Sports minor added to spring roster

By Kristie Kahl

Attention all sports buffs: interested in a future career involving sports? Rider can help with a new minor.

Starting in the spring semester, a sports and society minor, currently housed in the College of Business Administration, will be offered to all majors at the university.

“Sports is big business, a big part of the media and society, so as academics we want to provide students with the chance to fully analyze this industry in a number of ways,” said Dr. Aaron Moore.

Moore (Department of Communication), Dr. Larry Prober (Department of Accounting), Dr. Barry Truchil (Department of Sociology) and Dr. Ira Sprotzer (Department of Legal Studies and Business Ethics) came together to formulate the idea of a sports minor with the students in mind.

“[We] met on many occasions and tried to design a sports minor that would be attractive and accessible to students, regardless of their major,” said Sprotzer. “We relied on our different backgrounds to make the minor as interdisciplinary as possible.”

The interdisciplinary sports-based minor requires courses in the College of Business along with the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences. It requires 18 credit hours consisting of two required courses — Introduction to the Business of Sports and Senior Seminar in Sports — as well as a choice of four out of five required courses varying from communication to law to gender studies. Another option offered is an opportunity to obtain an internship in sports in order to get hands-on experience with the minor.

“Having an academic experience in a sports program will help students as they apply for internships and jobs,” said Moore. “Employers want to see some type of related experience. The course work will help provide the background they need to understand the sports marketplace and will help with internships, which in turn help students land full-time jobs.”

With the prospect of many interested students, Sprotzer expects a big surge in the number of students to sign up for the minor.

“I think the minor will be attractive to a wide range of Rider students, especially those majoring in business and communication,” he said.

Seeing success so far in the sports and society minor, Moore is very hopeful for the future of the program.

“I think this will soon be one of the more popular minors on campus,” he said. “It will also be a great tool to help attract speakers to campus. It will help brand Rider students as being well-versed in the business of sports, which in turn will help with their job search.”

The minor can be a useful addition for future careers in athletics.

“Sports are big part of campus life at Rider,” said Sprotzer.  “The minor will bring the world of sports into the academic arena and allow students to explore sports as an academic endeavor.”

For more information contact Sprotzer at sprotzer@rider.edu or Moore at amoore@rider.edu.