NIU will expand its master’s of Business Administration off-campus program this fall with classes being offered in Lisle and Schaumburg.

egular MBA graduate programs will be offered week nights beginning in August in Schaumburg and Lisle, said NIU President John LaTourette at a press conference at ATusT’s Hickory Ridge Conference Centre in Lisle Thursday. The Lisle classes will be taught at the ATusT Centre and the Schaumburg classes at Motorola’s Galvin Centre, he said.

The regular MBA courses, at $500 per course, will be offered with specialization in management information systems and finance. These courses are geared to employees of businesses offering tuition reimbursement, LaTourette said.

LaTourette said classes in the executive MBA program will be offered at the Lisle site. The executive MBA program is tailored to upper- and mid-level managers who already have five or more years of experience. The student must be sponsored by a business executive who also pays the $8,500 per year tuition, he said.

Saturday classes will be offered for both programs at Lisle and are expected to be offered at the Schaumburg site beginning in the fall of 1988, LaTourette said. Students are able to take more classes when offered on the weekend, he said.

LaTourette predicted enrollment at Lisle to be about 500 in the regular MBA program and about 30 in the executive program. He predicted Schaumburg would have about 400 students enrolled. The executive program will not be offered at Schaumburg, he said.

The two locations were picked because they are “top-notch corporate training centers” and are located near two corridors, the East-West Tollway and the Northwest Tollway, LaTourette said. The locations are “relatively convenient for most suburban residents.”

“Expanded graduate business programming is only a start,” LaTourette said. Next spring, NIU plans to offer undergraduate courses in engineering at Aurora’s Downtown Center run by Waubonsee College. Graduate level computer science classes also are planned for next spring, but the location has not been determined, he said.

The enginneering and computer science programs will be funded through a state grant of $200,000 approved by the Illinois Board of Higher Education. LaTourette said he expects the state legislature will approve the grant before the end of June.

This year is NIU’s 55th year of offering off-campus programs in the Chicago Suburban area, LaTourette said.