Dowling announces closing of its flight school

Dowling College is closing its prestigious flight school and will instead focus on aviation management, the college announced this week.

Dowling's interim president, Scott Rudolph, said the college wanted to shift more emphasis to the School of Aviation's aviation management aspect, which promises jobs in the coming years. "Aviation management continues to get more and more students," he said.

Officials said the closure was immediate.

Dowling Provost Linda Ardito said in a statement that the cutback program will allow Dowling to expand aviation classrooms and demand more "critical and innovative thinking."

While many independently owned flight schools offer pilot training, Dowling, which is based in Oakdale, has been held to a higher standard as an FAA-approved training school, meeting the Federal Aviation Administration's guidelines for ground-based and in-flight training.

Successful graduates of Dowling's four-year program finished with a bachelor's of science in aviation management, a private license, a commercial license and certifications known as instrument rating and multi-engine rating. Some also become certified flight instructors. All those are known to give a leg up on the competitive job market for pilots.

Dowling wouldn't say how many of the school's 300 students have said they plan to withdraw, how many have indicated they will go elsewhere for pilot training and how many will study aviation management without becoming pilots. Annual tuition is $21,000 a year, and flight time can cost another $15,000 to $30,000 a year.

Students interested in becoming pilots will have to find other schools or go to Farmingdale State College.

Farmingdale, which has been training pilots since 1949, has about 65 students in its pilot training and another 65 in aviation administration, charges an in-state tuition of $5,000. It's the only aviation program at a public college in New York.

"We potentially could absorb more students, but the state budget cuts will constrain many of our academic programs," said Pat Calabria, a Farmingdale spokesman.