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Building departmental visibility and support is essential to the success of any kinesiology unit. This paper provides an overview of different strategies taken by three American Kinesiology Association member departments to advance their respective units. Each program was faced with unique institutional goals and structures, yet each institutional example highlights the shared theme of building strategic partnerships and cultivating a culture of entrepreneurship and innovation. Common strategies across the three institutions included a genuine understanding of university priorities and politics, chair and faculty leadership, strong internal and external communication, a willingness to lead and think creatively, and maintaining a focus on academic and educational excellence.

In today’s challenging economic climate at most universities, kinesiology administrators are becoming increasingly aware of the need to participate in activities that will generate alternative revenue sources related to their academic mission. The ways deans and development officers communicate with alumni, potential donors, upper administrative leaders, and legislatures will all impact how successful the efforts to develop funds and partnerships will be. Successful fundraisers are those who can generate strategic alliances, create and market a plan that relates needs to societal issues of public interest and university priorities, and are able to identify partnerships that will produce an increase in resources. This paper provides strategies for identifying and connecting with key donors, building partnerships, developing the plan and cultivating internal and external audiences, aligning needs with university priorities, and working with legislatures.

Classification of Instructional Programs (CIP) codes were designed to report outcomes in higher education by specific disciplines and professions, however, universities, states, and accreditation bodies also use these codes in other ways. This paper describes CIP-2010 usage in higher education and how these codes are used in funding public universities in Texas, and summarizes the American Kinesiology Association/National Academy of Kinesiology recommendations to the National Center for Education Statistics on updating kinesiology-related CIP codes. Kinesiology leaders should be knowledgeable about how CIP codes are often used behind the scenes in a variety of ways that affect our faculty, programs, and the field. Greater use of the term kinesiology in many future CIP codes would benefit the field and individual departments seeking alignment with institutional priorities.

The rapidly increasing enrollment in kinesiology programs recognizes the important role of our academic discipline in promoting future professionals within the physical activity, fitness, wellness, education, sport, and allied health domains. Unprecedented growth in student interest in kinesiology offers faculty and administrators in higher education both exciting opportunities and difficult challenges. One significant concern facing kinesiology faculty is maintaining high-quality instruction within growing class sizes. Incorporating service-learning components within kinesiology curricula provides numerous benefits to students, faculty, institutions of higher education, and members of our local and global communities. In addition, service-learning has the potential to initiate innovative and entrepreneurial learning experiences and funding opportunities for students and faculty.

In 2009, California State University-Chico implemented a unique system of course redesign with the aim of improving student learning, increasing instructional efficiency, and reducing university costs. Inspired by and modeled after the National Center for Academic Transformation, the “Academy e-Learning” program involves a 3-week training covering models of course design, learning theories, assessment methods, and a host of instructional technologies. This paper summarizes data from 40 courses, across five separate cohort groups from 2009–2013, with respect to the efficacy of Academy e-Learning (re)design training. Data show improvements in student learning outcomes in over half of the course redesigns. Benefits of course redesign included increased instructional efficiency, enhanced student learning, and a reduction in university costs by offering some instruction online and increasing enrollment caps. Barriers to a successful course redesign included lack of time, technology malfunction, and workload concerns. This paper outlines the redesign process at California State University-Chico, discusses similar redesign initiatives at other institutions, and offers solutions for measuring effectiveness of a redesigned course.

Higher education is in a period of flux. For many public institutions, state support has decreased over the past decade, resulting in the notion of doing more with less. Using an inverted triangle approach, this article examines how both institutions and departments are coping with their present reality using innovative and entrepreneurial ideas. First, the story of how public institutions in the state of Illinois are responding to decreased state appropriations and declining K–12 enrollments is discussed. Second, a rich example of how one institution completed the strategic planning process—from conceptualization to implementation—is shared. Finally, one department’s multifaceted plan to handle declining state support is shared.

There is a tremendous need for wellness programming at all university levels as well as the United States as a whole. Healthy lifestyles benefit the workplace through lower healthcare costs, lower rates of injury and absenteeism, higher productivity, and improved morale and retention. This paper describes two innovative programs in higher education, the Healthy Diploma^TM and Healthy Titans, which are designed to improve the health and well-being of both students and employees. Two universities addressed the health and wellness of students (Healthy Diploma^TM) and employees (Healthy Titans) by utilizing the strengths of their respective kinesiology department students and faculty members. The Healthy Diploma^TM program was designed to lead university students to a healthy lifestyle while enhancing their postgraduation contributions as healthy entry-level employees. The Healthy Titans program was designed to provide University of Wisconsin Oshkosh employees and their families an affordable fitness program with an onsite clinical setting for kinesiology students to gain practical experience with fitness programming. Students were provided the opportunity to gain personal health and wellness skills and competencies, and practice their future profession in an applied, yet highly-supervised setting. Practitioners were provided current research and best profession practices. These two programs at two different universities further illustrate both the practicality and advantages of faculty and student collaborations for campus-wide wellness. Programs addressing wellness at the university level have demonstrated appropriateness as well as benefits for students, employees, and community members, and suggest expansion of similar programs to other university settings.