Consortium Welcomes Its 4th Member From The M7 In The Last 4 Years

Members of the Chicago Booth MBA Class of 2023 during graduation a year ago. The Booth School, which has a long history of promoting diversity and breaking barriers, will be the 25th member of the Consortium for Graduate Study in Management, effective July 1. File photo

U.S. business schools have long been focused on achieving and maintaining the kind of diverse environment demanded by applicant pools and employers alike. A big part of the reason for that is the work done for the last 58 years by The Consortium for Graduate Study in Management.

About a year ago, B-schools lost one of their most effective tools to achieving and maintaining diversity in their MBA classes. But in the wake of the Supreme Court decision striking down affirmative action in college admissions, the storied nonprofit is stepping into the vacuum.

On Tuesday (June 11), The Consortium announced that it has expanded its membership for a second time in 2024, admitting the University of Chicago’s Booth School of Business to its rolls. Booth’s induction — the 25th school to join The Consortium since its founding in 1966 — comes a little less than two months after the announcement that Duke University’s Fuqua School of Business had joined the academic and business network that works with top-ranked MBA programs around the country to increase the number of under-represented minorities in business education and corporate leadership.

After many years of static membership, The Consortium has more than doubled in size in the two decades since Peter Aranda became executive director and CEO, with among the most significant additions happening in the last four years as The Consortium has added five new member schools — including four of the elite M7 group of B-schools: Columbia University, Stanford Graduate School of Business, Northwestern Kellogg School of Management, and now Chicago Booth.

BOOTH: A NATURAL CHOICE FOR CONSORTIUM MEMBERSHIP

Peter Aranda, executive director and CEO of The Consortium for Graduate Study in Management: Booth leadership “understand(s) the importance of diversity to fostering robust inquiry”

The U.S. Supreme Court ruled in June 2023 that race-based admissions, which had been practiced since 1978 and survived three previous high court challenges, violate the Equal Protections Clause of the 14th Amendment.

The decision had been telegraphed long before, so it was not a shock. And it could not slow the growth of The Consortium, whose original mission to boost African-American men in the country’s top MBA programs long ago expanded to include women, Latinos, and Native Americans. From three schools in the mid-1960s — the University of Wisconsin-Madison, Washington University in St. Louis, and Indiana University-Bloomington — the nonprofit had doubled in size by the time Aranda took the helm in 2003; by 2016, when The Consortium celebrated its 50th year, it had grown from around 200 to about 680 students per year. Its annual class size now is over 700. Revenue has quadrupled in the last two decades, from $14 million to $56 million; in nearly six decades, more than $600 million total has been secured to further its mission. More than 100 Fortune 500 companies back The Consortium.

Chicago Booth is a natural choice for membership in an organization dedicated to the principle that diversity is a strength at the highest levels of graduate business education. In 1964, Booth became the first B-school to establish a minority scholarship program; in 1970, Booth MBA students founded the National Black MBA Association. In 1985 Booth became the first B-school to establish an office dedicated to supporting under-represented students.

‘JOINING FORCES’

Chicago Booth’s membership in The Consortium was approved in April and becomes effective July 1.

“We are thrilled to welcome the University of Chicago Booth School of Business as our 25th member school, as it carries on its historic legacy of inclusion,” Aranda says in a statement accompanying the announcement, praising Booth for its continued commitment to prioritizing diversity and inclusion. “Dean (Mahav) Rajan and his team understand the importance of diversity to fostering robust inquiry and to addressing some of today’s most complex business challenges. We look forward to joining forces to help them have even greater impact while advancing The Consortium’s mission to ensure equal opportunity in graduate management education and American business.”

Rajan adds: “As a member school, Booth hopes to enhance our efforts to increase the diversity of our student body and support the aspirations of our students so they can become successful leaders in business and government.”

WHAT PREVIOUS NEW CONSORTIUM MEMBERS HAVE SAID

• “We’ve been having conversations internally for many years, and membership was a goal of mine when I joined Fuqua given my affiliation with them during my time at Georgetown,” Fuqua Associate Dean of Admissions Shari Hubert said in April when Duke became the 24th Consortium member school. Hubert joined Fuqua from the McDonough school of Business — another Consortium member — in 2017, four years after Georgetown became the organization’s 18th member school. “So we were very excited when the opportunity arose this year to be invited.”
• “We are thrilled to partner with The Consortium to advance its mission, which reflects our commitment to fostering an environment of exemplary diversity, equity and inclusion,” Northwestern Kellogg Dean Francesca Cornelli said in November 2022 when Kellogg became The Consortium’s 23rd member school. “Kellogg has a great responsibility — and a distinctive ability — to shape inclusive leaders who demonstrate empathy and lead with principle. This begins with ensuring Kellogg’s community encompasses diverse backgrounds and that our school is a place where students are empowered to bring their full selves.”
• “As an institution, we want to help shape a future where individuals have the same opportunity to thrive regardless of their background,” Stanford GSB Dean Jonathan Levin said in February 2022. Stanford at the time was The Consortium’s 22nd member school. “We believe in attracting and supporting outstanding students from diverse backgrounds to enhance the learning environment at the GSB, and ultimately, to contribute principled and purposeful leadership to organizations around the world. We are excited to support and collaborate with The Consortium in the advancement of these goals.”
• “Business schools like Columbia have a number of essential responsibilities when it comes to enhancing and improving diversity, equity, and inclusion,” Dean Costis Maglaras said when Columbia became The Consortium’s 21st member school in April 2021. “We must endeavor to diversify our own communities with the goal of building a student body reflective of what we want to see in the business world. We must teach students to recognize the value that diversity adds to business. And we must enhance their abilities to lead in a more inclusive and equitable manner. All of these efforts will be strengthened considerably through our partnership with The Consortium, and we are extremely proud and humbled to be a part of their efforts.”

DON’T MISS THE CONSORTIUM, BORN IN A TURBULENT TIME, MARKS 50 YEARS and THE M7 B-SCHOOLS: EVERYTHING YOU NEED TO KNOW