One of the many great features of Kennesaw State is the variety of degrees and programs it offers that cater to students of many prospective careers. In order to maintain its dedication to students from all fields of study, KSU should return the Culinary Sustainability and Hospitality program to its catalog of available degrees.
Unfortunately, students whose aspirations fall under the CSH program are receiving the short end of the stick in earning their degrees.
The CSH program is no longer accepting new students, according to KSU’s Department of Culinary Sustainability and Hospitality. Additionally, starting in Fall 2020, the program will be discontinued altogether.
This news is a disappointing surprise to many, as the program has already previously been jeopardized. The CSH program stopped accepting new students once before in October 2017, before KSU reversed its decision in April 2018 by allowing students back into the program, according to previous Sentinel reporting.
This inconsistency is unfair to students who depend on KSU to earn their bachelor’s in the culinary arts.
The CSH program is an important part of the university, and it is a vital asset to students who dream of pursuing careers as restaurant owners, hotel owners or any number of the other professions the program focused on. It should be kept open and functional to meet the needs of KSU’s student body.
All of the fields represented in CHS are important and there is a need for them among the student body. Closing the program down will leave students who are part of the program stranded in the middle of their degrees.
While KSU directs students currently enrolled in the program toward the M. A. Leven School of Management, Entrepreneurship and Hospitality as a replacement, this on-campus program falls short of doing the same thing as the CSH program.
While CSH focuses specifically on fields where culinary services are important, the M. A. Leven School of Management, Entrepreneurship and Hospitality, according to Coles College of Business, is broader and encompasses all general management.
For someone with dreams of opening a restaurant, this broadness means he or she will not receive the industry-specific experience industry needed to excel in that career.
“I don’t really see how it’s fair,” KSU graduate student Hannah Newman said. “I know people who are sweating it right now because they relied on this program. There’s obviously a demand for it.”
While students can always fulfill this demand somewhere else, such as local culinary schools, doing this can be overwhelmingly expensive. According to The Art Institute of Atlanta, pursuing a bachelor’s degree in Culinary Arts Management at an art school like AI can run all the way up to $96,300.
Compared to the much lower price of attending a public university such as KSU, the former is generally not reasonable for the average student wishing to get a degree in the field. Because of this, the CSH program is a perfect balance between affordability and quality.
Maintaining the program at KSU and keeping these opportunities available is vital to many students. For the benefit of the university as a whole, KSU should reconsider closing down the CSH program.
