SUNYIT fills a void by offering MBA program

CNY Business Journal (1996+), Jul 12, 2002 by Kropf, Annemarie

MARCY - Those wishing to get their master of business administration (MBA) in the Mohawk Valley can now do so. SUNY Institute of Technology recently received approval from the New York State Department of Education to offer an MBA degree program. It is, the school says, the first MBA program in the Mohawk Valley.

"We've been wanting this program for the last 17 years," says Dr. Sanjay Varshney, dean of the school of management. "It's a very prestigious program, and we wanted it in the Mohawk Valley."

The MBA offered at SUNYIT is different from other schools, Varshney says. "Our MBA is in technology management," he says. "It's a very popular and upcoming area. Other MBAs are traditional MBA programs." Students must complete 16 classes, six of which are in technology management.

Offered both on campus and online for distance learning, the full-time program takes about two years to complete and costs $2,550 per semester, he says. Courses will begin this fall.

Varshney says that many students have expressed interest in the program. "We are flooded," he says. "People go to Syracuse University or Albany or RPI [for MBAs], but these are private [schools] and very expensive."

SUNYIT had applied for the program three times since 1985. Varshney says the school was rejected because MBA programs were reserved for the university centers, such as Buffalo, Albany, and Binghamton. He says that the technology institute had to show it was selective about students and had a breadth of faculty in order to be approved.

"We are very excited," he says. "SUNYIT's done a great job in recruiting national faculty."

This is the only online MBA program in the SUNY system.

"The future success of the Mohawk Valley region is clearly wedded to the integration of high technology across a broad spectrum of our business community," Varshney said in an issued statement. "One of the ways that SUNY Institute of Technology can best partner with the business community is through educational offerings that support the development of a high-technology environment. The MBA degree program will allow us to do that."