Rosemary Chesney, asst. sports editor
Berry College administration decided to redo the sports administration major curriculum, effective in the fall of 2023. According to the Interim Dean of Education and Human Sciences Alan Hughes, the updated curriculum will include new internship opportunities, a new set of classes and personnel changes. The personnel changes specifically affect Mark Howard, visiting assistant professor of sport administration, whose visiting position will end at the close of the spring 2022 semester.
The sports administration program started in 2016 when Howard began teaching at Berry. The program’s goal is to provide students with a broad overview of the sports industry, including sports business and accounting. According to Howard, multiple former students have gone on to work for the Toronto Blue Jays, San Diego Padres and Atlanta Braves.
Senior Michael Johnson, sports administration major, chose the program because of the opportunities that other former Berry students have had after majoring in sports administration.
“When deciding on majors, I was trying to find my niche and couldn’t find anything,” Johnson said. “As an athlete, I was interested in sports and could see myself working for the sports industry. Sports administration seemed like a good opportunity for me.”
In the spring of 2021, Howard said Provost Boyd contacted him, announcing that the sports administration major would be discontinued. Hughes, who worked alongside Boyd in the decision, said that at the time of the decision to discontinue the sports administration program, administration anticipated a new sports business program to start in the business school.
“Some of the changes [are] due to personnel changes that were happening,” Hughes said. “‘Would a sports admin program have more opportunities in a business school?’ That was one hypothesis. Since that will not happen, we are exploring opportunities to make it really be successful here.”
In November of 2021, the Campbell School of Business faculty voted against the move to Green, according to Dean of the Business School Joyce Heames. According to Heames, the sports administration program will stay in Kinesiology, but Hughes is working to redesign the curriculum to include more opportunities for students. The current curriculum will remain the same for the fall of 2022 and spring of 2023. Then, if the Berry Academic Council approves, changes will come into effect in the fall of 2023.
“The business faculty took a long look and just felt that [moving sports admin to business] was not the most appropriate and strategic move at this point,” Heames said. “We would have to sunset one program and start another, and now we are just improving an existing program. It seemed like a better route so students would not be totally disrupted.”
During the summer of 2021, Howard said he notified the students majoring in sports administration that the program would be ending. Seniors and juniors planned to graduate with a sports administration degree, with juniors taking the remainder of their senior sports administration classes this year and any other necessary credits next year.
Some underclassmen switched to the business major anticipating that the program would be moved to the business department. However, the students later found out that sports a d ministration would stay in kinesiology rather than move to the business building, according to Johnson.
“I think [Berry] could have done a lot better compensating for people who came here for this major,” Johnson said.
Howard is currently the sole professor and advisor for the sports administration major, teaching eight revolving classes. He may teach some senior sports administration classes to a couple of students in the summer, who are finishing up their sports administration degree, but will not return in the fall.
“I didn’t want to leave Berry, but my visiting license was not renewed, and there was never really a path for a tenure track,” Howard said. “I have enjoyed my time here but am unfortunately moving on.”