New CSUN Degree Takes Care of Business : Education: Students with day jobs can complete course work in three years--an alternative to pricey private universities.

Jumping into a field long dominated by costly private schools, Cal State Northridge this spring will offer a special business degree program that working adults can complete entirely with night and Saturday classes.

The three-year program will be modeled after similar offerings at several local community colleges. The CSUN program will allow students transferring from those college programs to complete their business degrees at CSUN in the same night-and-weekend-only mode.

“One of the directions we want to move in is serving the population of full-time working students,” said William Roberts, associate dean of CSUN’s School of Business Administration and Economics. “It serves the local business community and it serves the local population,” he said.

Although CSUN has long offered business courses at night, working adults in the past have had complaints: Some said the high enrollments of several years ago kept them out of classes and, more recently, students have said class scheduling was too unpredictable.

Thus, in the San Fernando Valley area working adults said their only option was to attend one of a range of private universities that offer similar night-and-weekend programs, costing between $6,000 and $18,000 a year. In contrast, the new CSUN program will carry standard state tuition, about $1,600 a year.

The CSUN program will be patterned after so-called PACE programs (Project for Adult Continuing Education) now offered at Pierce College in Woodland Hills and Mission College in Sylmar. And Roberts said he expects graduates of those to become the main source of students for CSUN’s program.

Similar to the community colleges, students in the CSUN program will take three classes per semester, attending two nights each week and on alternating Saturdays. Students, including those who have completed community college, will then earn a bachelor’s degree in business administration with an emphasis on finance.

Unlike the traditional campus offerings, the package of classes in the CSUN program for working adults will be scheduled in advance so students will know what to expect. And students in the program will take all their classes with the same group, which educators say tends to increase their chances of success.

This spring, students who have completed the Mission College PACE program with its business option will be able to transfer directly into the CSUN program. But students from the Pierce PACE program, which does not have a business emphasis, probably will have to take other courses first.

Roberts said he expects enrollment this spring of only about two dozen students, but said the program could grow to several hundred students in the future. Officials at CSUN also are considering eventually offering a similar night-and-weekend degree package in liberal studies.

After meeting with students now enrolled in the two community college programs, Roberts said he was impressed by their drive and support for the concept. “I’ve found this is almost like a religion,” he said. “There’s a very strong commitment to getting a degree among these students.”