Stanford GSBers … Behaving Badly?
By BankersBall on Dec 13, 2006 in Emails & Diversions, M.B.A.: means business, a**hole
A Stanford alum has passed along an email recapping some pretty unmannerly behavior by Stanford GSBers at a recent charity event, which was a formal, no less.
We can’t verify if this actually happened, but from the date of the email and from these pictures on Flickr, it looks like the event took place on the date as noted in the email. We’re only printing an excerpt, and we’ve also removed names. Emphasis added in certain areas.
Wonder how many of those who misbehaved will come forward…
__________________________________
[excerpt begins]…
At the same time, we feel that everyone should know exactly why the party was shut down by the _______. Simply put, a small number of GSB students who behaved extremely poorly caused the vineyard to stop the event. The _______ initially stopped serving drinks because the bartenders were complaining about abusive behavior from students and a general level of chaos with which they felt uncomfortable. As we were negotiating with them to begin re-pouring alcohol, including an offer by _______ to purchase more wine at our expense, we became aware of some startling activities by GSB students. The sad, plain truth is that at some point GSBers started stealing bottles of wine (both from displays in the tasting room and by reaching directly behind the bar) and merchandise from the ______, became exceptionally rude and threatening to the bartenders and _______ staff, and engaged in generally destructive behavior toward the venue and even towards fellow classmates. Clearly the circumstances were unfortunate, and we understand that many people felt cheated when the wine pouring ended during the event, but in no way does this excuse this kind of behavior. We are particularly disturbed to hear of GSBers throwing things at the bartenders, including bottlecaps and wine glasses.
Additionally, _______ is paying almost $2,000 for theft and damages out of funds that were raised to be donated to the _______. The size of the donation we are able to make has decreased significantly due to these actions.
The GSB is a place that works because it is a legacy handed down to us by those who were here before. The special greatness of our community, and what drew many of us here, is the powerfully collaborative culture and general spirit of grace toward each other that the GSB perpetuates year in and year out. When we are at our best, this shines through to the outside world and we all benefit. When we are at our worst, like some of us were on Friday, this too can be seen by others, and it hurts all of us. We say this here not to preach or moralize, but to point out to those few people who acted so poorly that your actions hurt everyone else at this school.
To be explicitly clear: it is a small number of people who are ultimately responsible for what happened. These people acted without regard for not just basic civil decency, but without regard for their classmates or the school’s name. We all have a responsibility to maintain not just the norms of our community, but its reputation and integrity. It is also the case that Stanford’s Fundamental Standard, to which we are all bound, states “Students are expected to show both within and without the University such respect for order, morality, personal honor, and the rights of others as is demanded of good citizens.” A few of us did not act like good citizens on Friday night, yet we all paid the price for their actions.
With this in mind, we are encouraging those students who contributed to Friday’s incident to come forward. The damage to the venue and the stolen alcohol and merchandise must be repaid with ____ money, money that would otherwise go to charity. We also feel you should know that as a result of these people’s actions the ____________ event and ____________, both long-standing GSB traditions that are loved by the GSB students, are currently in jeopardy. Part of being good citizens is the responsibility to step up and take ownership of your actions. We are not asking for hearsay or accusations—we are asking for direct accountability only. If you are a cause of what happened on Friday, please reach out to ____________ to help rectify the situation. After coming forward, it is possible that your case may be referred to the Office of Judicial Affairs at Stanford University as a result of the Fundamental Standard Violation. However, we at ____ obviously have very little insight as to what the ultimate resolution of the individual cases will be.
[continues]….
On Dec 13, 2006, anony said:
ugly behavior from an ugly group of people.
On Dec 14, 2006, Paulista said:
Wow–pretty lewd behavior.Seriously, who throws wine bottles at waiters? I bet that never happens at Harvard/Wharton.
On Dec 14, 2006, anon said:
i agree- if you’ve been to the SF bay area, then you’ve seen how plain the girls are and how the dorky guys are. i’d go crazy and throw wine bottles too.
On Dec 14, 2006, Tim Horton said:
When I was at the GSB (’99), I was also in the Stanford Band, which held an annual band camp. At the band camp, me and my GSB buddies frequently took liberties with many of the female campers. More relevant (and the reason I even mention this story) is that it was tradition to make the male campers dress up like waiters once a summer to serve us food and drink. When we felt they were getting out of line, we frequently threw bottles/glasses at them. I say: Is a tradition of petty vandalism/assault really a crime? Go Cardinals!
On Dec 14, 2006, Matt Brest said:
I was a waiter at this event. What they failed to mention was the forceful placement of wine bottles in my googookoochoo.
Holla! 5165287956
On Dec 14, 2006, Chung said:
It’s good to be Chung!
On Dec 14, 2006, blah said:
You’re right. This wouldn’t happen at hjarvard. Everyone would be too busy talking about what a great banking analyst they were while the wharton folks keep talking about how they didn’t get into harvard.
On Dec 14, 2006, blah said:
You’re right. This wouldn’t happen at Harvard. Everyone would be too busy talking about what a great banking analyst they were while the Wharton folks keep talking about how they didn’t get into Harvard.
On Dec 14, 2006, Stanford GSB Student said:
I am a Stanford GSB student who was at the event. Testarossa vineyard held the event.
I have been to both well-behaved and rowdy bars in New York, Vegas, Tokyo, Lagos, London, and Palo Alto. I’ve never seen ANYONE throw a glass at a bartender. And I did not see anyone throw a glass that night.
To be perfectly clear - the account from Testarossa Vineyard (testarossa.com) seems like a gross exaggeration. If someone threw a wine glass, an assault charge against the perp would be in order.
Also, the $2,000 figure is definitely overblown. Students definitely stole bottles, and that is despicable. But $2,000 worth of damages? Assuming each bottle was $40 per, that means 50 wine bottles were stolen! [This of course, assumes just wine was stolen...] What kind of operation did they think students were running?
On Dec 15, 2006, Hey said:
Stanford students aren’t ugly, at least in comparison to Cal creatures. There is one exception though…the stanford band members are horrendous.
On Dec 16, 2006, Another Stanford GSBer said:
I was at this event. I didn’t see a single person throw anything at a bartender or steal anything (Which doesn’t mean it didn’t necessarily happen, I suppose.) What I did see was a venue sized for 100 people sell 375 tickets and use 3 bartenders. I was DD for the night, so I only had one drink, but waiting 20 minutes for that drink, only to find that the bar had run out of glasses was a mite frustrating. Testarossa should never have agreed to host an event our size in their small space, and even if they had, both sides would have been spared a whole lot of frustration and animosity by a little advance planning - 6 bar tenders (4 for the square front bar and 2 for the back) and *at least* 750 glasses, enough for everyone to have a white and a red before they need to restock.
I can imagine that some of our group may have behaved badly, and for that I am sorry, but the winery also needs to take some responsibility for their greed and poor planning.
On Dec 18, 2006, Po' Boy said:
Getting frustrated about inadequate service is one thing. Throwing wine glasses at people–no matter what happens– is not acceptable behavior.
You can blame the vineyard for poor planning, but take responsibility for your actions.
On Jan 2, 2007, palo alto resident said:
what is worse? the stanford football team or the demeanor of the business graduate students? hmm hard to say… both are completely embarrassing to be associated with…
at least the football team has a brand new $100 million stadium
On Jan 5, 2007, Class of 2008 said:
The guys behind the theft were Hwangbo and Lehrman. Everyone saw and there was an afterparty in Schwab with the wine. GSB First Years, clean up your act. You give other schools like Harvard and Wharton an easy sucker punch at us because you act like freshmen undergrads and make the rest of us look bad.
On Jan 15, 2007, alli said:
Ummm…if you really went to Stanford, you’d never say, “Go Cardinals.” Nice try.
On Oct 3, 2007, Lumbergh said:
Sounds like another case of d-bag yuppies getting hammered on overpriced crap wine and acting like idiot frat boys. Happens on the Upper East Side of Manhattan every weekend.