Q: I was wondering about a time that you were faced with an ethical dilemma and who you sought out to help you solve that problem. Ian Cochran ’13, Moorhead Majors: Spanish and accounting
Kudzy Katema ‘16, Zimbabwe, asks Bill Gates about how technology and policy can improve lives.
That struck Bachmeier, who is studying social studies education. “To hear that responsible engagement isn’t just about coding software, it just isn’t about becoming a multibilliondollar company,” Bachmeier said. “It’s about doing whatever the world needs in whatever capacity that your skills and abilities are able to contribute to that.” Gates presented three areas of challenge for students to address in their lifetime: awareness of the great divide between the poor and rich, the energy economy and health care. He also gave a nod to research and projects occurring on Concordia’s campus, including the search for a hookworm vaccine and fundraising for meningitis vaccinations. He accounted his own journey from Microsoft, where he was “fanatical” about software, to foundation work, where he is fanatical about funding causes that can improve lives around the globe. When he and his wife started the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, they expected it would be hard to find highimpact projects to fund. They quickly recognized that there were numerous ways – paying for malaria nets and vaccines – to make a difference without spending a lot of money. “For less than $1,500, we could save a life,” he said. Philanthropy, he said, is dangerous because it’s not market driven. A lot of money is given away without regard to project effectiveness and need. Yet, philanthropy has its biggest impact when it takes on the aggressive, risky things that government and business won’t do, he said.
Gates: If I think of the Microsoft days, I’d say the main ethical problem I had was if somebody wasn’t very good at their job. You know, should we replace them or not? Because you can have really nice people who aren’t that good at their job and it’s particularly bad if you have a manager who wasn’t that good, so do you owe it to them until they get a good manager and then wait two years until you move them on to something else? These things have a way of taking care of themselves, but that was the one part of my job at Microsoft I didn’t really like. It was deciding when to replace people.
Q: I understand that you are a very big proponent of education reform, most notably with respect to instructor evaluation, and so with that in mind what do you believe are the key initiatives that we must undertake to advance the field of academics? Matt Gantz ’14, Eagan, Minn. Major: business-finance Gates: One of the key differences (between the U.S. and countries that are doing better in education than we are) is that they have a very strong personnel system that gives feedback to teachers. They invest in having other teachers sit in the classroom or training the principals. They have career ladders where at an early stage, as a teacher, you are given a lot of guidance and then, if you achieve a certain level of skill, you move up. They have mentor teachers and master teachers. Our system has fallen into a mode where teachers basically get no feedback. … I think it’s important that we build that feedback system. Now exactly how you do that, how much you connect that to the pay system, we need experimentation. Concordia Magazine
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