles only.

Didn’t the Nobel Peace Prize awarded to IPCC alter things a bit?
Unfortunately not. It gave a strong signal for many people to stop beating about the bush and cleverly broach the subject. We all had much hope of seeing a new impetus but it didn’t get over political resistance. We wasted a full generation striving for persuading people to see things our way – i.e., there is a climatic issue we have to frame as a scientific debate. Now that it’s made public, is it going to speed things up? I’m not so sure.

So where can the solution come from?
Economic circles. If higher oil prices still push the cost of raw materials up, companies will have to make a change of direction and derive profit from competititve energy rather than being underdogs. What’s at stake is crystal-clear: if we wait for 20 years without lifting a finger to help then the Arctic late-summer sea ice could melt entirely; if we wait 50 years then it could mean the end of rainforests. Systems will disappear, one after the other. Particular ecosystems, be it terrestrial (tundra, boreal forest, mountain regions…), coastal (mangroves and salt marshes), or marine (coral reefs) stand on the front line. We may deprive ourselves of certain ecosystems, but can we afford to indulge in this direction?
Is it what our life on Earth aims at?
www.unige.ch/climate

Everything’s environmentally
friendly, even Theology

The Book of Genesis offers an orientation for understanding the sustainability model”, Professor Hans Münk, teasing theologian.

Distant and abstract.
That’s how Theology seems to many people in everyday life. Furthermore, many feel that Catholic theological ethics will be imbued with guilt. Professor Hans Münk, Director of the Institute of Social Ethics at the University of Lucerne, however, washes away those preconceptions and presents a contemporary and dynamic image of theology which keeping pace with some aspect of modern society. The brilliant scientist, who while jovial can also quickly shift gear to develop a tough argumentation, leads a team of skilled theologians specialised in different areas.
Together they focus on the foundations of current ethical issues (e.g. ethics of technology, social and economic sciences, bioethics, eco-ethics, ethics regarding the protection of animals, plants etc.). However of particular current interest is biotechnology and the more recent concern over sustainable development.

What do theological studies have to do with today’s society?
Mainly to interpret biblical traditions, the morally relevant content of these texts, and to explain them (first of all for the scientific community) within the context of today’s thinking. From the viewpoint of our critical standards, one may say that the Bible can give us helpful normative orientation with reference to our topic.

For instance?
The Book of Genesis offers an orientation for understanding the sustainability model.

Could you explain?
In the first two chapters of Genesis, God creates man in his own image and man has to farm and cultivate the land, take care of, and preserve the Earth. In its broader implication, man is conferred or given a stewardship; he has to respect the limits set by the creator in order to treat Earth in the best possible way.

How are we supposed to know what to do?
To discover a responsible solution for particular problems in the fields of technology, for instance, the theologian has to consult as accurately as possible the corresponding studies of the relevant empirical sciences. There is a lot of interdisciplinary work to do. In such a way he may find out which feasible solution best meets his normative criteria.

Could you share an example?
In the books of Exodus and Deuteronomy (second and fifth book of Moses) we can find the institution of the sabbatical year (every seventh year). During this break, soil can regenerate, slaves are freed and debts are released. What does this mean for modern society? To mention just one point: we have to avoid exhausting ecological systems of fundamental importance. But the empirical question of when such a system passes the critical point and begins to be seriously endangered is a topic of empirical research and not of theology or ethics.

According to which criteria do you bring your normative arguments up to date?
The Catholic social doctrine focuses on a set of classic principles: personality, solidarity, subsidiarity, justice and common good. This normative basis can be – at least implicitly – viewed in an intergenerational sense so that future generations are fundamentally included. Yet it lacks an appropriate principle that considers non-human nature in a direct way. As far as non-human nature is involved, theology provides a graduated view of inherent value so that non-human beings may not be treated in an arbitrary manner. Moreover: the core idea of the sustainable model, the connection of ecological, social and economic aspects is not immediately considered in the classic main norms. These are the reasons why some theologians (and I share their view) proposed to complete the set of principles adding a new element, i.e. the concept of sustainable development. It is due to the developing ecological crisis that we are now insisting on this extension which corresponds very well to the Holy Scripture.

How does the ecological crisis apply to theological ethics?
Justice cannot be viewed separately from the ecological dimension anymore – and vice versa. Take for example a poor farmer from a rain forest region in Latin America who burns hectares of tropical forest. While his sole interest may be farming the land to earn a living, he is also contributing to the destruction of important ecological reserves of the Earth. I’m far from blaming him. Rather, he is struggling to survive and is driven solely by social misery and injustice. We won’t prevent Nature in the southern parts of the world from being ruined without taking care of social problems. In the long run there will be no social justice without ecological responsibility, and no ecological success without social justice.

What would be the solution?
That individuals are not able to solve the problem on their own is hardly a topic of controversy, and yet individual initiatives have to be valued. What is at stake involves structural, regional, international and global answers. So ethics has to cooperate not only with the appropriate sciences but also with politicians as well as international institutions and organizations (e.g. the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change).

Can ethics be independent from a religious background?
Yes indeed. In the ‘Rio Declaration’ issued at the 1992 Earth Summit, a number of ethical evaluations are mentioned; and United Nations documents try to speak independently of religious issues so that the contents and the meaning may be accepted around the globe.
Are religious and non-religious norms compatible with each other?
No pre-established harmony prevails. For example, there is a concept called ‘weak sustainability’ that doesn’t recognize nature as a holder of intrinsic value but tends to see and value all involved factors merely in terms of capital. In our opinion, this is tantamount to weakening sustainability itself because there are aspects of nature which cannot be adequately expressed in terms of capital.

So, which norms should be favoured?
For theological ethics in a Christian sense, the direction and a certain frame of normative orientation is given by theocentrism. Yet we can also use philosophical conceptions to characterize our positions, for instance an anthropocentric, or biocentric, or holistic approach in environmental philosophy. For many years, I’ve been in favour of an anthropo-relational approach completed by a theory of values. A radical anthropocentrism however would definitely be against our conception of man being God’s steward on Earth.
In the completing value theory, I try to integrate some decisive matters of concern of biocentric and holistic views. So I hope to find an acceptable platform for a fruitful dialogue on topics regarding sustainability in our pluralistic society.

The call of the forest

For the first time in Switzerland, a Master degree course is offered by the Swiss College of Agriculture in Zollikofen, near Bern. It’s part of a Master in Life Sciences developed by four Universities of Applied Sciences.

The Swiss College of Agriculture (SHL) is an established centre of education and applied research in the areas of agriculture, forestry and food science. It also offers a unique Master degree course in Applied Agriculture and Forestry Sciences. This is part of a Swiss-wide-coordinated Master in Life Sciences, organised in different academic fields by four universities of applied sciences. As a second academic level, the Master degree leads to a higher qualification for scientific or responsible leadership positions.

Aimed at extending and deepening knowledge and skills in a specialist area, the duration of the Master course is at least three semesters. At the heart of the programme is an in-depth, application-oriented research project (Master thesis) carried out in the selected field of specialisation. SHL offers three specialisations:
The major ‘Management of Value Chains’ focuses on the path a product takes from primary production right through to the consumer.
This encompasses the opti-misation of value chains and questions relating to marketing, product quality and product security as well as trade and transport of products like coffee and timber from overseas countries.

The major ‘Sustainable Production Systems’ is oriented toward applied research in agriculture and forestry. It will teach methods and competences to find innovative and practical solutions for the future and to support outreach and consultancy. Topics range from domestic animal and plant production systems, through scientific trials to the cultivation of organic cotton or the care of protective forests.

The major ‘Agriculture and Forestry in Transition’ examines the interdependencies between nature, economy and society. At the forefront is the analysis of changes in agriculture and forestry and their roles in economy and society. Social science aspects will be given considerable attention. Most of the issues relate to development cooperation and countries in transition, but rural development in Europe as well as the new tasks of multifunctional agriculture in Europe and Switzerland are examples of other current issues.

The interchange of various professions and nationalities is part of the concept of this Master degree course. The teaching language is, for the most part, English, while German and French can be used in conducted self-study, individual assignments and the Master thesis. Moreover, an individualised programme enables extra-occupational, part-time study.
www.shl.bfh.ch

A brand new university

Les Roches-Gruyère, member of Swiss Learning has received the official Federal recognition from the Swiss authorities as the second private university of applied sciences (UAS) ever approved in Switzerland, and is the first private UAS in the hotel management field.

As of January 2009, Les Roches-Gruyère will launch a Bachelor of Science in Inter-national Hospitality Management. This new institution will use the resources and facilities of the highly-reputed Swiss institutions of Glion Institute of Higher Education and Les Roches International School of Hotel Management. Both of these institutions were recently ranked in a worldwide industry survey to be among the top hospitality management schools for an international career (TNS, UK, Global Survey, September 2007).

Dr Deborah Prince, the newly appointed director general of Les Roches-Gruyère University of Applied Sciences emphasised the importance of academic quality. “Les Roches-Gruyère will focus on delivering the highest quality university-level hospitality education, meeting all academic standards of Switzerland and Europe. Students will gain leadership and managerial competencies to enable them to meet the challenges of a diverse and rapidly-changing global tourism and hospitality industry”.

Students will be able to choose specializations focusing on either international hospitality management or on food, beverage and operations management. These programmes will be taught on the Bulle campus, in the canton of Fribourg, and on the Bluche campus, in the canton of Valais.

Mr David Graves, president of Laureate Hospitality Education which includes the new Les Roches Gruyère UAS said, “Students studying at Les Roches Gruyère UAS will have the opportunity to choose from a large range of international internships that will allow them to work on more than one continent during their studies. Our schools arrange interviews with the leading hospitality organisations prior to graduation in order to gain permanent positions. Most students will have the luxury of choosing from among several job offers upon graduation, often including formal management training programmes with the most famous hotel companies.”

The Les Roches Gruyère UAS is uniquely positioned to begin immediately investing in research, faculty development, and collaborations with other institutions. Its mission includes contributing significantly to the Swiss and European academic communities through academic co-operations and leveraging alliances with the hospitality industry promote understanding of industry trends and needs.
www.lesroches.edu

Disney teams up with Zurich lab
to develop new Nemos, theme parks

The Walt Disney Company just opened its first ever European research laboratory at Zurich’s federal institute of technology (ETHZ). Disney will work with the science university to improve its animated films, computer games, and will even develop future rides for theme parks.

Disney’s lab opened in October for business and aims to have up to 20 staff in Zurich, comprising a core of seven senior researchers from Disney, who will work with consultants, interns, professors and researchers from the city’s top science university for the next five years.

The science and technology university will contribute its expertise in Computer Science, visual computing, and computer graphics. The American giant will work with these departments to improve the technology used in its animated films – most recently through Disney’s Pixar studios – but will also focus on other aspects of its business, which includes ‘Imagineering’, the creation of rides for theme parks.
“Disney will want to develop the types of attractions that will appear in their parks in ten years,” said Professor Markus Gross, head of computer graphics at the university. The ETHZ’s robotics department will assist the company in this endeavour. The university’s artificial intelligence department will also work with Disney on its computer games.

The employees sent by Disney to Switzerland will come from various business units owned by the American giant, including Pixar’s research group, which has contributed to popular animated movies such as ‘Finding Nemo’, ‘Toy Story’ and most recently ‘Wall-E’. This latest cartoon about a robot that falls in love appeared on the big screen in French-speaking Switzerland as of the end of July.

“Disney chose ETHZ first and foremost because we excel at computer sciences,” said Gross. “We are one of the top technical schools in Europe and in the world,” he added. He said that the university did not need to do any lobbying to attract Disney – which could have chosen a number of other top universities in Europe – and that it already had a number of long-standing relationships with the company.

Disney is also due to work with another laboratory at Carnegie Mellon University in the United States. Ed Catmull, President of Disney and Pixar Animation said the company’s two new labs would be “creating the next generation of sophisticated technologies”, while speaking at an annual conference on computer graphics in Los Angeles.
graphics.ethz.ch

Green efficiency meets design

Demand for solar buildings is on the rise and thereby so are the needs to develop thermal façades that are capable of dealing with a greater architectural variety and complexity. The new Coloured Glazing elaborated at the Solar Energy and Building Physics Laboratory (LESO-PB) of the Ecole Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne provides a new and interesting alternative.

I was born in Treviso, Italy, and graduated in Architecture at the University of Venice in 1998 (IUAV-Istituto Universitario di Architettura di Venezia). During a one-year ERASMUS exchange at the University of Bath, UK, in 1995, I met my Swiss husband, who was studying aeronautical engineering there. Once we had graduated, we got married and decided to live in his native and beautiful Leman region.
In Switzerland I had the great opportunity to design and build a passive solar house. Passive solar buildings aim to maintain interior thermal comfort throughout the sun’s daily and annual cycles whilst reducing the requirement for active heating and cooling systems.
The house project included an innovative multifunctional photovoltaic installation conceived as roofing and sun shading for the glazed south façade (fig.3). After completing the construction, I was invited to present this project at the Ecole Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL) during an International Seminar on the architectural integration of Photovoltaic. On that occasion I met Christian Roecker who is specialized in the integration of photovoltaic production in buildings and project leader at the LESO-PB. Two years later he was looking for an architect to work on the enhancement of the quality of architectural integration of solar thermal systems, and this is how I joined his team, and started a PhD on the topic.

Architectural Integration

The current architectural quality of most existing integrated systems is quite poor. This often discourages potential new users. Most solar thermal collectors are designed as pure technical elements to be implemented on rooftops where the visual impact is minor and the energy efficiency is maximized due to the tilted mounting. However, considering the increasing demand for buildings that incorporate solar energy the implementation of solar thermal collectors into façades should now also be considered. The use of the façade increases the available exposed surfaces and furthermore the vertical mounting helps reduce the risk of overheating risk in summer by being able to reduce the plant surface according to real energy needs. This in turn allows the dimensioning of the plant according to real heat needs.
Façade integrations are still very rare. To unlock this situation, a new approach to the development of façade thermal systems that are able to deal with the highest level of architectural complexity of façades is clearly needed.

Attractive Collectors

During these years at the Solar Energy Lab I worked both on setting a methodology supporting the development of such systems, and on the development of new products. The development of the methodology is the main subject of my PhD thesis while two projects helped establish and test this methodology.
The first project was the European Project Solabs (2002-2006) whose goal was the development of an unglazed, coloured solar thermal system for façades. From an architectural point of view, unglazed thermal collectors for façades are de facto façade metal claddings. We took the original approach to inspire the collector through existing façade metal claddings (already developed to respond to building needs), rather than start from existing solar collectors. The result is a system of cut-to-length plank collectors which are very similar to the ones proposed by the façade metal cladding market. Solar planks can be produced in various colour shades using thickness insensitive selective paint. Non-active components and jointing elements were also developed to offer users a complete multifunctional solar façade system.

A New Level of Freedom

The University of Neuchâtel nurtures human values

Martine Rahier is one of the first women to occupy the post of rector in Switzerland. She employs the services of two other women to support her in her job. A man will be joining them to complete this management team, which bases its actions on listening and communication. These are values which can be respected at the UniNe thanks to its personable size.

The University of Neuchâtel is fundamentally about applying human values for the benefit of the community. This philosophy has been rooted even more deeply with Martine Rahier’s appointment as head of this institution. Appointed in January 2008, this biologist specialising in environmental chemistry took up this post in August. As a good listener, Martine Rahier cultivates this personable aspect which is a particular feature of the University of Neuchâtel. With a student population of just under 4,000, some 800 academic staff and more than 1,100 collaborators, the University of Neuchâtel can rightly claim to provide academic supervision of a rare quality.
Martine Rahier can, in fact, count on some solid assets the university has to help her carry out her job. One of these is the close bond that ties the university to its city. The university is actually part of the city’s fabric, with its buildings dispersed across it. Firmly established at the heart of the city, the university is in a good position to consider the needs of our society. Several areas of its expertise support this, such as hydrogeology, which studies the quality of water, as well as journalism, health law and sports law or the study of migration processes.
The new rector, who has been director of the National Centre of Competences in Research ‘Plant Survival’ for seven years, is well aware of the growing importance of the issues of our time, such as sustainable agriculture. She will help the university look even more to the future. “One of the challenges will be to anticipate the needs of our society,” she explains. This trend is highlighted by recent studies on, for instance, the link between power and competence at work1 or on football violence in Switzerland2. This desire to be more open to the public domain does not, however, affect the institution’s scientific rigour. The duty to explain things in a way that is easy to understand does not actually exclude high-quality, in-depth work.

Listening, Consulting, Acknowledging

The Centre for the Understanding of Social Processes (MAPS) very skillfully deals with these two objectives of communication and excellence. The human and social science researchers it brings together are interested in issues such as the role of sustainable development in town planning, as well as the integration of migrants, the management of savings by pension funds or the globalisation of culture. With its five institutes brought together under the same roof, MAPS is a totally specialist centre at the University of Neuchâtel.
But Neuchâtel offers both multidiscipline and specialised studies. For instance, the degree in biology and ethnology combines natural sciences and social issues. There is no lack of original courses at this university, which cover through its five faculties the entire range of academic fields. Just to give two last examples, chosen from among so many others to highlight this aspect of the university: the masters degree in museology and the Academy of Journalism and Media.

Finally, the University of Neuchâtel attaches a great deal of importance to women. After all, they make up three-quarters of the management team, occupying the positions of rector and vice-rectors, along with two of the five dean posts.
Is it a coincidence then if good listening skills are also given a high level of consideration at Neuchâtel? Martine Rahier has decided to make this her main concern. As a result, she has no hesitation in consulting the university community about adopting, for instance, an identity which suits everyone. Listening to the views of others allows her to recognise the contribution made by all those helping to foster progress.
Another upshot of this is to create an ideal breeding ground for the cultivation of innovative ideas, as should be the case with any academic institution worthy of this description.

A University of a Personable Size

Building a better world

Launched in 2004, the Philias CSR Award aims to raise awareness of the corporate social responsibility challenges among future managers. Considering 2007 recipient Marc Gasser’s path proves this award significant to further key social and environmental issues.

Corporate social responsibility (CSR) is leisurely going its own sweet way infiltrating the management echelons of SMEs to multinational companies. Naturally, it needs to be given a bit of boost as “ensuring a constant and constructive dialogue between companies and their stakeholders(i.e. customers/consumers, local authorities, unions, governments, suppliers, NGOs, media, local community, em-ployees, social investors, investors, and the supply chain) as well as contributing to the social and environmental well-being of the community in which they operate is not obvious”, explains Philias Foundation founding director Bettina Ferdman-Guerrier. It disputes traditional methods and soon-to-be outdated mentalities that today’s leaders find hard to get rid of and related costs can make them look like a luxury not every company can afford. Training the managers’ new generation is more important than ever.

The Philias CSR Award has been specially designed for students to link practice with theory. Working on dedicated case studies helps them to experience a subject ‘in the field’. They meet with volunteer companies, audit them, and make recommendations either to implement bespoke solutions in their long-term strategy, for example undertaking philanthropy projects that would increase their investment in the community, or to structure their own responsible business concept and best communicate about it. Even if companies do not have to implement these solutions the initiative is not useless and often, though slowly, bears fruits.
Bettina Ferdman points out “how important is this critical look the young generation takes at companies, by the way beneficial for both.”

Co-founder of Astina, a SME specializing in sophisticated business and web applications and customized software, Marc Gasser fully made the most of his experience. Is CSR a marketing tool camouflaging the pursuit of profit or is it an opportunity to do something right? Do meeting the goals of profit optimization and sustainability equate with utopia? These are the questions Marc’s project for Philias brought an answer to. He comprehended that “even if the chief end is but agressive performance, it is a business area compatible with increasing profit while achieving a leadership position. The London trip I was awarded offered me to step into a network teeming with ideas. The treatment of employees alone invites a wide range of possibilities to enhance team quality, from holidays to free time to the ratio hour/week, etc.

Gasser didn’t content himself with watching and listening. He’s started to provide incentives for improving Astina’s positive impact on society. At the moment, four areas are on the go:
(1) workplace: Astina has a great flexible attitude about work hours, collective lunches and aperitifs, and pays higher pension fund contributions than the required minimum; (2) environment: using renewable energy to maintain the data processing centre as well as encouraging public transportation and bicycles; (3) community: by financially supporting a bicycle race in Tibet besides supplying other causes with materials or free webpage updates; and (4) marketplace: Astina is conducting a supplier review in order to find appropriate partners to outsource some business units.

Today everything’s on schedule for success. Gasser is aware of what he owes to the award and remains a die-hard supporter because “it helps students not to miss the concept which is giving back something to the world.”
www.philias.org & www.astina.ch

Sigrid Ott

As founders of the International Ranger Camp in 1958, the Leysin American School in 1961 and the American College of Switzerland in 1963, Sigrid and Fred Ott are without a doubt the corner stones of the conversion of Leysin from a centre for sanatoriums nestled above Lake Geneva to a centre for international education.

At the age of 92, Sigrid Ott is still full of energy and has an unbelievable thirst for life.
Originally from the plains of North Dakota, in the US, she is one of eight children born to a family in a tight Icelandic community. Her parents were simple farmers but within the Icelandic community education was extremely important. Sigrid attended Bottineau University (a hundred kilometres from home) and returned home with a Bachelor’s Degree in Sociology – something very rare in the 1930s
especially for a woman.
Born in Basel, Switzerland, Fred Ott had followed his father, a pastor of the Basel missions, to New York before going on to North Dakota for his studies in Education. There he met and married Sigrid in June 1939.
Fred, by then a US citizen, was sent to war in 1943. At the end of the war in 1945, he was asked by the US Air Force to open schools for the children of American soldiers who were posted in Europe. He opened and managed over 40 schools, from Norway to as far away as Pakistan.

You joined your husband in Europe. How did you feel about going there alone with Steven (6 months) and Aldis (6)?
At first I was a little surprised. I had absolutely no idea how to get to Europe. First, I managed to book the passage on the ship but they then informed me that I needed a passport, which of course I didn’t have at that time. I read up in the government book how to get a passport. There I learnt that I needed a birth certificate. In those days it was impossible to get documents.
The only thing I had was my Icelandic baptismal certificate in Icelandic but they managed to put together a passport with that! I had been teaching at that time in the Icelandic Community and the day before I was due to leave everyone rallied round and organized a going away party for me. The next day we left for Chicago and then went on to New York where I was to take the ship. It was a troop ship and there were only six bunks, I was lucky to have three in an officer’s cabin. Below decks everyone else was in hammocks. It was fascinating. We spent 10 days on the ship and I met up with a man travelling to Zurich. My son talked to everyone and one day went up to this man and asked him if he was his father!
With a big smile on his face he replied, “I don’t know, I will have to see your mother first!” He accompanied me to Paris and on to the Swiss border. Fred turned up in Bern in a great big black Chevrolet with a German shepherd dog. He stayed with us for a few days then had to go back to Germany. This was my first experience in Europe and I was enthralled.

What were your first impressions of Switzerland?
Things were very difficult for everyone in those days and the Swiss also suffered during the war. I stayed in Bern but did not speak German so it was difficult in the beginning. Even so, some of the ‘Schweitzer Deutsch’ dialects are very similar to Icelandic. My daughter suffered the most as she was in school and didn’t speak any German and retreated into herself. My son however, talked to everyone, one way or another English, German didn’t matter. My neighbour managed to get him into Kindergarten “because he could tie his shoe laces”! It took a while but I did adopt this beautiful country.

How did you come to found your first school in Switzerland: Leysin American School?
Fred was asked by the US Air Force to create a private boarding school for American military families stationed on bases too small to accommodate high schools. Fred who had always dreamed of doing this jumped at the challenge. I had found the former sanatorium in Leysin, which I had rented for summer camps that I had started, (International Ranger Camps) and this was an ideal situation for a school.
Leysin American School (LAS) was born in 1961 and welcomed the first 79 students. It was hard work and steadily the numbers grew. In 1963 the school board decided to create a university institution: The American College of Switzerland (ACS). We welcomed 300 students in the beginning of the 70’s. Due to a recession and an accreditation problem the college separated from the school and even left Leysin. We continued with LAS and my son came and joined us with his wife to build up the school to what it is today.

You have lived through a world that is in constant change (the arrival of the telephone, radios, TV, cars, and internet). What would you say to a 13-year-old boy today who has no motivation?
First of all, I would suggest summer camp! It is an excellent way to meet with people from all over the world and who have lived different experiences. To join up with positive thinking kids, 13 is still young and there is so much out there to see and do and so many experiences to share.

What is your proudest achievement?
My family of course! My life has been so interesting I have been lucky. I was married for 68 years and my husband died only recently. We had ups and downs like every couple but he was never tiresome and we talked a lot. My children have carried on the Ott tradition. My son took over LAS and now it is the turn of my grandsons. My daughter has also created a school trust for a school in India: the Arunachala Village School trust which teaches kindergarten to 5th year encouraging creativity and the development of the individual.

And your dream?
I have many, but the first would be that I hope that Switzerland can hold its own as the democratic centre it always has been and that society offers more to youth to build the stability that they need.

Swiss Leaders: Sepp Blatter

Back in his hometown FIFA President did not shy away from telling us little childhood secrets – especially about how he’s been rather partial to football ever since.

What did it mean to you when Visp named a school after you?
I attach great importance to young people’s education. Now more than ever, young people need moral guidance, and school plays a vitally important role in this – as does football, no matter which level it is played at. So I’m delighted that school-children in Visp have the opportunity to play football in their free time, especially as this was strictly forbidden when I was at this school in Visp.

Why’s that?
Visp primary school in those days followed the principles of a German man called Jahn, the ‘father of gymnastics’, who would only allow us to take part in this sport. However, we spent all of our free time playing football – albeit without the right footwear. My parents discovered that we were still kicking a ball around against the school’s orders, and all hell broke loose. We didn’t have any footballs, so we played with tennis balls. Some time later, my uncle gave me a tiny rubber ball, which made me very popular among my friends. We would play for hours on the afternoons when we didn’t have lessons. Not on the football pitch – where there was a sign that read “Do not step on the grass” – but on turf and meadows.

And what happened after that when you went to college?
Fortunately, one of our teachers gave us more time off to train. When the rector of the College in Sion got word of this, he ordered us into the chapel and said:
“I call God to witness and ask: Do you think playing football will help you pass your exams?”

What did your parents say?
My father was a bicycle mechanic by trade in Lausanne. He moved to Visp and went to work in his blue overalls every day for 40 years, eventually becoming a foreman at Lonza. He woke us up every morning at six, made us coffee or milk and went to the factory. He was very intelligent, but he could also be strict. He had an aversion to time-wasting.

Did you want to be a professional footballer?
Yes, but my father said: “Son, you’ll never earn a living from football.” And at that time, he was right!

But you didn’t give up…?
While I was studying at Lausanne University, I trained with Lausanne Sports. The coach persuaded me to transfer to Lausanne and because, at 18, I wasn’t authorised to sign, he gave me a letter to be signed at home by my parents. My father tore up the contract with the words: “You, a footballer? Over my dead body!”

And now how near to football and footballers are you?
I stopped playing football regularly at 38. But every minute of my life is football!