IPFW Considers Bringing Hospitality Program To Warsaw
Posted
David Slone-dslone@timesuniononline.com
If there's enough interest, Indiana University-Purdue University Fort Wayne could bring a hospitality tourism management program to Warsaw.
IPFW Department of Consumer and Family Sciences and the IPFW Warsaw Center, in partnership with Warsaw Ramada Plaza and Kosciusko County Visitors Bureau, are offering free seminars to determine interest in offering a hospitality tourism management degree program in Warsaw.
The first seminars were held at the Warsaw Ramada Plaza Thursday. Another seminar will be April 14 at 5 p.m.
Dr. John Niser, IPFW associate professor and chair, Department of Consumer and Family Sciences, Hospitality Management Program, discussed the program early Thursday afternoon.
IPFW in Fort Wayne offers a Purdue bachelor's degree in hospitality management. It's a big deal, Niser said, because Purdue is ranked seventh in hospitality management degrees.
IPFW has a reasonable amount of students from Warsaw, and has a Center in Warsaw. While Warsaw is not that far from Fort Wayne, it can be for some. Typically, IPFW's students also are working, so making the trip often is not optimal. For those reasons and others, Niser said, IPFW was exploring the idea of bringing the whole degree program to Warsaw.
The program is very structured. The first year covers the general education courses. The second year includes hands-on hospitality tourism management courses. By the third year, students get into more managerial classes.
By structuring the program in such a way, he said, students get their general education courses out of the way and can still change their minds if they want without accumulating a lot of credits.
As the students take the program, they first build a foundation and build up on it from there.
Niser said, "It's easier to teach you something if we're talking about the same business. Today, the business has become very data driven, so graduates today have got to be very data-driven individuals."
However, he said, data without practice and understanding of the business can cause a person to end up with a lot of the wrong conclusions.
Hotels, restaurants, high-end resorts are not flying by the seat of their pants in today's world. To become successful, those businesses have to have really educated people.
Besides online classes and on-campus courses, the IPFW hospitality tourism management program teaches classes at The Holiday Inn in Fort Wayne for practical purposes, Niser said. The experiences there provide stories for students to tell a perspective employer.
Students have a dress code and are asked to behave in a certain way. The program in Warsaw would be similar.
"I don't think education stops at the classroom door," said Niser.
The seminars being held at the Ramada are purposely done in a hotel to get people to see what is happening in the field. The worse-case scenario, Niser said, if not a lot of people show up, is that people decide to take the program at IPFW. The best-case scenario is that the program starts at Warsaw with a cohort of 15.
The program also offers experiences for students beyond the Northern Indiana area. IPFW has an agreement with the Palm Island Resort in Florida, and at a hotel in French Lick for six months. Those opportunities were designed so students can get top-notch experiences, Niser said. Those experiences also show potential employers that a person is willing to get out of their safety bubble.
Niser said there's a misconception that a two-year hospitality program at a vocational college is the same as a four-year degree program. While the economy needs both, and people need to be informed about both, the four-year degree program covers a lot more areas so a person can become more than a desk receptionist.
"This is an industry which everyone thinks they know, but they actually don't know," Niser said.
The best programs teach in the facilities where students will eventually be working. Niser said working with Ramada and owner Bruce Shaffner has been very, very good. The benefits go beyond the Ramada, too.
"It benefits the whole hospitality community of Warsaw somehow," Niser said.
Call IPFW Warsaw Center at 574-269-6562 or 877-527-5787 with questions and/or to register for the seminars.
