Leadership in Action: Transforming Self and Structure

After we watched the Milgram experiment in class it made me think about how humans react to those in power and what they would or wouldn’t do to another human being.  I knew there were many instances of unethical treatment of people by their government but I wanted to know more and came across the patriotic re-education of Tibet’s monks and nuns by the Chinese government. 

The re-education plan involves five principles (www.tibet.com/humanrights):

1. Opposition to separatism;
2. Unity of Tibet and China;
3. Recognition of the Chinese appointed Panchen Lama as the true Panchen Lama;
4. Denial that Tibet was or should be independent;
5. Agreement that the Dalai Lama is destroying the unity of the motherland.

The re-education plan has included such thing as removing the monks and nuns under the age of 18 from the monasteries, issuing ID cards, limiting the number of monks and nuns in a monastery, expelling them from monasteries because they wouldn’t denounce the Dalai Lama, limiting their movement, burning all pictures of the Dalai Lama in front of the monks and nuns plus other countless restrictions or requirements that have been imposed by the government. 

Princeton Review has a wealth of information on U.S. colleges and universities.  They have a page dedicated to the 2008 Best 366 Colleges.  Over 120,000 students were surveyed.  They ranked their schools in the areas of academics, demographics, parties, school type, politics, quality of life, extra curricular and social activities.  The eight categories are further broken down into sub categories.  Examples of the sub categories include classroom experience, best professors, best at encouraging classroom discussion, etc.  The information is not in-depth but it does provide the reader with a quick synopsis on each college from a student’s perspective.

The website also offers quick statistics on each college.  It provides enrollment levels, average GPA, student faculty ratio, average cost of attendance and scholarship/financial aid information.