SOM expands with new degree, new building

In an effort to boost its recognition in the marketplace, Yale's School of Management (SOM) has announced new plans for expansion which includes a change in degree and the addition of a finance center.

JULIA TIERNAN/YH MOVING IN: Trowbridge House on Hillhouse Ave. will be the site of SOM's new financial center.

In early September, SOM faculty voted to switch degrees from the Master's in Public and Private Management (MPPM) to the Master's of Business Administration (MBA). SOM Dean Jeffrey E. Gartner said, "The degree change should help the school present itself more easily."

Because the school is only 22 years old, Gartner noted," [SOM] has more marketing to do then Yale's other prominent professional schools, and switching to the MBA can only help to simplify the complex marketing process."

He explained that Yale originally gave out MPPMs to stress how it differed from other business schools by focusing on teaching students to serve in various management capacities. "But now it's acknowledged everywhere that we are different so we don't have to differentiate with a degree anymore," Gartner said.

Although the degree change is only one of nomenclature, many members of the SOM community believe that it will increase the number of applicants. Richard Silverman, SOM's dean of admissions, said, "In the last few weeks, we've given presentations in New York to potential applicants at investment banks and consulting firms, and my impression is they're impressed with the change to the MBA." He added, "So just from that sample, I think we'll have a nice increase in the number of applicants."

Raul Martinez-Ostos, SOM '99, a native of Mexico, said, "From an international perspective, the name MBA is really important." Henry Gentry, SOM '00, felt that the change will help students in the workplace as well."With an MPPM, you get cut right off the bat [before the interview]," Gentry said, "During an interview, you don't want to lose time or minutes explaining what an MPPM is."

Herbert M. Allison, Jr., PC '65, President and Chief Operating Officer of Merrill Lynch, approved of the change in degrees. He said, "I think [the MBA is] very well known in business and government communities."

Allison, who is on SOM's Board of Trustees, considered the changes made by Dean Gartner during the past three years to be "extremely positive." He added, "[SOM's] reputation has risen dramatically in the past three years."

Linda Mason, SOM '00, president and cofounder of Bright Horizons Children's Centers, Inc., the nation's largest provider of corporate-sponsored early childhood, is also on the SOM Board of Trustees. She attributes a lot of the positive developments being made to "the teamwork of Dean Gartner and President Levin, GRD '74." Mason said, "Levin and Gartner are making a great re-investment in the school. There's great momentum."

According to Gartner, SOM has plans to create an International Center for Finance on 46 Hillhouse Avenue. Designed to house faculty, lecture halls, and computing facilites, the building is expected to open next September. According to Deputy Provost Charles Long, this project is largely funded by SOM alumni contributions.

Gartner said that the center "symbolizes the goals for SOM's future, which include expanding the school's international scope, creating new finance classes to focus on emerging markets in non-western countries, and acting as a link to the rest of Yale. This center is tangible evidence that SOM is tied to the university in ways that other business schools are not." He continued, "For example, at Harvard it's a long walk just to get to the business school. We don't want to be like that. We want to do just the opposite."

Allison supported SOM's joint efforts with other departments, stating, "Overall, the trend of integrating the school with other aspects of the University enhances the whole university." Allison also felt that the low student-to-faculty ratio offered SOM students "a real advantage to some of the large and more impersonal business schools."

This advantage will increase as Gartner plans to enlarge the number of senior faculty over the next few years by 60%.

"Our goal is to increase the faculty in the finance, accounting, and business strategy areas and at the same time to keep the number of students constant," Gartner said.

With a class size of only 220 students, the faculty addition will decrease the student-professor ratio and give students a greater opportunity to receive one-on-one attention from the faculty.

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