Cushy HBS Dorms Left Tyra Banks 'Freaking Out'

This morning while promoting her new book Modelland on Good Morning America, Tyra Banks revealed one non-negotiable aspect of her Executive Education studies at Harvard Business School: For the three weeks a year that she attends the Owner/President Management Program, she has to reside—wait for it—in student dormitories.

“I was freaking out,” Banks said. “When they told me that I’d have to be in the dorms, I was like, wait, there’s a hotel two blocks away. Can I stay there?”

According to Banks, the administration was unrelenting.

“They were like, ‘Do you want to come to Harvard?’” Banks said. They even refused her request to have her security guards—not those allegedly thieving security guards at Harvard—live in the dormitory next to her.

Her attitude, however, quickly changed.

“Now, I would not have it any other way,” she said. “I have bonded with these people. We’re eating together. We’re in our pajamas.”

“It was a little weird in the beginning,” she recounted, “but now, they don’t care. They’re like, ‘Oh, it’s Tyra, who cares? Let’s go study.’”

Business School spokesperson James E. Aisner '68 said that indeed, all participants in Banks’ program must stay in residence halls for the duration of their program.

“Learning takes place both inside the classroom and outside the classroom,” Aisner said. “You have all these people with different experiences...they have living groups where they’re supposed to work together, talking about the case back and forth."

"Living in a hotel, you can’t be part of the immersion experience," he said.

To see the clip, check out Jezebel, or watch the full episode at Good Morning America's website.