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MILLIGAN COLLEGE, TN (Feb. 12, 2004) — After several years of development and careful planning, Milligan College will start its Master of Business Administration program this Friday night. Twenty-one students from Tennessee, Virginia and North Carolina are scheduled to begin the 18-month program, which meets one weekend a month on Milligan’s campus.
Business leaders in the region have applauded Milligan’s MBA curriculum and educational model, and interest in the program is very strong. State of Franklin Savings Bank in Johnson City has signed-on as the primary sponsor of the program. Alltel and several individual donors have also helped with program funding.
The first cohort includes employees from Nuclear Fuel Services, ICG/Holliston, Holston Medical Group, Eastman Credit Union, King Pharmaceuticals, Honeywell, Johnson City Medical Center, American Water Heater and Wellmont Health Systems.
“This isn’t just another MBA program,” said Dr. Bill Greer, chair of business. “This program is very unique in its approach to business from a Christian perspective. That means we train our students with technical expertise but also with an eye on the ethical implications of business.”
Greer said it’s an approach that meshes well with the college’s mission but also an approach that is in great demand in today’s business world.
“Scandals in the business world have dominated the news headlines this past year, opening series after series of investigations and revealing poor corporate governance at some of America’s best-known firms,” said Greer. “Not only are these practices eroding consumer and investor confidence and rocking the economy, but thousands have lost their jobs and some their life savings.”
According to a recent study cited in the Chronicle of Higher Education, only 22 percent of the MBA students responding expressed agreement that their institutions were doing “a lot to prepare them for real-world ethical dilemmas.” Almost 20 percent reported that they were “not being prepared at all.”
“MBA students throughout the country are expressing a growing need for the sort of education that will leave them better equipped to integrate their work with their sense of ethics, integrity and social values,” explained Greer.
And that is exactly what local students and employers are finding attractive about Milligan’s MBA.
“The world does not need another crop of graduates who are experts in their specific discipline but devoid of the basic ethical and moral standards that can best be taught from a Christian worldview,” said David McCain, corporate vice president of UBS|PaineWebber and a member of Milligan’s Business Advisory Council.
Greer explained that Milligan’s MBA curriculum provides students with a combination of technical skill, analytical and critical thinking, as well as the ability to exercise good judgment regarding the ethical implications that are inherent in virtually every business decision.
Each residency weekend begins Friday evening and concludes Saturday evening. The residency weekends are complemented with five weeks of ongoing discussion, class participation and other assignments, all facilitated by faculty using Internet-based resources.
This weekend the students will have an orientation session Friday evening and Saturday begin two courses: Management and Leadership, taught by Dr. Charles Horvath, assistant professor of business, and Quantitative Methods for Management, taught by Dr. Troy Hammond, associate principal with McKinsey & Co., a leading investment consulting company, and visiting professor of business at Milligan.
Greer said the curriculum begins by providing essential foundational knowledge in the areas of management and leadership, quantitative methods, accounting, economics and finance. It then progresses through additional management concerns, in areas such as organizational communications, human resource management, marketing and information management.
“The emphasis throughout is one of wedding the practical business skills with a concern for ethics and professional responsibility and the development of leadership attributes,” said Greer.
As a result, each of the four semesters includes an ongoing thread of ethics, including a major course in the fourth term on Biblical Principles for Commerce and Management, he explained.
“The program is academically strong and unique in that it encourages students to come face-to-face with the reality of fulfilling their calling as a Christian in today’s business and economic world,” said Greer. “There are very few programs out there with that distinct approach.”
Applications are currently being accepted for the second MBA cohort at Milligan, which is scheduled to begin Fall 2004. For more information about Milligan’s MBA, visitwww.milligan.edu/MBA or call 423.461.8730.