CU launches new programs to train company executives

BOULDER – Plunging into the competitive world of business, the University of Colorado at Boulder College of Business and Administration implemented several new programs advantageous to the business community this year.

“The business school is open for business,´ said Rich Wobbekind, the newly appointed associate dean for External Affairs in charge of the programs.

Starting this fall, the college is offering an evening-only MBA program for working professionals that complements their career-related activities and is taught by the same faculty as the full-time MBA program. The pre-determined curriculum consists of 16 courses and 51 credit hours over 33 months with a project course performed under faculty supervision. Students take two pre-scheduled courses a semester on two evenings per week for the duration of the program.

Courses include fundamentals such as financial and managerial accounting, current issues classes in finance and economics and decision modeling. The tuition is billed in eight installments and is guaranteed for the length of the program. Stephen Lawrence, associate professor in the business college assists with the curriculum, recruiting and preparatory teaching.

For the class entering the fall of 2000, the cost of $36,000 pays for course tuition and fees for all university and program events; all textbooks, course-required software and instructional materials; and light evening meals and refreshments on each class day. Need-based loans and other financial aid is available. The new MBA program is a self-supporting academic program with all costs covered directly by the students or their employers. For information call the Graduate School of Business Administration at (303) 492-1831.

In progress, having begun July 23, is another new business school program called the Colorado Executive Development in Residence (CEDIR) program offered jointly by the CU Graduate School of Business and the Division of Continuing Education. It provides employed managers with an overview of fundamental business concepts for two weeks each summer for three years. Students live on campus attending classes for 10 days and participating in a day-long experiential learning activity, like team building, at the end of the first week. Four modules are delivered each summer or 12 in all at the end of the program, when a certificate in executive management is granted for successful completion. Modules and their descriptions are on the CEDIR Web site, www.bus.colorado.edu/CEDIR, and include leading and managing in changing times, business strategy in the Internet age and two electives such as business process design and project management, among others.

Last spring the business college partnered with the Division of Continuing Education for another program to give students without undergraduate degrees a competitive edge when they enter the job market.

Cindy McKee, director of the innovative CU Business Intensive Certificate (CUBIC) program under Wobbekind, calls the program a business boot camp. It is designed to provide non-business juniors and seniors with a solid understanding of fundamental business principles and practices in a three-week intensive program. It focuses on six areas of business education: management, marketing, information systems, finance, accounting and economics. Students who successfully complete the program are awarded a Certificate of Business Studies and are eligible for a paid summer internship at an area business or corporation.

The first CUBIC program took place May 14 through June 2 with 75 students in two sections attending. “We would have been happy with 30 students,” Wobbekind said, delighted with initial response.

Prospective students should be aware that all three of the new business programs are rigorous and fast-paced with large amounts of information being covered in short periods of time. Only the professional MBA program involves tests and grades, but the CEDIR and CUBIC programs require successful completion, which includes attending and participating in every class.

All three programs provide the research link to business, Wobbekind said, and are not only being marketed to businesses and corporations but to colleges without a business school or business program.

“We are running these new programs as if we were in business,” Wobbekind said, meaning that all are self-supporting and marketed like any product.

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