Benedict College, the historically Black educational institution in Columbia, South Carolina, has received approval to offer a new master’s degree program in sports management.
The college currently offers a bachelor’s degree in sport management which is the second most populous undergraduate program on campus with an average enrollment of 250 students per semester. Beginning in January, students can enroll in a two-semester, master’s degree program. The new degree program will be administered by the School of Education, Health and Human Services and the department of health, physical education, and recreation.
Paula Shelby, the chairperson of the health, physical education, and recreation department, stated that “the master of science sport management degree seeks to prepare our graduate students to work on all levels of sports. Our graduate degree provides students with a solid foundation offering two concentrations: athletic administration and coaching. With our collaborations with several professional and semi-professional teams, our graduate students will gain many different experiences working on the upper-levels of administration in the sporting industry.”
“The Bureau of Labor Statistics recently indicated that employment in areas related to sport management will grow faster than most other areas,” noted Roslyn Clark Artis, president of Benedict College. “Many non-entry-level positions require a master’s degree, making Benedict graduates of the new program well-suited for careers in some of the fastest-growing occupations.”
Here we go again, another HBCU creating a graduate program without having the appropriate the institutional, faculty, and sports industry support in order to produce highly qualified personnel. First, the website for this “new program” is virtually non-existence and skeletal in nature. Second, the faculty whose affiliated with the program have not produced substantive work in that respective field. Therefore, how can they even possibly “PREPARE” students and let alone say it’s a graduate program. Really. Third, can somebody from this new GRADUATE program provide a list of collegiate or even professional sports team this GRADUATE program have already in place for students in this program? Last, it appears to me that Roslyn and the other administrators at Benedict College are utterly clueless what a GRADUATE program should entail.