NIU's hospitality administration program
adds advisory committee for advice, opportunities

by Mark McGowan

Consider it a king-size comment card.

The hospitality administration program in the School of Family, Consumer and Nutrition Sciences has created a 18-member advisory committee of educators and hospitality professionals to seek advice on curriculum - and facilitate internship and scholarship opportunities.

"NIU has a reputation of being a great university. With the new focus on the hospitality program, it will be a wonderful new partner with our industry, as well as a great potential source of hospitality professionals," said Jeffrey Wolff, a 1976 NIU alum and vice president with the Marriott Corp. who was elected chair of the committee.

"Since it's a relatively new area for the university, I think the advisory committee might be able to provide some insight and advice as to how to prepare the students for a career in the hospitality industry."

Lan Li, facilitator of the hospitality program in FCNS, said the committee also will serve as mentors to the students and help them in job placement.

NIU is the only public, and most affordable, university in the western suburban area to offer a four-year degree in hospitality. Although the new emphasis has proven popular since it was expanded in 2002, Li would like it to grow further.

"We want employers to promote the program so when employees think about further education, they think Northern would be a place for that," she said. "They think it's about time a student finishes a two-year program and has somewhere to go. Right away, people from the industry were writing e-mails. They had heard about it, and wanted to get involved."

NIU's expanded emphasis encompasses lodging and food service administration by adding four new courses in lodging and modifying several other courses to include aspects of hospitality management.

The courses offer a wealth of information:

• Introduction to Hospitality covers topics from tourism, lodging and restaurant management to meeting planning, amusement parks and cruises.
• Lodging Operations focuses on basic areas such as reservations, front desk procedures and housekeeping.
• Hospitality Administration addresses important management issues in the industry such as cost-control, staffing, training and service quality management.
• Strategic management examines the process and consent of strategic planning as applied to the administration of hospitality organizations.

Other committee members represent ARAMARK Campus Services, Baymont Inns & Suites, Best Western Hotels, the College of DuPage, Elgin Community College, Hyatt International Corp., the Illinois Restaurant Association Education Foundation and Peninsular Chicago Hotel, as well as NIU Conference Services and Conferences and Institutes of Holmes Student Center.

5-12-03