For those graduate students tired of going to classes Monday through Friday, an Iowa State program offers relief to the weekday drudgery of school.

It began in the summer of 1992, an opportunity for people with full-time jobs to receive a masters of business administration degree without having to take night courses. The Saturday MBA program, offered though the College of Business, has since developed into a popular traditional college alternative.

“We started in 1992 to give people who are working full-time the opportunity to pursue an MBA degree with classes on Saturdays,” said Ron Ackerman, graduate programs coordinator for the College of Business.

The program, which now has 125 students enrolled, is designed to be completed in three years. About three-fourths of the students graduate on time. Students take classes for six weeks in the summer, 12 weeks in the fall and 12 weeks in the spring.

Cathy Curtis, college relations coordinator for the College of Education, said she has enjoyed being in the Saturday MBA program so far. “It’s been fun, challenging and it makes me prioritize time carefully to juggle a full-time job, family and school,” she said.

Unlike programs at the University of Iowa and other universities, ISU offers the full 48-credit-hour MBA program on Saturdays, said Bill Cahill, a Saturday MBA student and assistant chief accountant in Beardshear Hall.

Jean Brett, a graduate of the Saturday MBA program and records analyst for the Registrar’s Office, said the program prepares people to work more effectively in the business environment.

“The classes help you get used to a different way of looking at things. The internationalization of business and the electronic revolution are two big trends that we learned about,” she said.

One of the advantages of the program is that many of the students have experience in fields such as engineering, farming, accounting, computer science, nursing, social work and others, said Saturday MBA graduate Sarah Buck, director of campaign operations and administration for the ISU Foundation.

“Being exposed to a wide range of backgrounds and disciplines makes for good class discussions,” she said.

Jim McNutt, a pre-doctoral research associate for the Department of Entomology and current Saturday MBA student, said the program is good for networking and learning to work effectively in teams.

McNutt said some of the work can seem overwhelming to people who have been away from college for an extended period of time. “All the reading and writing is intimidating at first, but you get used to it. It’s a lot of work but it’s gratifying to get through it,” he said.

Some of the work done for the MBA courses is tailored to special projects the students are doing at their jobs, Curtis said. “One example of this is defining a human resource problem at work and coming up with a way to solve it,” she said.

One of the down sides to the program is a lack of racial diversity, Curtis said. “Most of the students are from central Iowa so we miss out on an international student perspective,” she said.

Today from 5:30 to 6 p.m. in the Scheman Continuing Education Building there will be an informational seminar about the program.

The program is open to anyone with an undergraduate degree.

Informational forums are also scheduled for Wednesday, Jan. 29, at the Colonial Inn, Ft. Dodge, and Thursday, Feb. 6, at the University Holiday Park Inn, West Des Moines. These forums will be held from 5:30 to 6:45 p.m. as well.