An INSEAD Welcome Week party in 2014 sponsored by Booz & Co. Photo from a YouTube video
No one could have predicted the storm that has followed INSEAD’s decision to cancel Welcome Week for its incoming students. Alumni who either loved or hated the experience came out in force to defend or decry the event.
Poets&Quants‘ story on the controversy set off a volcano of heated comments and damning allegations, and for the first time in our history we had to delete dozens of comments, redact names, and eventually shut down the comments entirely on a story. We’ve also received dozens of emails both for and against Welcome Week. One alum recently published an essay on Bloomberg in defense of Welcome Week.
The brouhaha started shortly after The Financial Times reported last week that two incoming INSEAD students had formally filed complaints about hazing to the Comité National Contre le Bizutage, or French National Committee Against Hazing. The INSEAD newcomers charged that the student-run, one-and-a-half day event put incoming students through uncomfortable initiation activities.
From a YouTube video of an INSEAD Welcome Week party for incoming students in January of 2017
VIDEOS OF WELCOME WEEK SHOW INSEAD NEWCOMERS DANCING AWAY THE NIGHT
While some consider the pranks–including coaxing new students to sign up for non-existent clubs offensive–many alums defend the event as a fun way to instantly bond with each other and blow off steam. YouTube videos posted over the years show INSEAD newbies dancing away the night, with many men bare chested and women in bikinis (see below). They’re drinking, laughing, tossing each other in swimming pools and fountains and having what appears to be a great time. But what can be fun for some, apparently isn’t for everyone.
INSEAD — ranked first in the world by the FT in 2016 and 2017 — has gotten its first real taste of scandal. In this controversy, As clear lines have been drawn, and camps have emerged both for and against the school’s Welcome Week. Among the more prominent voices calling for the event to be restored is Leonid Bershidsky, an INSEAD alum and Bloomberg columnist who wrote an opinion piece in support of the 35-year-old orientation tradition.
“Welcome Week definitely got us out of our comfort zone, and I know many of us felt unsettled and, yes, unsafe or at least uncertain about our future at the school and its demands,” Bershidsky wrote in an essay. “Being forced to look at oneself in a harsh mirror held up by one’s peers could be even more traumatic than a 24-hour workout.”
A Welcome Week party at INSEAD from a YouTube video
‘RESIST THE U.S. TREND TOWARD PROTECTING STUDENTS FROM LIFE OUTSIDE SCHOOL WALLS’
“To see why many students put up with such treatment,” he added, “one needs to understand the psychology of people who apply. For the most part, these are driven, ambitious overachievers. They take it for granted that a high bar is set for them in anything they do. They also hear from alumni — from whom they need recommendations to get into Insead — that building a network while at the school is more important than the classes. They’re also told that the program will be hard. So when there’s a club to join, especially a selective one, they don’t want to miss out. Indeed, they’re psyched.”
Bershidsky argued that such hazing may have no place in the U.S., but added, “this is Europe.”
“There’s still a chance to resist the U.S. trend toward protecting students from the life that awaits them outside school walls,” he wrote. “At the average age of 29, INSEAD students should be capable of handling more than Welcome Week throws at them. Otherwise I fear for the businesses they will end up running.”
A Welcome Week party at INSEAD in 2014 sponsored by Booz & Co. from a YouTube video
‘THE ENTIRE WEEK IS PURE HELL’
Of those writing in support of Welcome Week, a general theme is clear: Toughen up.
“We must recognize that sadistic elitists would have contributed to the formal complaints,” one 2012 INSEAD alum wrote to Poets&Quants. “And those societal outliers are beyond reform.
“The power and relevance of WW for the majority became clear to me when one such outlier from the incoming promotion suggested a real club after the reveal and wasn’t taken seriously. Without a vivid demo upfront, the majority wouldn’t have known how to respond in a new environment.”
Another former student wrote that he and many of his classmates wouldn’t have had the same experience at INSEAD without Welcome Week and the initiation that goes with it. “Our culture is about being conscious of others and the impact our actions have on them,” he wrote. “The WW is an effective way to get students to think more about others instead of their own narrow ambitions. Also it is fun and a great way to bond.”
One student who reached out to Poets&Quants, however, described the entire week as “pure hell.”
An INSEAD Welcome Week party in 2014 sponsored by Booz & Co. Photo from a YouTube video
INITIATION FOR RADICAL SOULS: RUN AND ROCK CLIMB FOR HOURS AND GET SCREAMED AT
For another, INSEAD’s Welcome Week had detrimental and long-lasting affects. The former student, who reached out to Poets&Quants under the condition of anonymity, says the school’s lack of support for those particularly bothered by Welcome Week is what really needs addressing. “My gripe is not so much with Welcome Week itself, but how the administration and school leadership has treated those who didn’t deal well with Welcome Week,” the former student says.
According to the former student, a self-described “workout junkie,” the club they were immediately attracted to was called Radical Souls, a club “focused on extreme sports like rock climbing, running in the cold forest, (and) cliff jumping.” Of course, Radical Souls is one of seven faux clubs entering students can “try out” for; according to club descriptions sent to students and obtained by Poets&Quants from a current concerned student, Radical Souls is for “fitness fanatics.”
“You are expected to train and work out on a daily basis (if not 2-3 times every day) and not be afraid of extreme sports,” the description reads. “They are brave and not afraid to take risks. They like to see how much their body can take. They have great stamina and endurance. They also get a thrill from achieving hardcore/extreme sports objectives (e.g. mounting Kilimanjaro, traveling around the world to complete 42 kilometer marathons). Life without exercising isn’t worth living.”
An INSEAD Welcome Week party in 2014 sponsored by Booz & Co. Photo from a YouTube video
‘THE BIG REVEAL’
The former student was asked to meet others at the Forest of Fontainebleau, a 110-square-mile national forest that borders INSEAD’s campus and is comprised of a massive maze-like network of trails with few distinguishing features. “I ran for hours. I climbed for hours,” the former student says, describing a scene more akin to a fraternity initiation than a club at a prestigious business school. “The club leaders would scream in our ears, calling us fat Renaissance rejects.”
The Raffles/Renaissance Club is another faux club students can try out for. The club supposedly “builds and preserves an image of excellence for our institution through a strong network of like-minded alumni who occupy influential positions in business and politics worldwide.”
‘I CRIED MYSELF TO SLEEP THAT NIGHT’
It wasn’t until the next day during the “big reveal” that the entering students are told the initiations were all a joke and the clubs don’t actually exist. While a joke for some, others were negatively affected by the experience.
“I cried myself to sleep that night because I couldn’t comprehend why people would be so unkind to anyone,” says the former student.
“At the big reveal, the Radical Souls leadership found me crying and tried very hard to cheer me up,” the former student recalls. “I told them it would be OK because I thought that I would be OK. They seemed sincere while at the same time insisting it’s not a big deal.”
An INSEAD Welcome Week party in 2014 sponsored by Booz & Co. Photo from a YouTube video
LACK OF RESPONSE FROM ADMINISTRATION
The student’s first classes began less than a week after Welcome Week and they couldn’t “shake” their anxiety and fear of classmates. The student failed a finance course and says he spoke with Dean Ilian Mihov and Sven Biel, director of INSEAD’s MBA program, who allegedly told the student that while the experience was unfortunate, the student could start again with the following class in January of 2017.
Asked for comment about the allegations, the school issued a statement: “Due to the ongoing CNCB inquiry, we cannot comment on specific allegations related to the student-led Welcome Week activities. We invite all members of our community to join in the participatory process that will follow the CNCB inquiry to determine our best path forward.”
After re-enrolling in January of 2017, the student perpetuated the Welcome Week hoax to the new classmates. That’s when the student claims to have been asked to be “auctioned off for a night” to help raise funds for the Robin Hood Campaign. Feeling like the request was bordering on sexual harassment, the student says they again complained to Biel.
‘PEOPLE WHO ATTEND INSEAD AREN’T INHERENTLY BAD PEOPLE’
“Predictably, the rest of P1 did not go well, my grades suffered, and I was understandably asked to leave,” the student says. “Sven (Biel) also discouraged me from appealing my dismissal because ‘dismissals are rarely overturned and let’s face it, you don’t belong here.'”
“I want to press the point that the people who attend INSEAD aren’t inherently bad people,” the former student says. “It’s just this obsession with Welcome Week and the power trip that comes with it brings out the worst in them. The administration could have done so much more to help.”
(See the next page for Dean Mihov’s complete statement to the INSEAD community.)
INSEAD bills itself as “the business school for the world”
The list of fake clubs for the 2018 January intake at INSEAD sent to already enrolled students. Click to enlarge text.
Dean Ilian Mihov’s statement to the INSEAD community re: Welcome Week:
Ilian Mihov, dean of INSEAD. File photo
“It is true that we are indefinitely suspending the longstanding Welcome Week tradition at INSEAD.
“The Welcome Week is a student-led set of activities that takes place over one-and-a-half days and introduces new students to the INSEAD culture and their senior classmates. The tradition dates back to the 1980s, when INSEAD added a second intake to our year-long MBA programme. It is a wholly student-organised exercise that is distinct from school-led MBA orientation activities.
“This year, a complaint regarding Welcome Week was filed with the French National Committee Against Hazing, or CNCB, as some of these student-led activities have allegedly caused anxiety or harm to incoming students.
“INSEAD takes these allegations very seriously and we immediately moved to suspend all student-led Welcome Week activities and communicate to all students that deception, pranks or any behavior that could be perceived as harassment in any form will not be tolerated.
“This has always been our position. In the past we have worked with the student body to make Welcome Week a positive experience. However, the CNCB inquiry demonstrates the need to ensure all student-led activities follow our INSEAD code of conduct and do not put the health and well-being of any student at risk.
“At INSEAD we pride ourselves on creating an environment where our students thrive. This begins the moment they set foot on campus and we cannot tolerate activities that undermine this goal.
“We are grateful to the CNCB, for working closely with us and for their help and support in providing guidance to students as they welcome the next class to campus. In addition, we are engaging with alumni about their Welcome Week experiences and their thoughts on how to introduce new students to INSEAD. We will consider all input and decide how to proceed with a priority on protecting our students and our community.
“As dean, I believe this is essential for shaping future business leaders. I feel strongly that we must align our educational philosophy and practices with the global business environment. In business, we see value placed on integrity, inclusion and an ethical approach that is good for all. This move to seek new ways to welcome students to campus is in line with our principles and values.”
DON’T MISS: INSEAD AXES WELCOME WEEK AFTER COMPLAINTS or THE MBA GATEKEEPER AT INSEAD
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