CHHS >> Rec, Parks, and Tourism >> Overview
Department Overview
- Department Vision, Mission and Goals Statement
- Department History and Background
- Curriculum Bases
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Fact Sheet
Department Vision Statement
The Department of Recreation, Parks, and Tourism envisions a California where all residents are adequately prepared and situated to realize quality in all that comprises their life's pursuits.
Department Mission Statement
To foster an innovative community among students, faculty, University, and the recreation, parks, and tourism professions through a foundation of quality education, service, and research.
To this end the Department strives to prepare students for careers in the field of recreation, parks and tourism through a planned and systematic undergraduate and graduate curricula.
Department Goals Statement
- Preparing and educating students in pre-professional programs for entry in the field of recreation, park and leisure services through a planned and systematic undergraduate major curriculum leading to a Bachelor of Arts degree.
- Expanding the body of knowledge in recreation, park and leisure services.
- Serving the profession by assisting professional recreation, park resources and leisure service professionals and university members to enhance the quality of individual, family and community life.
- Providing a broad base of theoretical and practical knowledge and skills pertaining to the recreation, park resources and leisure service field.
- Providing General Education program skills, resources, knowledge, attitudes and strategies necessary for the integration of healthy leisure into people's lifestyles.
- Assisting students in acquiring the skills needed to assess and meet their own leisure needs;
- Providing opportunities for practicing professionals to upgrade competencies and retool;
- Facilitating, through technical assistance, efforts to develop and sustain leisure service and recreation, parks and tourism systems.
Department History and Background
The Department of Recreation, Parks, and Tourism, while relatively small in relation to many other autonomous units within the University, has a comparatively long history, providing formal professional-level training to meet the personnel demand needs of the recreation, parks and tourism professions in metropolitan Bay Area since 1935. In addition to its undergraduate mission, the Department also trains and prepares post-baccalaureate personnel, primarily administrators, supervisors, event planners and various specialists, to meet demands for advanced skill-level professionals through the Master of Science curriculum in Recreation.
Curriculum Bases
The intellectual bases of the program's curriculum are the study of: 1) leisure as a human, cultural and societal phenomena; 2) the essence of recreation as a human experience; 3) the relationship of the environment to that experience; and 4) modalities of guidance of that human experience. The discipline and profession draws from a wide variety of academic areas and professional practices interfaced with its own unique body of knowledge. Academic areas such as psychology, sociology, philosophy, anthropology, history, political science, natural science, geography, the humanities, and the arts each contribute in unique ways to the study of leisure and the delivery of recreation services. Knowledge and skills from professional and applied professional fields such as health, medicine, law, counseling, education, physical education, marketing, personnel management, public administration, and business administration are incorporated into the science and art of guiding the leisure activity. Research and evaluation techniques parallel those in the social and behavioral sciences, the natural sciences, the humanities, business, and education, depending on the nature of the setting and the problematic area in question.
Finally, the curriculum draws upon the discipline's own body of unique knowledge and methodologies, especially in the areas of leisure service activity skills (arts and crafts, outdoor adventure recreation pursuits, conference and special event planning, and community service), activity leadership, programming, and program and resource planning and evaluation as applied to all populations.
The major thrusts of the curriculum are to: 1) prepare professional workers in recreation, parks, and tourism to direct, develop, or coordinate public, voluntary and private enterprise programs and resources in a variety of community and special settings; 2) prepare them to meet the needs of unique or special participant populations; 3) prepare students for positions with supervisory and administrative responsibility, as needed, in the design, planning, management and evaluation of leisure services and environmental resources. The curriculum also seeks to engender in the pre-professional student a capability for guiding others in the disposition of uncommitted time and resources in leisure settings, and in the general student, a better understanding of the leisure phenomenon and the importance of well-directed leisure pursuits.
