Hospitality School Admissions On Rise

NATIONAL REPORT— Despite the travel slump, some of the nation’s leading hospitality schools are seeing an increase in applicants, which is resulting in a highly competitive class of well-educated hoteliers fighting for limited job opportunities. Could this deter future generations from entering the hotel industry’s seemingly unstable job market? Top university deans say no— at least not in the long run. “There is some concern among existing students over whether they’ll have the same opportunities that students had in the past,” said Stuart Mann, dean of the William F. Harrah College of Hotel Administration at the University of Nevada Las Vegas (UNLV). “I think we will see some reductions in some students choosing the [hospitality]curriculum when they start school, but over time I think they’ll find that hospitality is still one of the fastest growing opportunities for employment,” Mann added. Leo Renaghan, associate dean of academic affairs at Cornell University’s School for Hotel Administration, sees a need for a recruitment program. “Students that just want to study business may be deterred from entering the hotel business. I think we need to go to high schools and talk to students about the long-term opportunities in the industry,” Renaghan said. “But for now, I think students that are on the fence [about entering hospitality], may listen to all the negative publicity and it might push them away,” he added. “It is too early to say if students will be deterred,” noted Dr. Lalia Rach, associate dean of the Preston Robert Tisch Center for Hospitality, Tourism and Travel Administration. “This economic situation affects not just our industry.” All three deans reported that admissions to their hotel schools have not declined. In fact, admissions are up across the board. NYU’s Tisch Center, which has 275 undergrads out of the university’s total 15,584 undergraduate students, is looking at a slight increase of incoming freshman for the fall semester of 2002, according to Rach. At Cornell’s hotel school, applications were up 30% last fall, even with the economic downturn. The hotel school educates 771 of the university’s approximate 14,000 undergrads. Fall registration is also climbing at UNLV, where undergraduate enrollment in the hotel school jumped 6% for this coming fall. UNLV is the largest of the three schools surveyed, with more than 2,000 undergraduate students in hospitality programs, out of a total 24,000 undergraduates at the university. UNLV also has the distinction of being located in a major tourist haven- Las Vegas- where the hospitality industry is ever growing. Regardless of the financial woes of travel corporations, Mann noted that UNLV “still had a good recruitment season” this past spring. While the numbers of job offers may have been “a little off,” overall, the school’s students “benefit from its location and reputation.” The majority of the schools students work in the hospitality industry while attending UNLV, according to Mann, and more than 40% of students stay and work in the city after graduation. Such is not the case for Cornell, which is located in rural Ithaca, NY. Given its limited access to mainstream hotels, the university opted to build its own student-run property- the Statler Hotel- to boost students’ operations experience. But regardless of academic preparation, graduates face a challenging job market. “This year graduate placement was tough and next year will probably be even tougher,” said Renaghan. To combat the decreasing number of job offers that traditionally come from the big hospitality companies, Cornell is developing “a broader placement effort,” he stated. In addition to hotel and restaurant operations, students are also beginning to look more seriously at consulting, electronic distribution and investment banking, “where a knowledge of the hospitality industry is important.” Rach added that NYU has begun creating more networking opportunities for its Tis