Class operation
Brian, Randy, Kevin and Tim Luing.
The way four brothers worked it out as kids is the way they run their business today.
“Our friends used to physically fight with their brothers and my brothers and I would always kind of debate things out,” said Randy Luing, president of Berkeley College”™s corporation, Berkeley Educational Services. “The four of us learned to work really well together. When there”™s four boys, I think we were forced to work our differences out ourselves, and that translates into how we deal with the business.”
The brothers Luing ”“ Kevin, Brian, Tim and Randy ”“ inherited the family business, Berkeley College, from their father Larry, who retired in 2001.
With more than 7,000 students on seven campuses (three in New York, four in New Jersey) plus a virtual online campus, Berkeley has moved several times within White Plains since 1945 and now stands at 99 Church St.
The brothers, who work out of Berkeley”™s corporate office in Paramus, N.J., are now members of The Business Council of Westchester”™s Business Hall of Fame.
“The Family Business Success Award is based on evidence of multigenerational management and an effective business strategy,” said Marsha Gordon, president and CEO of The Business Council. “The Luing family began operating Berkeley College in 1966 with the four Luing sons joining the Berkeley administration between 1988 and 1992. They continue to manage the institution as the business that is it ”“ listening to its customers, both employers and students, operating efficiently and productively while delivering a product demanded by employers ”“ a well-prepared promotable employee.”
The college was started in 1931 on the third floor of a Spanish villa in East Orange, N.J. In 1965, the college”™s owner sold it to a group of businessmen that included Larry Luing, who later bought out his partners and passed the business on to his sons.
Berkeley began as a secretarial school where students could earn a degree in under a year; the ability to earn associate degrees arrived in the early 1970s.
Now, the college also offers bachelor”™s degrees to students majoring in fashion marketing and management, accounting, justice studies and international business.
“I think students come here to get a good job and to be successful in their career,” said Kevin Luing, chairman of the board of trustees and the oldest brother. “We”™ll give them practical skills and prepare them for the work force and help them get that first job.”
Online classes are growing in popularity, according to Brian Luing, a senior vice president at the college.
“Right now we have a little over 1,600 students overall in the online system, of which about 700 are completely getting their degrees online,” Brian Luing said.
Randy Luing said he and his brothers run the college the way their father did, with a strong focus on the students.
“My father had a saying that the student is really the customer,” Randy Luing said. “I remember even as a little kid thinking that was kind of a funny thing to say about the students, like they were customers in a store.”
But Randy soon learned that his father”™s approach of treating students as customers worked.
“If there weren”™t many parking spaces, instead of taking one of the spots in the lot, my dad would park on the street a block away, because those spots were for the students,” Randy Luing said. “Berkeley was started during the Great Depression, and students had to see a value and a return on that money, so you always had to look at the students as paying customers. They”™re choosing to come here, and they had to get more out of it than they put in.”
Tim Luing, also a senior vice president, said he knew he wanted to be a part of the Berkeley team since he was a kid.
“I started going to open houses with my father when I was 8 years old,” Tim Luing said. “I remember sitting on the director of admissions”™ lap, and she was telling me how we help people. To me, that”™s what it”™s about ”“ helping people and changing their lives.”