Dr. Kent Blumenthal is the Executive Director of NIRSA. I had the opportunity to meet Kent at the 2008 summer board meetings. He discloses some great information about the future of NIRSA and our profession. Enjoy!
- What about NIRSA attracted you to the Executive Director position?
I entered campus recreation in 1976 when a professor at the University of Maryland-College Park recommended that I apply to be director of the University of Maryland’s Summer Recreation Programs, my first full-time job. I hired a staff of 25 full and part-time employees, scheduled all recreation facilities, including the swimming pool at Cole Field House and sports fields, and offered a series of instructional classes, sports events, and tournaments. What’s more, the summer of 1976 was the U.S. bicentennial year, which made everything I produced for campus recreation, red, white and blue! It was a great experience, and I loved every minute of it! In ensuing years I received a research assistantship with the National Recreational and Park Association (NRPA) to work on community education projects through a Charles Stewart Mott Foundation grant; accepted full-time employment at NRPA; completed my M.A. in Therapeutic Recreation (1979) and Ph.D. in Recreation Administration (1990); and after 14 years and several senior staff positions at NRPA headquarters, I was named NIRSA’s Western Regional Director 1992 and served in that position for five years before excepting the Executive Director position at NRPA. The NRPA Western Region included a few NRPA members who were also members of NIRSA. When Will Holsberry, NIRSA’s former Executive Director, announced his retirement in 1991, they recommended that I apply for the position. Remembering how much I enjoyed my time in campus recreation, and knowing that I had acquired years of association management experience, I took their advice, and here I am!
- Where do you see NIRSA in 10 years?
Within 10 years, I see NIRSA as recognized leader within Higher Education’s student affairs community, and as the model of Association success and achievement within the Council of Higher Education Management Associations [CHEMA] and more broadly, within the fields of recreation, sports, and leisure services. Specifically, I see the following achievable within 10 years:
· Creating a National Professional Registry for Collegiate Recreational Sports with continuing education as its core element that is a model credentialing program for other CHEMA organizations.
· Increasing broad-based research and data collection projects that expand the body of knowledge of collegiate recreational sports.
· Helping to integrate student learning and assessment into every collegiate recreational sports program.
· Providing information and training to collegiate recreational sports programs about sustainability and ‘going green’ practices that affords them the opportunity to be their campus lead in sustainability.
· Increasing understanding about the integration of health and wellness components into collegiate recreational sports operations and program offerings.
· Increasing NIRSA involvement in higher education governmental affairs issues, particularly related to student affairs.
· Facilitator of a collegiate recreational sports accreditation program.
· Providing expanded online education and training opportunities for members that offer continuing education credit, such as webinars, virtual seminars, screencasting, podcasts, audiocasts, on-demand video, and streaming video (real-time).
· Providing expanded Web 2.0 and social media outlets that increase and enhance member and Association networking opportunities.
· Continuing NIRSA leadership in the area of facilities design, construction, and management
· Consolidating student activities within the Association that leads to establishment of a centralized NIRSA ‘Student Section’ encompassing all programs and services that touch NIRSA student members, such as:
o Student Leadership Team;
o Lead Ons,
o Student Professional Development;
o Career Services;
o Member Services;
o etc.
· Expanding NIRSA’s membership reach beyond largely U.S. and Canadian institutions to include international colleges and universities.
· Providing a comprehensive array of NIRSA Services Corporation (NSC)-sponsored events and activities that offer quality experiences with broad-based member participation, and that support NCCS (National Campus Championship Series) programs and other Association activities.
· Having the NIRSA Foundation be in a very strong financial position that allows for enhanced and expanded Foundations services, including:
o more student scholarship programs
o more professional scholarship programs
o increase career opportunities support
o continuing support for the Recreational Sports Journal (RSJ)
o grants for NIRSA research, education, training, and publications
· Fully-funded financial reserves that affords the Association opportunities to invest in new initiatives and protects against the ebbs and flows of U.S. economic conditions.
· Providing adequate financial support for staffing that allows for sustained growth in member programs and services while adequately addressing personnel and resource capacity issues.
- What obstacles do you see recreational sports professionals having to overcome in that same time period?
Our ‘New Economy,’ based on the current U.S. and global financial turmoil, is creating financial realities that may be with us for many years. Like never before, recreational sports professionals will find themselves competing with other campus auxiliary services for limited financial resources to support the academic mission of their respective institution. Every collegiate recreational sports program must clearly articulate its direct and indirect contributions to the overall Institution that it serves. This means providing data and information on activities that relate to recruitment and retention of college students, and how collegiate recreational sports programs enhance the quality of campus community life and bring out the best in students, faculty and staff. To be effective in this arena, data collection and data analysis must be considered an investment in the future of their campus programs and made systemic year-in and year-out.
- NIRSA could be undergoing some major governance changes in the near future. How will these changes impact our association, but more importantly the student members?
I hope that governance changes now contemplated will provide a greater voice for students within the Association. The proposed ‘Assembly’ and ‘Representative Network’ may offer forums for student leaders to connect with a broad-based cross-section of NIRSA members. The proposed downsizing of the NIRSA board should allow it to be more nimble, and the proposed at-large nature of board positions ought to open up leadership opportunities to many talented and committed professionals who may not have been able to serve in leadership positions at a local or regional level.
- Your position at NIRSA requires a lot of traveling, how do you make time for leisure? I wish that I had taken more time for leisure pursuits than I have since coming to NIRSA some 12 years ago. I want to be doing more fly fishing, camping, gardening, and reading more novels and tomes about U.S. history than I actually do. The nature of Association work is year-round. Coupled with required business travel, there never seems to be enough time left for leisure, and regrettably, as is common with many of my association executive director colleagues, I have accrued more personal leave time than I am ever able to use. I spend what discretionary time I do have with my family, especially with my daughter, Shana, who is now a senior in high school (yikes!). Shana and I took a SCUBA certification class together in 2007, and traveled together whenever time and her school schedule allows for it (in fact, you might meet Shana at the 2009 NIRSA Annual Conference in Charlotte, where she is volunteering to assist staff).
- How did recreational sports impact your life as a college student?
When I was an undergraduate at the University of Maryland-College Park, I played intramural football on a dorm team (at the time it was ‘touch’ not ‘flag’ football) and participated in intramural wrestling tournaments. As a graduate student, I participated in intramural weightlifting tournaments (I won a silver medal while I was working on my M.A. degree...I still have the medal!). These experiences helped me to make friends, stay in good physical condition, and offered a much needed break from academic studies.
- How has your position within NIRSA impacted your view on life?
My work at NIRSA has made me more open to new ideas and possibilities, and it has reinforced my belief that preparation has more to do with success than does luck. I have always been an optimist and have tried to be sensitive about needs of the human condition, and NIRSA has provided me with many opportunities to focus on these elements.
- Do you have any mentors, if so how have they impacted you professionally?
Yes, I have had three mentors over the years. Two of my three mentors came from academia. One of the academicians taught me that I can learn and master anything that I put enough mind, time, and muscle into (especially regarding research and statistics!); the other academician taught me about the power of ideas and imagination, and the importance of ‘Dreaming Big.’ The third person I consider a mentor taught me that there is no substitute for hard work. He died in a plane crash in Chicago, Illinois on Memorial Day Weekend in 1979.
- What advice do you wish you were given as a student?
Advice that I wish I had received as a student is the same that I want to share with today’s students: work hard and play hard; make your word your bond; always tell the truth; acknowledge kindnesses afforded to you; carry yourself in a dignified manner that is respectful of other people; speak well of everyone; get involved in service to others (this may bring the greatest joy); be childlike – not childish - as often as you can; and, find fun in everything you do!
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