At the recommendation of the Department of Sport Management and Media, the M.S. degree in Sport Management will be dissolved after all currently matriculated students have completed their degrees. The department faculty came to this recommendation after noting that the program is not presently structured in the best way possible to meet the long-term changes anticipated in the sport industry.
The program was initially launched in the fall of 2005 and currently enrolls 17 students.
“It is always our mission to prepare students for personal and professional success after graduation,” said Rob Gearhart, associate dean of the Division of Graduate and Professional Studies. “With the forecasted evolution of the sport industry and with the resources currently available to the department, it was concluded that the graduate program would not be able to continue preparing students at the premier level.”
Resources currently used to manage the M.S. program will be reallocated to support the growing undergraduate programs in the Department of Sport Management and Media, which offers bachelor of science degrees in sport management and sport media and a bachelor of arts degree in sport studies.
Established over 25 years ago, the department was one of the first programs in the country to serve the needs of sport-minded students. The department currently serves around 200 undergraduate students and boasts an excellent national reputation. Each fall it hosts a “Careers in Sport Symposium,” bringing distinguished alumni back to campus to speak to current students and provide valuable networking opportunities. In 2008, 21 undergraduate students interned with the Olympic News Service at the Summer Olympics in Beijing in partnership with Beijing Sport University.
“With the additional support focused on our undergraduate sport management and media programs, we will be able to provide even more resources to help prepare our students to achieve success,” said Margaret Arnold, associate dean for graduate and clinical studies for the School of Health Sciences and Human Performance. “I am confident that the department’s mission to immerse its students in the sport industry through hands-on learning and professional opportunities will continue to develop and offer our students an unmatched educational experience. I also applaud our sport management and media department faculty who recommended this change. Their student-centered decision was a culmination of a purposeful assessment that began many months ago.”
https://www.ithaca.edu/intercom/article.php/20111207092841642