We received the following note from our exchange students at Wharton. They received an e-mail from the Dean of the school.

"Hello everyone,

I'm writing to share with you a concern expressed by many of our faculty who were dismayed last Spring to see their last class turn into rambunctious and inappropriate celebrations of the end of the school year.

Faculty approach their last class, as they do every other class, with clear goals for your learning and expect your full engagement with the class. I ask you to respect these goals and to maintain the academic decorum of the classroom.

The end of the school year is indeed an occasion to celebrate, which we will do together with faculty and administrators during Spring Salute on Thursday, April 22, at the end of classes.

Best regards"

What a difference with the informal character of INSEAD MBA classes, faculty and administration - note that I did not say unprofessional !

Here I am winding down everything - I packed, shipped some stuff back to France, I met some people for the last time in a long time - still have a dinner to go. I closed my bank account with the feeling that I was accomplishing something irrevocable. After the end of P1 and P2, there were big parties, everybody got together, desirous to spend one last moment with the class before venturing off to greener meadows. Now it seems that people meet in smaller groups, set up their vacation plans independently, return to their families more often.

It rained earlier today - and that is a perfect mirror of my state of mind at this time.