HIGH POINT, N.C., Nov. 23, 2009 ? High Point University students will soon see some big changes in the Sport Management major at the university. The program will not only be moved from the College of Arts and Sciences to the Phillips School of Business, but it will also become a minor in the business school. The move will be official in August 2010.
The change will open up a world of new possibilities for students seeking a career in the business side of the sports world, explains Dr. Dennis Carroll, provost and vice president for academic affairs.
Carroll says the reason the change is happening is because of the university?s future plans to focus on science-related programs in the Department of Health & Human Performance.
“Currently, there are three majors in the Exercise and Sport Science Department: Athletic Training, Exercise Science and Sport Management,” Carroll says. “The future plans include possibly adding a doctorate in physical therapy or a major/degree related to the health profession. When all of these changes occur, all of the majors would be focusing on the science side of sports. Understanding this, we made the decision to move Sport Management to the Phillips School of Business because this was a logical fit with regard to the content of our curriculum.”
“The benefit of moving to the Business Administration major is that students will be exposed to a much stronger business specific knowledge base, which can be applied to the sport industry,” says Dr. Jenny Lukow, associate professor and Sport Management undergraduate coordinator. “Students will also have the opportunity to add not only the Sport Management minor to their Business Administration major, but they will have the flexibility in their curriculum to add an additional minor, such as Marketing or Communication.”
Courses in the new Sport Management minor include core classes that were originally part of the Sport Management major, such as Sport Marketing, Sport Facility and Event Management, Sport Finance, Sport Law, Sport Sociology and a Sport Management Internship.
These courses, combined with the Business Administration major, will give students great options when searching for careers. Lukow says students with this background could obtain jobs in a variety of sports settings: professional sports, intercollegiate athletics, sport facility management, corporate wellness, high school athletics, private sport clubs, sport marketing firms, military recreation and campus recreation.
Within these settings, Lukow says students may choose to specialize in one of the many areas of opportunity within the field of sport management: marketing, public relations, sponsorships, event management, organization of programs (i.e. recreational, fitness and corporate), sport law, sport finance, NCAA compliance and policy development.
“The prestige of having the program in the Phillips School of Business will also provide an opportunity to make the students more marketable after graduation,” Lukow says. “This is a very exciting opportunity for students and many have already decided to take advantage of this curriculum change.”
For more information about the Sport Management minor in the Phillips School of Business, contact Dr. Jenny Lukow at 336-841-9184 or e-mail [email protected].
At High Point University, every student receives an extraordinary education in a fun environment with caring people. HPU, located in the Piedmont Triad region of North Carolina, is a liberal arts institution with 3,700 undergraduate and graduate students from 50 countries and 44 states at campuses in High Point and Winston-Salem. It is ranked by US News and World Report No. 5 among comprehensive universities in the South and No. 1 in its category among up-and-coming schools. Forbes.com ranks HPU in the top 6 percent among “America’s Best Colleges.” HPU was included in The Chronicle of Higher Education’s “Great Colleges to Work For” 2009 listings. The university offers 68 undergraduate majors, 40 undergraduate minors and seven graduate degree programs. It is accredited by the Commission of Colleges of the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools, and is a member of the NCAA, Division I and the Big South Conference. Visit High Point University on the Web at http://www.highpoint.edu/ or on Twitter at @HighPointU.
Chris DudleyVice President for [email protected]