The Golisano Institute’s first-year lessons

Paychex founder and philanthropist Tom Golisano’s vision when creating a business school was to transform the entrepreneurial landscape and provide a better, more affordable path for student success. That vision is now more clearly in focus.

A year ago, nearly half of the Golisano Institute for Business and Entrepreneurship was sealed off with plastic tarps to block the dust and debris of ongoing construction.

Now, walking through those same hallways, completed classrooms with touch screens and desk clusters form an outside ring. The inner space has faculty offices and conference rooms with plans for a school store, technology lab, and business incubator to follow.

Between the two areas, an open floor plan serves as a middle ground. Designed for collaboration and “creative collisions,” it has more work spaces, a presentation stage, dining options with a cafe from the Village Bakery, and a social area complete with TVs set to business channels, foosball tables, and a giant chess set.

The first floor is nearly complete, with the second floor likely to be renovated after the first cohort has graduated from the institute’s two-year program.

“It feels really great to be here. We’re starting to set down roots and feel like this is a place where people really belong,” says Ian Mortimer, Golisano Institute president.

The other major element missing last year has filled in as well: students.

“It was a great decision to come here,” says Lucas Dorsey, a student in the first cohort. “Everything they told me (in my first meeting) they’ve done and then more.”

With flexible programming, planned growth, and lessons learned from the first year, Golisano Institute leaders are confident they will achieve the promise of their educational startup.

An alternative

The two-year institute pitched as an alternative to traditional business programs currently has about 60 students—50 joined in its first quarter, 10 arrived in February—who range from recent high school graduates to career changers in their 50s. The average age is 27, Mortimer says.

Upon completion of the eight-quarter program, students will receive a certificate of achievement from the institute. They can then go on to either pursue degrees from partnering universities or launch directly into their own entrepreneurial ventures.

Tuition is $8,900 a year, thanks to donations from Golisano. This sum covers books and technology but not room and board. Roberts Wesleyan University and the downtown Innovation Square are listed as housing options on the institute’s website. For comparison, one year of in-state tuition for Monroe Community College and SUNY Brockport is about $5,700 and $8,200, respectively. Tuition at the University of Rochester’s Simon Business School is $55,000 while at the Saunders College of Business at Rochester Institute of Technology, it is $59,000.

In recent years, interest in business degrees has been unsteady, especially among two-year MBA programs. According to the Graduate Management Admission Council, applicant trends have been falling at most surveyed institutions, reaching a nadir in 2019 with 72 percent reporting decline.

The COVID pandemic likely caused a sharp reversal in 2020. Since then, the number of schools with increasing applications has been roughly equal to those reporting declines.

The Golisano Institute also has yet to achieve its initial goal of enrolling 250 students a year, but school leaders believe this will change in the years to come. This fall, Mortimer says, the institute is anticipating 100 more enrollments and he predicts by this time next year, the student body count will be 225. The enrollment goal for the end of year three is 450.

Soft skills matter

It took about a full quarter for the entire faculty and student body to align expectations, Mortimer says.

“We would send students back if they weren’t dressed ready for work. And it’s tough to set that tone and that condition, but because of that, people get it. We don’t have to do a lot of heavy-handed stuff now because it’s part of the DNA,” he say. “It’s not like some college courses where you see hoodies and sweatpants.

“What we learned is, the content of our courses are great, but it’s really about helping people understand the importance of coming into work every day, being responsible, those work skills,” he adds.

The business dress code is bolstered by the on-campus Clothing Closet, which is filled with donated items. Local suit manufacturer Adrian Jules will provide each student with a custom suit jacket upon graduation, reflecting a focus on culture and soft skills.

Many visitors come to the institute, either as guests or speakers, as part of the “Speaking from Experience” symposiums. Since each visitor comes with their own potential opportunities and connections, the clothing requirement underscores the need to be professional at all times.

“People in the Rochester area are so well-connected to other people in this area within their own industries and they’re all trying to create lines of connection between themselves and other people,” Krisandra Kneer, another student from the first cohort, remarks. “There seems like a constant stream of people coming in, which has made me appreciate the amount of entrepreneurship and small-business owners that are within this area.”

“The people who come in through that door, you can never tell who they’re going to be,” Dorsey agrees, citing Danny Schuman, the head of Gatorade marketing during the Michael Jordan era, as an example.

The dress code requirement is just one of the lessons the institution has learned in relation to soft skills including professionalism, time management, verbal and written communication, and teamwork. Institute staff found in the initial semester that the first cohort could be helped most by improving those skills.

The soft skills approach adds to the institute’s culture building, a process Mortimer says was considered from the early stages. Even the “Speaking from Experience” events result in staff and students breaking bread together. A full quarter of courses has solidified that culture and expectations.

“We are already hearing exceptional feedback from our microinternship partners,” Mortimer says of students’ first on-the-job experiences.

“Anecdotally, students tell me they’ve already been having epiphanies,” adds Scott Baker, chief academic officer and vice president for academic affairs. “It comes from this culture of shared vulnerability and courage.”

They can come from something as simple as a pitch competition, for one student, he recalls.

“He’s doing it in front of dozens of people and just nailing it. His peers are cheering him on because it was a huge event for him. Thirty weeks ago, if we’d asked him to do that, he never would have; in fact, he’d take off and never come back probably,” Baker says. “Not only have students learned at an accelerated pace, they have matured more than the nine months they’ve been here.”

For Kneer, her epiphany was how her passion and interest in the health care industry, shown by her nonprofit iRise, could fit in an entrepreneurial setting. She hopes to develop her ideas and eventually make use of the innovation hub and business incubator, which are part of the institute’s near future.

Mortimer also says they realized early on that the program is likely not suited for a part-time commitment and students might find it difficult to balance work and study. Kneer and Dorsey, both coming with their own workplace experience, have found it manageable, however.

“There’s something about having that discipline—getting up in the morning and having to be somewhere creates better habits,” Kneer observes. “It’s important to build that muscle.”

Practical application of knowledge

Baker believes that flexibility and practical application are among the most important aspects of a curriculum for entrepreneurial students.

During his 18 years experience as a professor and dean at Champlain College in Vermont, students he would advise often had no idea what skills their classes were actually teaching them. Producing degrees on schedule superseded student comprehension and large, disconnected departments rarely communicated curricular goals to each other.

In designing the Golisano Institute’s educational structure, Baker says, they tried to directly address each of those concerns.

“Every class starts off with ‘What’s the why?’ What are we working on today and why is it important?” says Baker. “Every course is co-taught with two professors who have complementary expertise.”

For example, while a professor with more marketing expertise will lead the marketing course, the accounting professor will also be present, observing how to connect concepts. If student comprehension lags, both instructors are aware and can make adjustments, something Baker says has already occurred in the institute’s first year.

“So, we’re constantly iterating. How did that lesson go? What needs to be changed? Can we pick that up in the next block?” he explains. “And because we have four quarters, we can stop four times a year to ask these questions. In the traditional cycle of higher ed, you can do a little bit of tweaking between fall and spring, but then there’s the winter holidays. So, it’s really just one big block of time in the summer where you can make those changes.”

Connecting classroom learning with practical examples is another way the teaching staff tries to show students “the why.” Simulations and case studies form the backbone of coursework at the institution.

In Nathan Harris’ economics classroom, for example, students are given scenarios for local sandwich shops and expected to come up with ideas on a peer-to-peer, small-group level. Harris mentions that Dorsey is one of the students who has gone even further, using what he’s learned at his uncle’s bakery on East Avenue.

“(My uncle is) getting a bit older now, where he wants to just concentrate on his baking. He really wants to enjoy the rest of his time with something that’s his passion,” Dorsey says. “So, I’m literally going from (the institute) to, the next day, applying it in real life to his bakery.”

“The work professors give is not theoretical. It’s practical and applicable and they design it around what your experience is,” he adds.

“Our work is, first of all, to be inclusive and make it an accessible topic. Rather than lean into intimidation, how can we minimize and strip it of its intimidation? So, in order to do that, we like to anchor everything in applicable business scenarios,” Harris says about his content goals. “We know that textbooks and reality don’t always match up, so let’s get right to that instead of wasting time.”

The hands-on approach and flipped classroom-style instruction, with students in charge of the pace of learning, is much different than Dorsey’s first experience with higher education.

He recalls lecture halls packed with hundreds of students and a lack of guidance from potential mentors, which soured him on the traditional educational approach. In fact, it was the Golisano Institute’s unique pitch—which sounded like the opposite of that experience—that sold the former salesman.

“There are always two instructors in every class. It feels like you can always ask anything or come outside of class time,” Dorsey says about his courses now. “If you’re in a professor’s class with 500 other students, it’s impossible to have those close conversations and feel like you’re actually listened to.”

Dorsey brings up a graphic the school presented at an information session that read: “60 percent instruction, 40 percent mentorship.” It’s a ratio he believes is accurate. Harris’ witty way of putting it is not to be a “sage on the stage” but instead a “guide on the side.”

Both students agree that their cohort melded quickly, which they believe is a testament to their shared drive and entrepreneurial spirit.

Looking ahead

While small class sizes, a co-teaching model, and one-on-one mentorship are all foundational elements at the institute, can they be scaled as the school grows? Mortimer and Baker believe so.

“We want to grow, because we want to provide this opportunity to more students. But we also want to keep our secret sauce,” says Baker. “We don’t want to let the classes get so big that that isn’t the case anymore. Keeping the (class) size under 25 (students) with two faculty, that’s a big part of why our culture was building.”

Additional programs could aid with that aspect of the school. For example, an accelerator has been pitched as helping businesses grow as well as giving students another applied knowledge connection.

The institute’s Revenue Accelerator, a partnership with venture firm GrowthX, is intended to improve business sales performance with a 16-week program. Fifteen companies, located from Rochester to Buffalo, were selected this month as the first cohort and are in the process of working with an expert sales coach.

More broadly, the accelerator’s philosophy is centered on creating infrastructure and revenue pipelines instead of seeking investments from presentations or pitch contests, for example. Businesses using this approach will be more sustainable and successful in the long run, Mortimer believes.

“(GrowthX) believes what we believe. Market fit only happens if you have true revenue,” he says.

Even for those not participating directly, there is value in seeing the process of an entrepreneurial startup.

“The benefit to our students is that they will see, in real time, how these companies struggle with the pains, pitfalls, opportunities, joys of entrepreneurship in its real form,” Mortimer says. “It’s like a surgery theater. They can look over the ledge and see the conversations, see how they’re solving their problems.”

Kneer already knows she wants to be a part of the accelerator in her final quarter and the years following.

“(The Golisano Institute) has already taught me the value of this space and the ability for connection in the area,” she says. “So, I want to take a chance on myself. And that’s what I’d tell anyone else too. It’s not too late, take a chance on yourself.”

Jacob Schermerhorn is a Rochester Beacon contributing writer and data journalist. The Beacon welcomes comments and letters from readers who adhere to our comment policy including use of their full, real name. Submissions to the Letters page should be sent to [email protected].