The Master’s University is currently in the end stages of the development of a new major, the B.A. in sport management, a business degree that specifically aims at the sports industry. According to Associate Professor of Business Administration, Dr. Wayne Rasmussen, “Whatever you want to do in the sports world, you’ll be able to do it through this major.”
Team management, coaching and even marketing are potential careers for those with a degree in sport management. With this new degree, The Master’s University has a new avenue to spread the gospel.
“There is a half-trillion-dollar industry that’s built around sport,” said Dr. John Beck, dean of the School of Business and Communication. “We (now) have the expertise … to equip marketplace ministers to enter that sector of the business world and contribute meaningfully … but also with the biblical mindset to be able to represent Christ effectively in the industry when they leave us.”
There were a few business majors interested in the sports industry and they asked the administration and faculty about it. Faculty and administration discussed it and began to form a plan for making the new major a reality.
The idea ebbed and flowed throughout faculty discourse until they decided how and where it would be implemented.
In the beginning stages of development, Rasmussen, who is highly experienced in this field, was asked to give them counseling. However, after much discussion, Rasmussen moved to California to start the program.
“We did a lot of research initially a spring ago … and by and large we found it very favorable for us to start a program here,” Rasmussen said. “So my wife and I committed to the idea and we came out and we started developing.”
Weighing in favor of his decision to make the move were the strength of the business and athletic departments and the strength of the university’s Christian values.
When developing the program, Rasmussen was able to retool many of their already existing businesses courses, while also creating new ones.
Despite the positive buzz, the program still needed to be evaluated by the faculty.
Beck explained that as the program is evaluated, “it all gets laid out in terms of program learning outcomes, learning objects for particular courses (and) what the credit load would be for the new program.”
If approved, the program is then sent forward to the dean committee to be evaluated.
Finally, if the dean committee approves it, the full faculty comes together and the program is presented by the one leading the program, which gives a chance for concerns to be addressed and changes to be made until it is approved.
Once approved, one more step has to be made before it could become an official program: It has to be approved by WASC. WASC is the accrediting body for California and Hawaii that makes sure the program is legitimate.
Currently, WASC’s approval of the new Business Management program is pending. However, there is a high amount of interest in this new program among the student body.
Hopes are high among the faculty, after so much work on the program, for it to not only be approved by WASC, but to be academically successful.
The TMU Mane 