At professor LaSala’s public finance class, a student with gray streaks in an unruly beard and wearing no shoes listens as one of his classmates explains negative externalities using Marxist theories. One woman, who has a pair of clogs resting on the floor and her legs folded into her chair, asks an off-topic question. LaSala squeezes the student's shoulders and says she’s putting that thought in her “parking lot”—a spot on the whiteboard she reserves for issues she’d like to return to later. Next to the parking lot is a list of people who haven’t spoken up recently. “I know that some people don’t vibe off the energy of talking,” she says. The list of names is meant to convey gently those she might be interested in hearing from.
“They’re definitely not communists,” said Shutkin, describing the student body. “It’s not wide-eyed hippies wearing Birkenstocks. It’s not the stereotype.” Shutkin described his students as “mavericks” who are willing to take a chance on Presidio because they can’t find what they’re looking for–an intense focus on sustainability and ethical training–at typical MBA programs.
Most people who go to mainstream business schools seem satisfied with the moral guidance their programs provide. According to Bloomberg's survey, 79 percent of MBAs in the class of 2015 strongly agreed with the statement: "I feel inspired to pursue an ethical career." Only 1.3 percent disagreed.
Frank Teng, a part-time student at Presidio, said the people who are drawn to the alternative path he’s chosen are simply different from most MBAs.
“By going to Presidio, you are already making a statement. All the top business schools have been part of the problem, in creating the challenges we are currently facing,” Teng said. He chose Presidio, he says, because he wants to “work within the system" rather than protest it. Teng has spent the past seven years working in sustainability at Jones Lang LaSalle, a commercial real estate firm, but many of his classmates hail from activist, rather than corporate, roots. Presidio's curriculum helps them learn how to talk to a crowd that may view them as outsiders. "It's about understanding the issues enough to be able to speak convincingly and persuasively to [that] audience, to convey your passion," Teng said.