Top 10 Scandals & Controversies of 2015

4. Visa Abuse Fallout Hits Foreign MBAs

First they roll out the welcome mat, then they show you the door. International MBAs have found themselves ensnared in immigration politics, as hopes for a fix to the ongoing shortage of work visas have been dampened by revelations that the visa they need has been abused by outsourcing companies. Gaming of the system by mostly Indian outsourcing companies, reported to have led to replacement of U.S. workers, has further complicated attempts to reform the H-1B system for skilled workers. Foreign graduates of U.S. MBA programs must enter a lottery for the visa. In the most recent round, in fiscal year 2016, 233,000 applications came in for 85,000 visas. In November, Wharton Dean Geoffrey Garrett expressed concerns that the Paris terror attacks would make H-1B reform even more difficult.

3. Bloch School Prof Resigns Amid Scandal

Michael Song was executive director of Bloch’s entrepreneurship center when the false numbers were reported

False rankings data. Improper input into a journal article. The troubles came to rest at the door of University of Missouri-Kansas City Bloch School of Management professor Michael Song, revealed to have played key roles in Princeton Review rankings fudgery and the creation of a highly irregular article that named him and Bloch No. 1 in innovation-management education. In February, Song resigned – but not likely into poverty: he was the third-highest-paid employee of the university for the past academic year, raking in $1.6 million in salary in the four years Bloch was feeding faked data to the Princeton Review.

2. A Historic Gathering Of Female B-School Deans Tackles Gender Inequality

Power in numbers: (Rear, L-R): Scheller dean Maryam Alavi, Tippie dean Sarah Gardial, Goizueta dean Erika James, George Washinton dean Linda Livingstone, Kellogg dean Sally Blount, and Kelley dean Idalene Kesner; (Front, L-R): Ross dean Alison Davis-Blake, Carey dean Amy Hillman, Anderson dean Judy Olian, Carlson dean Sri Zaheer, and White House adviser Betsey Stevenson

The women in this photo are smiling – because they’ve made history. For the first time ever, there are 10 female deans in the top 60 business schools, nine of them in the top 50. This story made the list not because the meeting itself was scandalous and controversial, but rather that the deans are seeking to address the gender imbalance in business schools and business that is in itself scandalous. In February 2015, the 10 deans met with White House senior economic adviser Betsey Stevenson in Los Angeles. Their mission? To bring more women into business schools as students, faculty members, and deans. They have a big job ahead: women make up only about 35% of the U.S. MBA student population, and among undergraduate business majors, about 43% are women, even though 60% of the students entering the top universities in the U.S. are female.

1. Stanford Confidential: Sex, Lies and Loathing At The World’s No. 1 B-School

Stanford Graduate School of Business Dean Garth Saloner on campus

No question this Poets&Quants expose ranks first for scandals in 2015. The fall – let’s just call it a trainwreck – of Stanford Graduate School of Business Dean Garth Saloner made headlines the world ’round. Saloner resigned days after Poets&Quants asked him and the GSB to respond to lurid accusations in a lawsuit by a former professor who alleges Saloner railroaded him out of the business school while sleeping with his wife, and to answer questions about a letter by 40 current and former GSB staff who alleged that Saloner presided over a hostile workplace where women were singled out for ill treatment. Saloner remains as dean until the end of the academic year.

DON’T MISS: TOP 10 SCANDALS & CONTROVERSIES OF 2014