Recreation major eliminated

Beginning this year, the recreation major, a division of the school of kinesiology, no longer is offered.

"Dr. [Arthur] Benson and Dr. [Michael] Goldberger made the formal decision in June, although the demise of the therapeutic recreation program had been decided upon before that," said Lawrence Ham, former professor for recreation studies majors. "We just didn’t produce the numbers that the university desired in that program."

The decision affected new students, or students who had not declared recreation majors by July 1. Students in the major will be given a chance to graduate with a degree.

"We are making every allowance possible to see that the students still get the quality of education they enrolled at JMU for," Ham said. "They will be able to complete their major in recreation studies, as well as both options _— therapeutic recreation and recreation management."

Currently there are eight students completing the recreation major and in previous years, the enrollment, was at around 20 students.

The department has faced difficulty filling classes in the program for six years, according to Michael Goldberger, department head of kinesiology. Goldberger added, "With growing interest in the other programs in kinesiology, it became more and more difficult to justify continuing this low enrollment program."

The recreation management major also was discontinued. "I was shocked when Dr. Goldberger told me the decision was also to eliminate the recreation studies major and recreation management option as we had between 50 to 60 students in that major," Ham said.

An e-mail informing students of the discontinuation of the major was sent out at the beginning of the semester.

"It was really upsetting for me when they informed me that they were getting rid of the major," junior Judy Brown said. "I didn’t know it was coming, it was just like all of a sudden I got an e-mail telling me how they were getting rid of the recreation major.

"Some people stayed in the major, but I decided to switch to a major where I would have more choices and wouldn’t be so rushed."

Students completing the major must meet with Paula McMahan, staff member to the school of kinesiology, to check on their completion of major requirements. According to Goldberger, recreation classes will be offered for about two more years.

Ham advises his students to "hang in there, as this is just one hurdle in life that they will face and this one has been smoothed out so they should not even notice there has been a change."