SUNY Oswego - Alumni Association - November E-Newsletter

November 2010 • Vol 6 No 8

Online Program Aims to Increase Access to MBA

A new online MBA program will enable students as diverse as soldiers at Fort Drum, busy professionals around New York state and Oswego alumni from Pennsylvania to India to obtain their master’s degrees in business administration.

Get your MBA from Oswego online

The School of Business will enroll an estimated 20 to 25 students for the program’s first semester starting in January. Over time, enrollment could grow to 100, said Richard Skolnik, dean of the School of Business.

“We felt that this was not a large step, it was an incremental step,” said Skolnik, who is in his fourth year as dean. “We had been moving in this direction over a number of years as we had more and more of our classes that were offered in an online format.”

Oswego, the first comprehensive college in the SUNY system to offer an MBA when the program started in 1997, has increased the options for obtaining the degree: for example, rotating courses between the main campus and the SUNY Oswego Metro Center in downtown Syracuse.

Skolnik said the school, working with the Division of Extended Learning, has steadily added online sections of courses to assist students who couldn’t travel.

The school will offer both an on-campus orientation and a final capstone experience for online MBA students. Those unable to attend can petition for release from either residential experience.

The School of Business is working with Pinckney Hugo Group, a Syracuse marketing communications agency, to develop a marketing plan. Initially, the target market will be all of New York state, with a special emphasis on alumni and on offering opportunities to military personnel, Skolnik said.

MBA program Director Tammie Sullivan ’04, M ’05, an Oswego MBA alumna who served in the Navy for 10 years, feels particularly strongly about active and ex-military MBA candidates.

“It’s so important to offer them the opportunity to continue their educations and to advance their careers,” she said. “They pay a huge price, and this is the least we can do to be flexible and help them achieve their goals.”

The MBA program currently enrolls 115 students, a leap of 55 percent over last fall, when the school rebranded the program to emphasize its personal, customizable approach.

“Where I start is with the individual,” Sullivan said. “‘Where do you want to be in 10 years and what are your goals?’ It’s a very personalized MBA.”

— Jeff Rea ’71

PHOTO CAPTION:
Alicia Dargan, an applicant for the college’s new online MBA program, prepares for the GMAT, the standard examination for graduate business studies, at the SUNY Oswego Metro Center in downtown Syracuse.

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315-312-2258 • 315-312-5570 (fax) • E-mail: alumni@oswego.edu • Web site: oswego.edu/alumni

Who doesn’t want to save the world? Michael Kite ’02 does that for a living through World Wildlife Fund.

As marketing specialist for one of the world’s leading conservation organizations, Kite and his team of three work to raise more than $5 million each year. The majority of that money comes from licensing partnerships and promotions with the likes of Barnes & Noble, Gap, Hewlett-Packard, Dial and Coinstar.

Retail partnerships help WWF spread its message to the general public and raise funds for its conservation work around the globe. For example, Bank of America contributes $100 for every special Visa account opened and Nabisco is supporting WWF’s “Year of the Tiger” initiative with special packaging and a $100,000 donation. The new CVS Green Bag Tag program rewards reusable bag-toting customers, and generates five cents for WWF for each tag sold.

All support WWF’s mission of protecting the future of nature, down to the finest details, Kite said.

“We like to see that the product is made from recycled material and is recyclable itself, and somehow ties into our mission,” Kite said. The Green Bag Tag, for instance, is made from a corn-based material and features a 100 percent recycled silicone lanyard.

As a broadcasting major at Oswego, Kite got involved with WRVO-FM and WNYO-FM.

“I think it gave me a lot more confidence in talking to people,” he said. It was an important part of his early career in broadcast sales and remains an important piece in the message he “sells” today.

“The best part of my job is seeing a product in the store with the WWF logo after months of working with a company to launch it,” said Kite, who joined the organization in 2006. “It’s rewarding to give people a fun, unique way to protect our planet.”

— Shane M. Liebler