ghana think tank

JWU - Johnson and Wales University

Problem

Johnson and Wales University (JWU) sits just across the street from the Rhode Island School of Design (RISD). The windows of RISD literally look down onto their quad, yet there is no pretty much no contact between the two schools. This brief asks for a solution to this lack of contact between the two schools. Read the full brief.

Solutions

Ghana

Solutions suggested:
  • Organize joint programs for both schools such as games, shows. Students from both schools should be involved in the organization
  • Form clubs involving students of both schools
  • Change enrolment policy/practice
  • Modify school curriculum/facilities in both schools to do a bit of the others main line of education or training. So RISD will start a business school to get more middle class students, etc. sort of bring both schools at par with each other.
  • Organize talks for both schools. Topics for such talks should center on the need to understand each other, that we are one people and we need each other in the society, need to respect each other and share experiences as pertaining to their lifestyles.

Cuba

I have been analyzing your first problem, which I have labeled 'RISD vs JW'. I believe it is a basic, most important and still to be solved social problem

Given the background you have described in your message, how to encourage interaction between the two schools?

First, I should begin by saying that I think it is not just probable but dead sure that J&W students think you are snobs... Read the entire solution.

El Salvador

We haven't heard back from El Salvador on this one just yet.

Actions

Play Chess with JWU

On the advice of our Ghanaian and Cuban counterparts, we set up a chess and checkers table at the JWU quad, and invited passerbsy to sit down for a game. Turns out JWU didn't even realize the building across the street was full of RISD students! View a video of this action.

SDS Chapter

Our conterpart in Cuba asked us to convoke a forum, in order to bring students from JWU and RISD together. Because his analysis suggested the problem was due to class difference, we thought it would be appropriate to start a chapter of Students for a Democratic Society, a radical student group from the 60's which has just resurfaced. When we ran this by Luis, he was thrilled and said that he had 'an incredible coincidence to tell us about':
'the extraordinary coincidence to which I referred to in a previous letter is the fact that I had just begun reading, quite accidentally, a book entitled SDS written by Kirkpatrick Sale published by Vintage Books in February 1974 whose title intrigued me, since I had never heard of it, and I thought of asking you the same question - if you knew about it. And on the same day that you wrote to me on that subject I was talking to a friend of my granddaughter about it, he is American graduate of Rudgers in political economics! I had hesitated to mention it to you because, from the very beginning, the book sounded very radical and I didn't want to arouse the suspicion in you that I am a radical activist...'

Boat to Cuba

During our back and forth with the Cuba counterpart concerning the RISD/JWU problem, the U.S. embargo on Cuba arose several times. While we couldn't actually pay our counterpart for his time because of the embargo, Cuba's socialist policies meant that he had access to things like national healthcare, which we didn't.

So, we devised a plan to build a boat bound for Cuba so that US citizens without healthcare could get free check ups, and so we could recompensate our counterpart for his time while also bringing attention to US's healthcare problem and ridiculous embargo on Cuba.

Plus, I've wanted to build a boat and take it to an island for some time, now.