Coastal Carolina University has established two new degree programs: communication, and recreation and sport management. The new programs were recently approved by the South Carolina Commission on Higher Education and are scheduled to begin in the spring 2006 semester.

The new communication program, offered through Coastal’s Thomas W. and Robin W. Edwards College of Humanities and Fine Arts, is designed to provide graduates with varied communication skills for the business environment. It was created to meet student interest and market demands.

“The communication discipline encompasses a range of subfields with a rich tradition distinct from other disciplines, but communication’s somewhat interdisciplinary nature also allows for many useful connections with other areas inside and outside of the College of Humanities and Fine Arts,” said John Beard, interim dean of the Edwards College. "Students can now benefit from these unique connections and branch out into a wide variety of career choices.”

The recreation and sport management program (RSM), offered through the Spadoni College of Education, will meet a growing local, regional and national need for professionals in those areas.

“This program is largely in response to national and regional need,” said Gib Darden, chair of Coastal’s Department of Health, Physical Education and Recreation. “Nationally, recreation and sport businesses increasingly seek to hire individuals with educational backgrounds in recreation or sport management. In our local and regional community, there are unique needs for trained leaders and managers in high-growth areas such as community recreation, sport tourism and recreation/sport facility management.”

One aspect of Coastal’s RSM program that distinguishes it from similar degrees offered by other universities is that it allows a high degree of specialization. Two tracks of study will be offered: (1) recreation management, emphasizing employment in the public sector with a focus on planning, marketing and budgeting; and (2) sport management, focusing on sport governance, marketing and promotion and sports management. Also, students may choose to focus on community-based recreaton, which is generally non-profit and participatory; or on entertainment-based sports, which is typically commercial and spectator oriented. The RSM program requires course work in budgeting, event planning, marketing, facility preparation, ethical decision making, and leadership, as well as courses from other disciplines such as business administration, finance, and philosophy. An internship will also be required.

For more information on these programs, contact the Department of English, Journalism and Communication at 349-2621, and the Department of Health, Physical Education and Recreation at 349-2808.