Components

Occupy SLU: The Case of the Clock Tower Accords

Gregory Beabout, Bonnie Wilson
June 25, 2018
SKU:
BUS-004165
Region: 
North America
Topic: 
Ethics & Social Justice, Operations
Length: 
26 pages
Keywords: 
Social Justice, ethics, Black Lives Matter, leadership, occupy, moral issues, moral questions
Student Price: 
Free
Average rating: 
5

Occupy SLU: The Case of the Clock Tower Accords is a narrative of the events related to the October 2014 occupation of the Saint Louis University (SLU) campus by protestors associated with the Black Lives Matter movement. The narrative begins with the August 2014 killing of Michael Brown in Ferguson, MO, and proceeds with a description of the confluence of events and circumstances that led to the campus occupation. It then focuses on the heart of the case: the dramatic, week-long occupation and the agreement that ended the occupation, known as the Clock Tower Accords. The story of Occupy SLU is complex, multi-faceted, and filled with many characters. We have found this case helpful in teaching to accomplish the learning objectives listed below; because the case is so rich, it may be useful for many other purposes. The case offers numerous instances of dilemma-laden decision-nodes. A key feature of the case is that it provides an opportunity for readers to ask fundamental moral and social questions: Who are we? What kind of institution is this? What traits do we want to embody, as individuals and as a community? A second key feature of the case is that it provides an opportunity for readers to compare and contrast command-and-control versus cooperative approaches to leadership as well as technological versus entrepreneurial approaches to problem-solving.

Learning Outcomes: 
  • Help readers imagine themselves in the positions of others, especially in contexts where it would be easy to adopt a polarized attitude of us-versus-them.
  • Help readers distinguish between two leadership approaches: command-and-control versus cooperative.
  • Help readers make progress developing the practical wisdom needed to discern when a command-andcontrol approach is most appropriate and when a cooperative approach is most appropriate.
  • Help readers distinguish between technological and entrepreneurial problems.
  • Help readers make progress developing the practical wisdom needed to discern when they are dealing with a technological problem and when they are dealing with an entrepreneurial problem.
  • Help cultivate in readers the dispositions most appropriate to answering fundamental questions about the ethos of one’s character and one’s institution.
  • Help readers make progress developing the practical wisdom needed to embody the virtues integral to human flourishing, especially courage, honesty, humility, and gentle persistence

Reviews

Rating: 
5