Annual Program Assessment Report - AAS: Tourism & Recreation
Prepared by Dr. Margareta Knopik | (406)683-7205 | m_knopik@umwestern.edu

Annual Program Summary Report, AY 2006-07
AAS: Tourism and Recreation
Submitted by: Dr. Margareta Knopik

When the long-time director of this program left UMW at the end of the spring 2006 term, the program had fewer than ten students and the department was faced with making the decision to teach them out and shut it down or revision and redesign the program to make it more relevant and marketable. Given the location of the University and the relatively new addition of the equine studies programs, the department faculty made the decision to spend the 2006-2007 year repositioning the program and reassessing the need for it. Unfortunately, there was no fulltime faculty member who could take the lead in this endeavor. However, with the help of an adjunct who was also an alum of the tourism program, the current students were accommodated without any problem. In fact, they were directly involved in campus-based alumni events as part of their experiential learning.

The instructor also developed and launched a campus-based poster project to advertise the availability of the program as a major.

This spring (2007) the program took another step toward developing a partnership with the city of West Yellowstone. It is hoped that this collaboration will develop into UMW offering classes in West Yellowstone and the businesses there providing housing, internship and job opportunities for the students. Obviously having Yellowstone National Park on the doorstep will greatly enhance the projects and examples for the students.

Evidence that the program is beginning to rebound is that enrollment in the fundamentals class in Block 8 is 13 students.

Finally, a student completing her BAS degree this spring with a tourism option has been hired into a management position at a hotel/restaurant complex in West Yellowstone, beginning as soon as she graduates in May 2007.The business and technology department is hiring two tenure-track faculty for business and economics and one of the criteria the search committee is looking for is some experience (if not a degree) in tourism, hospitality, and recreation so there can be some long-term faculty continuity for this program.