Educational Goals

Graduates with this advanced degree will be able to demonstrate: 1) strategic management skills as well as complementary critical thinking skills that they can use as management-level practitioners; 2) knowledge of systems and practices of recreation and leisure service delivery to improve the quality of life of served constituents; and 3) a level of mastery of concepts and core disciplinary and practice issues that will enable them as leaders and managers to articulate, through agency of appropriately sophisticated written and verbal language, the mission, vision, goals and practices of the discipline and profession.

Employment Options

To be competitive in the current job market, students seeking a supervisory or administrative position in a large public recreation center, department, or facility must pursue a master’s degree in recreation.

The Faculty

Members of the Recreation graduate faculty are national leaders in the field of Recreation Management. They are the authors of numerous peer-reviewed publications and set the high standards for students in the Graduate Recreation Management Program at Texas State University.

Curriculum

Required Courses

REC 5310-Philosophical Foundations of RLS

REC 5340-Social Science of R&L

REC 5346-Literature & Research

REC 5350-Legal & Ethical Issues in RLS

REC 5380-Administering Leisure Delivery Systems

REC 5330-Applications of Management in RLS Organizations

REC 5360-Applications of Marketing & Finance in RLS 

Prescribed Elective Courses, including but not limited to:

EDA 5339, Understanding Self

EDA 5345, Understanding People

MC 5304K,The Internet & Mass Communication

MC 5308, Seminar in Advertising & Public Relations

COMM 5319, Organizational Communication

COMM 5329B, Communication & negotiation

GEO 5312, The Planning Function and Process

GEO 5338, Land Use Planning

GEO 5339, Land Development & Management

MGT 5314, Organizational Behavior & Theory

POSI 5340, Problems in American Public Policy

POSI 5311, Public Finance Administration

POSI 5314, Organizational Theory

SOCI 5316, Seminar in Deviation & Social Problems

SOCI 5320, Seminar in Demography

SOCI 5349, Seminar in Drugs & Society

SOCI 5353, Seminar in the Community

SOCI 5370, Seminar in Multi-cultural Relations

Thesis Option:

Students who choose the thesis option are required to complete 30 hours of graduate course work (including one 3-hour prescribed elective course) and 6 hours of thesis work.

Non-Thesis Option:

Students who choose the non-thesis option are required to complete 36 hours of course work (including REC 5337 Directed Study, 6 - 9 hours of prescribed elective course work, and 3 to 6 hours of free elective course work).