Anthony: You're taking over at an incredibly interesting time at the hospitality school. I've seen more people want to be engaged than I've ever seen before. The national ranking for the school for the
last several years has been in the top five. And yet attracting students to hospitality in enrollment is a challenge. How will you navigate this?
Jim: I think that navigating and telling our story is going to be the key. What we provide at WSU, what we provide as an industry, the opportunities in community engagement and the connection with people, opens a ton of doors in great careers for people.
Anthony: The declining enrollments, that’s not just WSU, correct? Or is that something that hospitality schools are seeing across the country? Are you hearing the same thing from your counterparts that you've met in other parts of the country?
Jim: I would say that higher ed as a whole has seen enrollments decrease and so we're just a product of if there are fewer people in the pipeline, then there are fewer people inherently with us. We've been highly productive with our research and with what our graduates have done in industry, but as far as numbers are concerned, we definitely are smaller.
Anthony: For those who wonder, with your restaurant background, are you going to be able to bridge the gap and the connection that the hoteliers want?
Jim: My job is to be a facilitator. My job isn't to know everything about everything, and so we take the connections we have in the hotel industry, and we take the connections we have with our faculty and staff, and we bring in the desire of our students to be in that industry and we bring them together This is a really important part of our plan, so please connect with me.
That is my role—to provide opportunities for the industry, to provide access for students to the industry, and to do that in a hopefully very effective and efficient way where all parties involved are feeling successful and getting what they need.
Anthony: Say we're having a cup of coffee a year from now and I ask, “Did you have a good first year?” What do you hope you're saying?
Jim: This first year, the goal for me is to figure out how to set out a plan to increase enrollment and revamp the curriculum. And then moving forward, I think the biggest goal is just getting as many companies involved so that they can help tell our story.
Anthony: A lot of operators are seeking great talent. They're seeking great people. If there's an operator saying, “Hey, how can I not only better recruit for the campus or promote the campus or even support, whether I teach for a day or otherwise?” What's the best way for them to get started?
Jim: There's got to be engagement. We as an institution have to figure out where operators want to play. Do they want to come to career fairs and find people? Do they want to create internships that we push our students towards? Do they want to provide research opportunities?
Reach out to me at jharbour@wsu.edu.
It was such a pleasure to talk with Jim. I hope you’ll reach out and see if there is a way you can also get involved in the school.
As always, it’s an honor to serve you.
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