Due to potential accreditation problems and a declining interest in the program, Oklahoma Christian University will no longer offer a Sports Wellness degree.
Last Friday, Oklahoma Christian faculty officially voted to end the program. Jeff Simmons, the dean of the college of business and administration, said the university has gone through a year-long process considering the ending of the degree.
“The first thing we had to do since this program is in the college of business, was to present a proposal for the college of business to say we think the best thing is to no longer offer the sports wellness program,” Simmons said. “They supported that proposal. Then, we took it to the academic affairs committee made up of faculty across the campus.”
Since women’s track and field coach Randy Heath retired in 2015, Simmons said the program has had a difficult time gaining traction. Additionally, the number of students in the program has rapidly declined. At its height, the major had more than 80 students but only eight students were enrolled this year.
“I think one of the biggest problems, however—more so than the declining of the demand—is we simply don’t have a champion for the program,” Simmons said. “When you don’t have a faculty member assigned to the program, it creates several different problems.”
The accreditation of the program also led to its demise, Simmons said. The Accreditation Council for Business Schools and Programs (ASBSP) did not recognize the program although Oklahoma Christian is an accredited institution.
“This isn’t a business program,” Simmons said. “It never was and it wasn’t intended to be. To keep it as part of this college, we had to go to great lengths. We had to say, ‘This is not accredited by the ACBSP,’ because if there is any confusion amongst that, that accreditation association would get mad and say we were jeopardizing our accreditation. It caused some confusion from a marketing standpoint.”
Additionally, the students in the program had questionable coursework and were not serviced well, Simmons said. The college of business intends to support students currently in the program. While juniors and seniors will have the option to finish out their degree, freshmen and sophomores can stay in the major, switch to one of the four sports-related majors or switch to an unrelated major.
“Before we knew how this was going to play out, whether it was going to be supported or not, we made plans to meet with the students in the program,” Simmons said. “We met with the students to tell them personally, this is what’s going on.”
Senior Grace Simpson found out about the ending of the program in an email last Wednesday. As a senior, she will have the opportunity to finish her degree.
“I think there needs to be some changes to the program, but I was a bit shocked it would be dissolved while I am still in the program,” Simpson said.
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