Article published January 26, 2009
University of Toledo, steel company forge business education partnership
25 complete MBAs at Delta mill
‘It takes a company that’s ready to go the extra mile, and it takes faculty who are willing to do that.’
• Tom Gutteridge, dean of UT’s business college
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By MEGHAN GILBERT
BLADE STAFF WRITER
Melissa Dotson understands the company she works for better now.
The environmental health and safety manager for North Star Bluescope Steel in Delta recently completed a master’s of business administration degree at work through the University of Toledo.
It meant some late nights at the mill on Mondays for the past two years, but the MBA in finance helps give her a big picture of the business.
“Every month we get financial statements and in the past, you just looked at the bottom line, and now you look at it and understand decisions the company makes,” she said. “If nothing else, it will make me a better employee.”
Ms. Dotson is one of 25 graduates of UT’s first on-site MBA program.
A total of 28 people — 17 of them North Star employees — enrolled in the program in 2006.
Those who did not finish had transferred and couldn’t complete their studies — nobody flunked out, said Tom Gutteridge, dean of UT’s business college.
The employees gave up their Monday nights for the last two years to stay at work from 4 p.m. to 9 p.m. for 11 eight-week courses of study in a North Star conference room.
Most of the participants worked at North Star, but a couple worked at a nearby steel business or were from the community, Mr. Gutteridge said.
North Star, which paid for its employees’ tuition and books, approached the university to bring the MBA program to the mill to make it even easier for them to get an advanced degree.
Ms. Dotson said she probably wouldn’t have been able to do it in any other format.
Part of the reason she came to North Star in early 2005 was because of the company’s philosophy of providing employees the opportunity to grow and learn.
Mr. Gutteridge said this is the first such program done on-site in northwest Ohio and it required a strong partnership among the university, the company, and the employees to make it work.
“It takes a company that’s ready and willing to go the extra mile and it takes faculty who are willing to do that,” he said.
UT officials have talked with other companies about doing something similar, but the connection hasn’t been there, Mr. Gutteridge said.
The UT faculty didn’t mind making the trip to Delta and enjoyed their time with the steel workers, the dean said.
“They would come back from having taught those sessions there and were really excited about the enthusiasm of the students,” he said.
Ryan Modglin of Sylvania Township is a maintenance engineer at the electric arc furnace of North Star.
He said the faculty’s ability to relate the lessons to their work in the steel mill made it very relevant and interesting to learn.
He, too, said that he’s already starting to understand better the big picture of business.
In the past, a concept for a project would be developed and he would just say he needed so much money to do it. But now he understands the return on investment and other planning that goes into funding projects, Mr. Modglin said.
“It gets you thinking strategically,” he said.
Mr. Modglin has worked at places before that had tuition reimbursement programs, but having this on site with real teachers and no out-of-pocket expense was above and beyond.
“What was unique was the partnership was established to where they were flexible and dynamic enough to accommodate our schedules,” he said.
Such a relationship between a university and a company in the community is critical, Mr. Gutteridge said, especially for a business school.
“We’ve got to be in various ways engaged in the community taking the faculty and students out into the community and to bring them into the university,” he said. “A business discipline has got to be more related to the real world.”
Contact Meghan Gilbert at:mgilbert@theblade.comor 419-724-6134.
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