FCS Introduces Hospitality Class, New Professor

FCS new adjunct professor Ryan Fenley

The family and consumer sciences department will begin teaching its students a little something about hospitality.

Beginning this semester, the department is taking steps to replace its food service management program with a hospitality administration program, a process that will take a while, but is a goal for the future.

“ Hospitality administration is a broader program; it encompasses more employment opportunities for our students as they graduate, and it’s just an area of rapid growth in the U.S. job market,” said department chair Janis White. “Programs that have instituted hospitality administration have experienced tremendous growth.”

The first “major step” in making the program change was to bring in new adjunct faculty member Ryan Fenley, White said.

Fenley, a 1991 graduate of SHSU, holds a master’s degree, which he received in 2001, in hotel, restaurant and tourism management from the Conrad N. Hilton College of Hotel and Restaurant Management at the University of Houston at University Park.

Fenley will teach “Introduction to Hospitality Industry,” a Tuesday night class that will be the first for the program. Until the program’s establishment, the class will continue to count for the food service management degree, White said.

“Our department is very excited to have someone with Mr. Fenley’s background and experience working with us part time,” she said, adding that his real-life experience in the hospitality field is just what the program needs.

Fenley is equally excited, hoping to make FCS 131 “a great class where students can learn about this global hospitality and tourism industry and what career opportunities are available,” he said.

Teaching students “just how big the industry is” is another of his goals, he said.

“ Food service management is still the hospitality industry; it is just more global,” Fenley said. “Tourism is one of the biggest thriving industries in the United States today.”

The biggest difference between the hospitality administration program and a business program is its specialization.

“ There are so many different segments of the (hospitality) industry: hotels, resorts, restaurants, hospitals, country clubs, tourism, the airline and cruise industries, recreational entertainment, like Six Flags, and major NFL entertainment centers, like the Toyota Center in Houston,” Fenley said. “The industry is so global you can go anywhere with it.”

Fenley said he sees the program change as a positive new direction for the university.

“We’ve got the University Hotel there on campus that could be a great learning laboratory for hospitality students,” he said. “That’s why I think it’s a great opportunity for Sam Houston to develop the program.
“ U of H has got it, they’ve been doing it since 1969, but for Sam Houston, this is a great opportunity to go from food service management to hospitality because it covers such a broad spectrum of the industry.”

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SHSU Media Contact: Jennifer Gauntt
Jan. 11, 2005
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