The John F. Welch College of Business at Sacred Heart University launches a redesigned MBA program this fall, designed to throw students “into the deep end” in solving complex business problems.
The school hopes to attract more students with working experience to its MBA program, while improving the relevance of coursework for the program”™s 250 part-time students, program director Tony Macari said.
Sacred Heart has typically accepted graduate business students with little or no working experience and will continue its policy of allowing Sacred Heart undergraduate students to obtain their bachelor”™s degree and MBA in a five-year program of study. With the new curriculum, however, Welch College will up its recruitment of students who have at least two years experience, similar to many other programs that want students to draw from experience to contribute to case-study discussions.
They will need it, Macari said.
“This is much more of a whole concept of disruption theory, where variables change constantly,” Macari said. “It”™s much more about, ”˜Get in there and do the deal.”™”
Such an approach had been discussed on and off for multiple years, Macari said, but caught on after the March arrival of Welch College Dean John Petillo and three years after former General Electric Co. CEO Jack Welch made a large gift that led Sacred Heart to adopt the Welch name for its business college.
“Events of the past decade have forever changed the way that business is done and the recent financial crisis has created challenges that few have ever faced and an unprecedented need for a new kind of leader,” Petillo said in a statement. “We have already heard very positive comments from members of the corporate community who recognize the need for such innovative thinking in graduate business education.”
Petillo previously was president of the University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey (UMDNJ) and chancellor of Seton Hall University.
The appointment was not without controversy ”“ New Jersey Gov. Jon Corzine replaced Petillo at UMDNJ after the federal government established a two-year oversight period following an investigation into whether UMDNJ double-billed the Medicaid and Medicare programs. While much of the activity occurred before Petillo became president, some complained he did not do enough to resolve the problems. Earlier this month, UMDNJ agreed to pay $2 million to resolve civil charges stemming from a U.S. Department of Justice investigation into the allegations.
Sacred Heart declined to make Petillo available for an interview to discuss the new program, with a spokeswoman saying Petillo was visiting a campus in Luxembourg run by Sacred Heart.
Macari said Petillo has re-energized Welch College from the top down, as the school prepares to start its new curriculum this fall.
“(Welch) has been much more engaged since the new dean came on,” Macari said. “He has given him a lot of specifics in terms of, ”˜Here”™s where I think you should go; here”™s what I think you should do.”™”
Earlier this month, Welch invested $2 million in Chancellor University System L.L.C., an online school being formed from Myers University in Cleveland which went bankrupt. Chancellor University plans to call its MBA program the Jack Welch Institute.
