Ask Leonard Lodish to name one of the greatest accomplishments of Wharton West, and you might get an unlikely answer.
The Marketing professor, who doubles as the vice dean of Wharton's West Coast campus, says that close relationships are fostered by students and professors staying together in the same hotel.
As Wharton West celebrates its fifth anniversary this year, bonding between students and professors -- who join their pupils in the Park Hyatt hotel after flying in from Philadelphia -- has become a central part of the school's culture.
Wharton West opened its doors in 2001 with the goal of filling a void in San Francisco Bay-area executive education and supporting West Coast businesses. Located in San Francisco's financial district, the school hosts the MBA for executives, or MBAExec, program.
The MBAExec program grants the same degree as Wharton's full-time MBA program in Philadelphia but meets every other weekend to accommodate students' careers. Both Wharton's Philadelphia and San Francisco campuses offer MBAExec programs.
Because of the two-week gaps in classes, MBAExec students at both campuses stay together overnight in order to discuss class material and form close relationships.
But in San Francisco, students are not the only Whartonites checking in.
Since Wharton professors must fly cross-country to teach classes at Wharton West, rooms are booked for professors in the same San Francisco hotel that students stay in.
For Lodish, this has made student-faculty relationships in San Francisco even stronger than at the MBAExec program at Wharton's Philadelphia campus.
"There's much more informal interaction out here, and I don't think anyone really understood how significant that is when we planned it," he said.
Lodish himself has barbecued for students on the roof of the Folger Building, which houses Wharton West's classrooms and facilities.
In Philadelphia, Wharton professors return to their homes Friday evening, while students retire to the Steinberg Conference Center, located at the corner of 38th and Spruce streets. On the other hand, MBAExec students at Wharton West join professors at the Park Hyatt hotel, where Lodish said conversations carrying over from class help build closer relationships.
Wharton West MBA student Tyler Gibbs, who works for Toyota Racing Development, said that many students eat breakfast and lunch with professors.
However, he prefers to chat on Saturday mornings, when professors wake up early due to difficulty adjusting to the change in time zone.
"They're available to talk to any time you want. Most of them spend one or two meals a day" with students, he said.
Thomas Simon, an MBAExec student at Wharton's Philadelphia campus, feels that Wharton West students may have the opportunity for more interaction. But that does not mean that Philadelphia students do not spend a lot of time with professors outside of class, he said.
"Our [Economics] professor last summer, he would always eat with us," he added. "Not that professors are especially hard up for free lunches, but they're there."
The vice president of clinical sciences, processes and communications at Merck Research Laboratories, Simon does not have much time to spare outside of class.
"When you're here, there is so much work to do, I'm not sure how much more advantage of it I would take if [professors were here] more than they are," Simon said.
