Five-Star Partnership

By Ann Carney. Photographyby Jason Marsh
Fall 2004, Volume 46, Number 2

The genesis of USF’s School of Hotel and Restaurant Management is a study in partnership between a university and the community it serves.

When Peter French, associate vice president and dean of Academic Affairs at USF’s Sarasota-Manatee campus, laid out his proposal for a program in hotel and restaurant management before a meeting of 38 local industry leaders in 2001, he got a lot of diplomatic and professional advice about what the industry really needed.

While they saw merit in the academic program French proposed, they simply wanted more. And they had every intention of doing their part to make it happen.

What the group made happen, working hand-in-hand with university administrators, was the USF School of Hotel and Restaurant Management—the first new school on a regional campus in USF history.

The genesis of the program is a study in partnership between a university and the community it serves. It’s the story of how a regional university is working to meet the needs of local industry. And how local industry is supporting that effort.

It was late 1999 when USF first considered adding a hotel and restaurant management degree program at the Sarasota-Manatee campus. The original thinking was that the program would be part of the College of Business Administration. A study confirmed there was a market for the program, but that it would have to attract students from outside the local area to achieve significant status.

Interest in the program was renewed in 2001 with a change in administration on the Sarasota-Manatee campus and continued encouragement from the local community.
French called on Robert Beck, a Sarasota resident and former dean of Cornell University’s School of Hotel Administration for advice on developing the program. “The man is a saint,” French recalls. “His name is golden in the industry.”

With this invaluable support, French developed a design for a possible program. That led to a meeting of industry professionals convened by Katie Klauber Moulton, president and general manager of the Colony Beach & Tennis Resort on Longboat Key. It wasn’t just any group. It was a group of some of the most influential hospitality leaders in the state, and certainly in Sarasota-Manatee, a community which heralds tourism as its primary industry.

The blue-ribbon group included the president of the National Restaurant Association, head of the Bradenton-area Convention and Visitors Bureau, general manager of the Ritz-Carlton Sarasota, incoming president of the Florida Hotel and Motel Association and the former president of Holiday Inn, to name a few.

“I have always been a proponent of using professionals from specific industries to partner with education for visiting lecturing, organized student internships or curriculum consulting,” says Klauber Moulton. “It is difficult at times to meet the needs of “general” education and those of the workplace. The more we work together the better the outcome and opportunities for our valuable graduating students.”

French says the group’s feedback was exactly what he needed to hear. Two weeks later, Sean Murphy, owner of Beach Bistro, one of America’s Top Restaurants according to the Zagat Guide, hosted a working lunch for a smaller advisory group. Their goal was to hammer out details for what would become a school, not simply a program, on the Sarasota-Manatee campus.

“In 40 years in the business, I have never had a program where community interest and involvement was so great,” says French. “This group was willing to do whatever it would take to make it happen.”

Together, French and the advisory group finalized plans for a two-year degree completion program for students in their junior or senior year of college. Then came an action by the Office of Academic Affairs to make the program a separate School of Hotel and Restaurant Management. Both the school and the 60-hour degree program, including a 1,000-hour work experience requirement, were approved by campus CEO Laurey Stryker and USF’s Board of Trustees in November 2002.

Next on the agenda was finding a director for the new school. French and the advisory group launched an all-out national search and found their man in Jay Schrock, a veteran of the hospitality industry.

Along with having more than 30 years experience at higher education institutions, Schrock had developed similar hospitality programs at two universities—San Francisco State and Texas Tech.

Schrock gained the unanimous approval of university administrators and key members of the industry advisory board. He arrived at USF in January 2003, and immediately went about the task of recruiting John R. Walker to be the new school’s first full professor. A former dean and Marshall Professor of the School of Hospitality Management at United States International University in San Diego, Walker’s 21-year career includes management training at the Savoy Hotel London, as well as managerial positions in food and beverage, catering and general management at various prestigious international hotels. He has authored or co-authored numerous hospitality and tourism textbooks, and spoken at seminars around the world.

About that same time, Alexis Upham, campus development officer for the USF Foundation, was speaking with John McKibbon, III, CEO and chairman of Tampa-based McKibbon Hotel Management (see sidebar) about becoming involved with the new school. McKibbon, who already was supporting the Sarasota-Manatee campus endowed scholarship fund through an annual contribution, saw an opportunity to do more.

Through his fund with the Community Foundation of Tampa Bay, McKibbon pledged a major gift to the school. His gift, combined with a State of Florida matching grant, established a $502,500 endowed professorship—the first professorship in USF Sarasota-Manatee’s 30-year history. Walker was officially named the McKibbon Hotel Management Professor.

“What John McKibbon did for this program was incredible,” says Schrock. “He’s the best thing that could have happened to our new school.”

In no time, Walker and Schrock got to work on program specifics. They developed an internship program and a curriculum that includes a strong technology base, oral and written communications and management skills like forecasting and financial reporting. They created a bachelor’s degree program, then an associate-to-bachelor’s degree program and two certificate programs. They signed an agreement with a culinary school in Florence, Italy to establish an exchange program. They recruited two adjunct professors. And they began working with local community colleges, hotels and restaurants to generate linkages and awareness about the new school.

Their efforts paid off. More than 60 students are currently enrolled in the program. Typically, they’re 24 to 28 years of age. Most are working in the industry.
Students of the school couple classroom experience with hands-on experience at local restaurants and hotels. Their projects include things like setting up a restaurant from concept to opening day. They’re required to develop a theme, register the business, budget, order, forecast, hire, market and create a menu. They’re challenged to think across multiple disciplines, never losing sight of the guest.

“It’s a tough business,” says Schrock. “The industry has changed. The work ethic has changed. Competition is keener and margins are tighter. Technology is changing the way we do business. These students need to be prepared.”

Jim McManemon, general manager of the Ritz-Carlton, Sarasota agrees. “Traditionally, it has been important to select hospitality employees who possess strong talent and a passion for the business. Today, while those criteria continue to be important, it is more important to combine technical, administrative knowledge with theoretical expertise such as hospitality law, HR practice, food costs and menu design, revenue management and financial acumen.”

Schrock and Walker aim to develop highly qualified professionals who can think for themselves and make decisions based on a university education. For some, that might mean a hotel management career. For others, a venture into restaurant management or ownership.

Walker expects a high percentage of graduates will stay local. That, he points out, is an important benefit to the community.

“This is wonderful,” says French. “It’s the kind of thing where your job is to serve the community, but the community is there to support you back.”

Schrock and Walker hope to see the program expand to include tourism. That’s something advisory board member Larry White, executive director of the Bradenton-Area Convention and Visitors Bureau, calls crucial.

“I’m hoping the program will mature to the point where they will include multiple tourism sectors,” says White, one of the original program boosters.

That’s likely. Schrock and his team, including the 38-member advisory board, have high hopes for the program. In 10 years, Schrock hopes the school will have its own facilities, about 350 students and be fully accredited.

“We’re here to give students skills for a lifetime of learning,” he says. “The hospitality industry is screaming for people. I don’t have them yet. But I will.”

French adds, “We never lose sight of the fact that we have to concentrate on workforce development. With the community’s sustained support, that’s something we can’t help but achieve.”