undergraduate enrollment, which has created several challenges for maintaining quality of teaching. The purpose of this 2018 AKA panel discussion was to explore undergraduate student enrollment trends, faculty resources, budget models for funding departments, and strategies for maintaining and improving
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Undergraduate Enrollments and Faculty Resources in Kinesiology at Selected U.S. Public Universities: 2008–2017
David R. Bassett, Jeffrey T. Fairbrother, Lynn B. Panton, Philip E. Martin, and Ann M. Swartz
Understanding Budget Models in Higher Education and their Applications to Kinesiology: Strategies for Success
Michael S. Willett, Damon P.S. Andrew, and Mary E. Rudisill
Market pressures and external demands to sustain access, improve cost management and accountability, and increase productivity continue to persist in departments and schools of kinesiology. Confidence in the sustainability of an institution’s business model is eroding. To address these challenges, one possible approach for enhancing institutional performance, accountability, and stability is to revise an institution’s management process or budgeting model. Indicators suggest that many institutions are changing budget models to an incentive-based budgeting (IBB) system (i.e., responsibility-centered management [RCM]). The management strategies reviewed in this article are important for higher education budget administrators that implement, or are considering implementing, an IBB system as a means for assessing outcomes or institutional decision-making.
Moving Forward: Academia, Industry, and Partnerships
David D. Pascoe and Timothy E. Moore
The decline in federal research grant funding and incentive-based budget models to support a university’s mission has necessitated a paradigm shift in the pursuit of available sources of funding. Programs built around federal funding are once again pursuing funding opportunities from industry. Universities are reevaluating their research funding models and career expectations (tenure, promotion) that support a researcher, laboratories, and a defined research agenda. Kinesiology departments are in a strong position to pursue industry funding for fitness, sports, and performance-related research. While grant funding focuses on empirical data-driven research, industry looks for product exposure, validation (empirical data to support claims), and commercialization. Industry partnerships can provide funding in supporting research, developing sponsor-named facilities that benefit both parties. With these cooperative efforts come some unique challenges (financial, proprietary, data interpretation, etc.) that must be addressed.
Innovation and Entrepreneurship in Kinesiology: Survey Results from the 2016 AKA Workshop
Jason R. Carter, Penny McCullagh, and Rick Kreider
Over the past decade, institutions of higher education have been forced to become more innovative and entrepreneurial, seeking creative solutions to budget challenges. This has been particularly important within kinesiology programs, which represent one of the largest growing sectors of higher education over the past 10–15 years. In preparation for the 2016 American Kinesiology Association (AKA) Leadership Workshop, a survey was administered by the AKA to capture key institutional classifications (i.e., Carnegie classification, institutional size, public vs. private designation) and department chair or designated administrator perceptions on entrepreneurial issues relevant to their unit. Sixty-eight of 881 units surveyed responded, yielding a response rate of 7.7%. The majority of respondents (67%) indicated a unit funding model that was based on the previous year’s level (i.e., historical budget model). While the majority of respondents reported that their unit is provided with “adequate to plentiful” resources (59%), this varied widely based on institutional classification. Specifically, baccalaureate institutions (Chi-square 18.054, p < .001) and institutions with < 5,000 students (Chi-square 10.433, p & .015) had the least favorable perceptions of unit resource allocation. For the majority of entrepreneurial activities and partnerships (5 of 8 targeted questions), ≥ 50% of the respondents reported “no involvement.” There was a significant mismatch between actual vs. expected time spent by the department chair on fundraising activities (Chi-square 4.627, p = .031), with higher expectations than actual time spent on fundraising. In summary, the AKA survey suggests that there is tremendous heterogeneity in perceptions of and participation in entrepreneurial activities within kinesiology, and that there remains strategic areas of opportunity within the field.
A Constant Balancing Act: Delivering Sustainable University Instructional Physical Activity Programs
Sheri J. Brock, Christina Beaudoin, Mark G. Urtel, Lisa L. Hicks, and Jared A. Russell
Responsibility Centered Management budget model. Auburn University’s Physical Activity and Wellness Program (PAWP) is elective, grade-based, and housed within the School of Kinesiology, which offered 265 one- and two-credit hour course sections with an enrollment of 8,515 students in 2019–2020. A full
Internships in Kinesiology: Reconsidering Best Practices
Mark Urtel, Sara F. Michaliszyn, and Craig Stiemsma
few. These different academic locations may further influence a curriculum, as well as the overall and individual internship requirements by way of, for example, college/school-specific budget models, faculty workload policies, and curriculum guidelines. Therefore, it is not surprising that the
Embracing Kinesiology’s Evolving Role in Integrated Health and Human Sciences Units: Future Opportunities and Challenges
Brian C. Focht, Erik J. Porfeli, and Zachary L. Chaplow
from an external institution or one of OSU’s regional campuses. Collectively, most of our majors, their credit hour generation, and the accompanying fiscal resource it generated in the university’s RCM budget model were major changers or campus changers that “discovered” our majors and programs further
A Tale of Two Communities: Improving Student Engagement Through Experiential Learning
Sarah P. Shultz, Julius Moss, Lisa L. Hicks, and Robert B. Brubeck
) and the University of Indianapolis (UIndy, Indianapolis, IN). Similar in size and with the same Carnegie classification (Doctoral/Professional University), both universities operate under a centralized budget model and emphasize activist learning models with established community service pedagogy. Yet
Evaluating Kinesiology Faculty: Best Practices, Challenges, and Innovative Approaches
Philip E. Martin, Mary E. Rudisill, Bradley D. Hatfield, Jared Russell, and T. Gilmour Reeve
to modify evaluation procedures. Universities have a responsibility to evaluate faculty fairly and effectively and in a way that motivates faculty to contribute to the institution’s strategic goals and mission. For a number of universities, new budget models are being implemented, resulting in a
Administrative Strategies for Delivering High-Quality Instruction in a University-Based Physical Activity and Wellness Program
Sheri J. Brock, Jared A. Russell, Brenna Cosgrove, and Jessica Richards
and online learning modules ( Brock, Wadsworth, Hollett, & Rudisill, 2016 ). This course is in high demand—enrollment in this course alone has increased from 185 students in 2012–13 to 1,792 students in 2016–17. Second, in 2016 Auburn University transitioned from a historically based budget model to