Professors believe accreditation will add value to the degree

Southeast Missouri State University's sport management program became the 11th accredited program in the country after the Commission on Sport Management Accreditation approved the decision on Nov. 16.

While the decision is unofficial, the process is in its latter stages and should be approved within the next few days. Nine sport management board members met Nov. 15 and 16 to decide whether or not the program has met its goals and to determine if the program's teaching rubric is up to the standards of the COSMA guidelines.

Becoming an accredited sport management program is a fairly new concept for most universities. COSMA was established four years ago, and many universities have not yet met requirements to become an accredited institution.

Associate professor of sport management Beth Easter said that being accredited is most important because it adds more value to a student's diploma.

"Employers will have something else to look at," Easter said. "Instead of just the name, they get to see that these students are coming from an accredited program. The process takes time. It was in the works before I got here, and it is still going."

Easter said that the idea to become an accredited program really started to form in 2007.

"At that time it was more about researching what we had to do to become accredited," Easter said. "Then we gathered some information about how our students were performing in their classes."

Easter, along with former sport management professor Barry Nicholson and current associate professor K.Y. Kim, was instrumental in collecting data and writing curriculum for the department so that it had a chance to be considered for accreditation.

To begin the rigorous process, Easter had to apply to COSMA for candidacy status in 2010. Once in candidacy status, the college was put on outcomes assessment.

Outcomes assessment meant that new rubrics were put in place, a strategic plan to meet its goals was implemented and a new advisory board was elected to ensure the department was doing everything in its power to meet its goals.

In 2011, Easter, Kim, Nicholson and student assistants wrote a summary of data and continued assessment of progress reports.

Easter and her colleagues have gathered all of the necessary information that was required by COSMA over the last three years.

In early 2012, COSMA board members visited Southeast's campus to meet with campus officials, sport management students and faculty.

"The focus of their visit was to make sure we were really doing what we said we were doing," Easter said. "That was important for us because they eventually called back and made sure they had any additional information that they needed."

With the approval from COSMA, board members met and decided that Southeast would gain accreditation.

Assistant athletic director for external affairs at Southeast Nate Saverino graduated from Southeast in 2008 with a master's degree in sport management. Since then, he has held several jobs in the sporting world but said job hunting would have been easier had the program been accredited when he was still in school.

"A degree will always be required for jobs," Saverino said. "But to have one from an accredited university really gives you a leg up on the competition in our high demand, low supply field."

The sport management program can also boast the real-world experience it provides its students. Case studies, marketing promotion and event coordinating are just a few of the vigorous activities students must go through to earn a diploma.

Now that the program is accredited, the sport management department expects to see changes within the department.

Once the decision is final, COSMA and the nine board members will give the program some guidelines on what it needs to do to improve and keep getting better.

"We're always looking to make our program better," Easter said. "That's the other great part of this process. Now we're accredited which is great, but feedback on how we're doing is also just as good."

The department has seen a spike in the number of students interested in sport management not only from Missouri, but students from all across the country since 2010.

It expects even more interest in the coming semesters from undergraduate students now that Southeast has full accreditation.

"It's pretty significant in a newer field like ours to be able to say we're a part of an elite group recognized by outside agencies for doing an outstanding job in preparing our students who are seeking jobs," Easter said. "It all comes back to the added value that accreditation puts on your diploma."