KSU reinstates culinary-hospitality major, will have to revise curriculum

Reversing its decision in October, Kennesaw State has decided to allow new students to major in its culinary sustainability and hospitality degree program.

A statement from Linda Noble, interim provost and vice president for academic affairs, last week said the university came to the decision “following a review by the University System.”

The University System of Georgia has the final say in the addition or removal of a degree program.

The university had said it “believes that there are more opportunities for our students with a major that has an increased focus on the business elements surrounding hospitality” when it announced the deletion of the major.

Noble said this move for reinstatement is contingent on the program “revising the curriculum to be more in line with the program that was originally approved by the Board of Regents in 2013.”

The bachelor’s degree program — which is under KSU’s interdisciplinary University College — was formed to emphasize food science, nutritional analysis, resource conservation and essential business skills.

According to a KSU website, the CSH degree prepares students for roles like marketing director, event coordinator, hotel/resort/ restaurant manager, mixologist and other similar jobs.

Thebusiness collegewill continue creating a hospitality concentration that will be “distinctly different from the revised CSH program,” Noble said.

This decision from KSU to remove the program came two years after receiving its largest single donor gift. That was from hospitality executive and Georgia Aquarium CEO Michael Leven, who in 2015 donated $5 million to KSU for the program.

Noble said the money from Leven’s gift would move over to the business college’s still-developing hospitality concentration.