Though the labor protests in Wisconsin have focused our nation’s attention on state budget woes, many other organizations have been adversely affected by budget shortcomings, including top business schools.

In the article “Business Schools Get Lean,” BusinessWeek‘s Francesca Di Meglio reported that many b-schools have been forced to reduce spending, due to decreased endowments and state cuts to higher education in the wake of the recent recession. Avoiding layoffs has been a priority for most schools, but could not always be avoided. Here are a few of the cutting-back strategies employed by the b-schools featured in the article:

Tuck School of Business – Reorganized existing tasks, such as centralizing the school’s recycling system, which saved labor hours. Also reduced travel in favor of technologies such as videoconferencing.

Chicago Booth School of Business – While Booth didn’t lay off existing faculty, the school held off on filling openings and has reduced its temporary and contract workers. Like Tuck, Booth has also cut its travel budget and implemented a policy requiring approval from the dean’s office for travel.

Wharton School of Business – One round of layoffs in executive education department. Renegotiated contracts with vendors and cut down on travel and entertainment expenses.

Harvard Business School – Turned off heating and cooling systems during non-business hours. According to Meghan Duggan, assistant director of sustainability and energy management at HBS, this simple action resulted in six-figure savings.

Program cuts aren’t the only concern for potential b-school students. As businesses also struggle with their budgets, many of them are cutting back on tuition assistance programs, another BusinessWeek article reports. In “Tuition Benefits Drying Up,” Erin Zlomek writes, “In 2010, 56 percent of employers offered graduate school assistance, down from 69 percent in 2003, according to annual benefits data collected by the Society for Human Resource Management (SHRM).”

Quality healthcare goes beyond the physician-patient relationship; it also requires efficiency that comes from a well-executed management plan. The June issue of Tuck Today profiles Dartmouth College president Dr. Jim Yong Kim, a medical doctor, anthropologist, and the co-founder of the nongovernmental organization Partners in Health. Kim believes delivering quality health care is one of the greatest challenges facing the next generation of business leaders.

To meet that challenge, Dartmouth’s president plans to harness the college’s vast resources—including Tuck’s management expertise.

The school recently announced the creation of a new master’s program of health care delivery science, geared for mid-career health care executives and offered as a cooperative effort between Tuck School of Business and the Dartmouth Institute for Health Policy and Clinical Practice (TDI). The program will likely include distance learning components in combination with the team-based residential learning that forms the bedrock of the Tuck experience.

“This is President Kim’s deep expertise and his deep interest,” says Tuck’s dean Paul Danos. “He’s done this for years at the highest level, and now he wants to take Tuck’s particular expertise, together with the science of health care outcomes available at TDI, to improve management of hospitals and clinics all over the world.”

Danos explains that the new program will leverage Tuck’s management and leadership training with TDI’s pioneering expertise in the science of measuring health care delivery and outcomes. “This is aimed at people who are already managing health care operations, so we don’t expect them to be here full-time the way an MBA student would be,” Danos says. “But we do want to imbue the program with the same teamwork, camaraderie, and cooperation that you get in the Tuck MBA.”

In keeping with Tuck’s strong emphasis on “action-learning projects,” the article explains that participants will work in teams to solve real organizational management issues, using what they learn from both Tuck and TDI faculty. Elements of Tuck’s new leadership curriculum emphasizing peer coaching and self-awareness will likely be integrated into the program as well, says senior associate dean Bob Hansen.

The program may launch as early as next year if all components fall into place. “We want to get the right mix of participants, working together on real projects. We’ll combine Tuck management knowledge and pedagogy, TDI’s research-based knowledge, leadership training, and action learning,” Hansen says. “That’s a powerful program.”

For more details on the Tuck Healthcare Initiative, its new courses, and president Kim’s plans in this area, follow this link to the original article.

Dartmouth Provost Barry Scherr announced a new program agreement Monday between Dartmouth Graduate Studies and Dartmouth’s Tuck School of Business, allowing Dartmouth PhDs to obtain an accelerated MBA degree as part of a new dual-degree program.

“The PhD/MBA represents a natural synergy between our selective PhD programs and Tuck’s outstanding MBA program,” says Scherr. “The joint degree aims to produce individuals who are not only thoroughly trained in a scientific discipline but also possess fundamental business and entrepreneurial skills. The recipients of the PhD/MBA will offer a valuable blend of leadership qualities for any organization.”

Dartmouth PhD students will apply to Tuck through the normal admissions process, timed to begin at Tuck right after finishing their PhD. The Dartmouth PhD experience will be counted as post-bachelor’s degree work experience as well as for some elective courses. Coursework is expected to be one term less than for students in the regular MBA program and some courses could even be taken prior to matriculation in the program.

“Individuals with both scientific expertise as well as management training will be valued,” adds Tuck’s dean, Paul Danos. “More and more in business, leaders with multiple skills and deep knowledge in a technical area are highly sought after. Graduates of this program will certainly be poised to start high tech companies and make major contributions to their success.”

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The MBA Video Diaries: This fall, Forté Foundation debuted their video blog, called The Forté MBA Video Diaries. Each week, three women correspondents from top business schools around the country chat about their business school experience. All three are first year MBA students. So far, we’ve heard about surviving the first round of mid-terms, carving out a social life in b-school, what it’s like to be a woman in a mostly male MBA class, and other candid topics.

To view the video blog, visit http://www.fortefoundation.org/podcasts.
New installments are added every Thursday throughout the first semester.

Podcasts: This fall also marks the second seasons of their podcast series,
The MBA Value Proposition. Monthly podcast episodes feature interviewsvwith admissions officers, alumnae and executives.

This month, the podcast features interviews with Carolyn Bao, Senior
Product Marketing Manager at Yahoo! and Tawana Murphy Burnette, Brand
Manager at Leapfrog. They talk about the value of an MBA in their careers.
We also hear from admissions officers at Dartmouth College, Tuck School of
Business; Washington University, Olin School of Business; and University of
Michigan, Ross School of Business. They talk about how to write a winning
essay, and finding the right career after business school.

To listen online or subscribe to the series, visit:
http://www.fortefoundation.org/podcasts

Forté Foundation is dedicated to encouraging women to pursue
careers in business leadership by providing access to information,
scholarships and networking opportunities. Forté is backed by 26 leading
corporations, 32 top business schools in the U.S. and abroad, and The
Graduate Management Admission Council® (GMAC®).

For more information, contact Forté at [email protected]

Many prospective applicants count themselves out of the MBA game because they have too many career changes. But not everyone follows a direct path to business school. Businessweek.com currently features A Mistake Leads to Business School one woman’s reflection on how her twists and turns from HR to freelance marketing to yoga instructor to Whole Foods led her to Cornell.

Of course, it is a realistic concern that business schools will think you lack focus if you have jumped from job to job or industry to industry. The key to telling this type of story in your application is to explain yourself. Schools want to understand why you have made these decisions and why business school fits into the plan now. Some of the most interesting and inspiring essays come from applicants with complicated job histories provided they show insight and self-awareness.

For ideas on how to talk about your background, be sure to check out our essay tips for UCLA, Yale, Kellogg, Darden, MIT, Ross, Tuck, Columbia, Haas, Wharton, Chicago, Stanford, and HBS.

Today’s NY Times includes an article on MBA programs to help individuals, mostly women, return to the workforce. “M.B.A. Programs Pay Off for Women Seeking a Return to Wall Street” discusses the popularity of executive MBA programs targeted at “women who are trying to return to the work force, many of whom left for family obligations.”

Tuck has a new program with a “curriculum that combined academics and career opportunities” that had 41 students in its first year. Some graduates headed to firms such as Goldman and Merrill, others went to non-profits, and some even became entreprenuers.

“Tuck is not the only business school with this type of executive program,” according to the article. “Harvard Business School, for example, has had a program for its alumni for five years. Wharton started its first program in March.”

Read the entire article here.