This Man’s Job Is to Keep Wharton Students Happy, Whatever It Takes

Kembrel Jones, dean of student life at the University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton School, can describe students’ hardships in two words: Champagne problems. “At Wharton, when you get up in the morning and you think you’re going to have a bad day, think about why,” says Jones, sitting in an office filled with gifts from graduates. There is a framed illustration of Jones’s face that a student created by compiling hundreds of tiny photos of members of the class of 2013; a plaque inscribed with a quote from Jones given to him by students graduating this year; and in the center of the room, a one-and-a-half-liter bottle of Veuve Clicquot, a birthday present from the class of 2014. “Oh, you have an exam? Champagne problems,” Kembrel says, pointing to the bottle. “Oh you’ve got five different interviews today with five different consulting firms? Champagne problems.”

That’s one of the many lessons Jones imparts to the almost 1,700 students at Wharton. Hired in 2008 to fill the newly created position of dean of students, the Alabama native says he was brought in to lighten things up at the historically serious school. The 55-year-old was recruited to join Wharton from Emory University’s Goizueta Business School, where he was an associate dean in charge of student life. Jones’s obsessive focus on students reflects a broader goal among elite graduate business schools to cultivate a place in the hearts—and wallets—of their MBAs, so they’ll donate money after they graduate. “To be blunt, they’ll write a check, they’ll write a big check, if they had a good experience here,” Jones says.