Dowling College to launch morning MBA program

Though professionals earning master’s degrees at night is business as usual, Dowling College in New York is debuting what it believes to be a new concept, breakfast and lunch-time MBA courses, at its Melville satellite location.

The idea is that in addition to downing donuts and brown bag lunches, workers may like the option of obtaining degrees before work or during lunch breaks.

Morning and lunch-hour MBA program classes begin Oct. 6, with courses offered twice a week from 7 a.m. to 8:30 a.m. and noon to 1:30 p.m. Students can attend morning or lunch courses or both, obtaining a degree in a year or more.

“A lot of people are commuting early in the morning to beat the traffic, anyway” said Matthew Cordaro, dean of Dowling College’s Paul and Terry Townsend School of Business, named for the founders of LIBN. “This gives them an advantage. They can make use of that time”.

Dowling so far enrolled only a half a dozen students in the program, but expects more as word get out. It’s holding an open house Sept. 21 at noon at its Melville campus.

Although it’s too early to tell whether the morning MBA will catch on, Cordaro mentioned one employee of a Route 110 area company who contacted Dowling regarding the evening program.

“When this person heard about morning, lunch-time courses, they went crazy, signed up without a question,” said Cordaro. “The problem we have now is it’s a late start and we’ve got to communicate it”.

Cordaro said proximity is crucial, since employees need to reach classrooms quickly. “One thing that makes it practical is the density of the Melville corridor,” Cordaro said. “A lot of people can walk or ride a block or two and they’re there”.

Evening MBAs became popular in recent years, although they eat into time at home and extend the day. But Cordaro said morning and lunch-hour MBAs could be a more efficient use of time for some people.

“A lot of people don’t want to go in the evening0”, Cordaro said. “They don’t want to take away their time from home”.

via libn.com