Changes Come to the Recreation Management Program

PROVO, Utah – Nov 07, 2012 – Recreation Management at Brigham Young University is shifting gears.

After two years of discussions between faculty and administrators, changes were implemented this semester to align the program with the Marriott School of Management’s mission of creating leaders in a competitive business environment. While the department is now functioning with a shortened title, undergraduates will also see modifications in the program name, emphases and curriculum.

“We want students to come out of this department even better prepared than students have been before,” says Michael Thompson, Marriott School associate dean. “The school is entering different territory by having a recreation management program in a school of management, and it’s exciting.”

Formerly the recreation management and youth leadership department, now it is known as the recreation management department. Within the undergraduate program emphases, leisure services management changed to experience management while therapeutic recreation kept its original name.

The course list now echoes other Marriott School curriculum; all undergraduate students in the school are required to take the same prerequisite classes, such as accounting, business management, finance, marketing and economics.

Recreation management students will take 64 credit hours from the school before graduating — 31 credit hours program specific. Patti Freeman, recreation management department chair, says the adjustments create a great hybrid between business and recreation.

“Our roots have always been on the business side of creating and leading experiences,” Freeman says. “We want to leverage the good that is in our program and blend it with the good that is already in the Marriott School.”

More information about changes in the program can be found at the Marriott School Undergraduate Programs and Advisement Center in 460 TNRB or online at marriott.byu.edu/advisement.

The Marriott School is located at Brigham Young University, the largest privately owned, church-sponsored university in the United States. The school has nationally recognized programs in accounting, business management, public management, information systems and entrepreneurship. The school’s mission is to prepare men and women of faith, character and professional ability for positions of leadership throughout the world. Approximately 3,000 students are enrolled in the Marriott School’s graduate and undergraduate programs.