UW Aims To Recruit Managers Executive Mba Program Seeks To Sign Up Spokane Students For Costly Education

Enough about Cougars pursuing university students in Spokane.

A bigger animal in the higher education jungle - the University of Washington - is pursuing Spokane’s brightest.

UW’s School of Business Administration has scheduled a recruitment trip to Spokane March 3 to sign up professional managers for its elite Executive Master’s of Business Administration program.

UW officials initially expect to enroll a handful of Spokane students for the high-priced degree, which requires them to trek to Seattle each month for classes.

But it could become a toehold for the state’s largest university - and a bother to Eastern Washington University at a time when Eastern needs to attract every student it can get.

“I see UW as formidable competitors,” said Clarence “Bud” Barnes, dean of Gonzaga’s School of Business, with 150 graduate students. “But it’s great to be in the same league.”

Nina Sanders, director of the Executive MBA Program, said UW is recruiting managers across the Northwest for its two-year degree. Students will attend class three consecutive days per month on the UW campus, and interact with faculty by Internet between sessions.

The university’s first recruitment trip to Spokane last November drew a small crowd, though none have applied, Sanders says.

One reason may be sticker shock. The program costs $21,000 a year, including tuition, books and room and board. That cost is more comparable to Gonzaga’s $13,000 annual tuition for MBA students than Eastern’s $4,100.

But UW officials believe many executives - or the companies that sponsor them - will be willing to pay the price to obtain an MBA from one of the nation’s top-ranked business schools.

“UW is a very fine school,” Sanders says, “the pre-eminent school in the region.”

Business Week ranks UW as one of the top 50 business schools in the country. Its 1997 MBA graduates earned an average salary of $55,000, the magazine reported.

The university can afford to be particular about who it enrolls. Students post an average Graduate Management Admission Test score of 634 out of a possible 800. At Gonzaga, the average GMAT is 575.

But the most popular - and least expensive - business school in Spokane is operated by Eastern at the downtown Riverpoint Higher Education Park.

Eastern has 100 students in the MBA program and 1,500 undergraduates who intend to earn a business degree.

Eastern students take their courses in the evening to fit work schedules. They hone their skills in teams to solve management problems, conduct financial analyses and make presentations, says John Schleede, dean of College of Business and Public Administration.

“Our program is distinctly different from most MBA programs,” he says.”The vast majority of our students are adult, working people.”

The UW presents an added problem for Eastern’s business school. Lawmakers and the state Higher Education Coordinating Board are recommending a complete analysis of university programs in Spokane, including business degrees.

Experts want to know the demand for graduate business courses and who is best suited to meet it.

Schleede is confident that the UW’s entrance to the Spokane market will not disrupt the future of Eastern’s business school, which moved to the city just two years ago. It will merely make Eastern more competitive, he says.

“If they are able to make it, it should not affect Gonzaga or us,” he says. “Our programs are pretty widely recognized in the local business community.”

, DataTimes MEMO: This sidebar appeared with the story: WHAT’S NEXT The University of Washington Executive MBA Program will have an informational meeting 5:30-7 p.m. on March 3 at Cavanaugh’s Inn at the Park. For more information, call (888)-622-3932.