Vision statement

Northern Arizona University’s School of Hotel and Restaurant Management aspires to be recognized as a premier hospitality leadership school providing student-centered, multi-culturally focused, and innovative academic experiences both in person and through distance learning programs. The School further aspires to become a center for hospitality education: a community where students, faculty, staff, alumni, and industry professionals connect to advance knowledge about the hospitality industry throughout their careers.

Mission statement

Northern Arizona University’s School of Hotel and Restaurant Management prepares socially responsible, culturally-aware students for success in an ever-changing, global hospitality industry through rigorous academic programs informed by faculty research and meaningful industry engagement.

Core values

Integrity

Fairness, honesty, and the highest ethical standards guide the School’s decisions and are the foundation for the School’s culture.

Innovation and Creativity

The School values innovation and strives to expose students to the most current issues and accomplishments in the hospitality industry through active partnerships with industry partners, current research, and innovative teaching techniques. The School works to instill in students a desire for lifelong learning and invites industry professionals to continue their endless education through partnerships with the School.

Student Success

Student success takes a priority in the planning of curriculum, co-curricular activities, and student services. To that end, the School delivers relevant curriculum that is under regular review to ensure it meets the needs of students, employers, industry leaders, and other stakeholders. The School recognizes that different students have different educational needs and supports diverse paths to success. The School further recognizes that success includes education as responsible citizens, lifelong learners, and productive and fulfilled human beings.

Participation

The School values the participation of students, faculty, staff, alumni, industry professionals, and others in the development of hospitality professionals and encourage input and engagement from them.

Diversity

The School values diversity of demographics, culture, experience, and perspective.

In the HRM program, you’ll experience individual attention from professors and staff who are interested in helping you grow, and develop the skills necessary to be an entry-level manager in the hospitality industry.

Purpose Statement

The purpose of the School of Hotel and Restaurant Management program is to prepare students for successful hospitality careers and productive citizenship. This is accomplished by providing a curriculum that is responsive to the needs of Arizona’s growing hospitality industry and the conditions of the twenty-first century. Graduates are able to gain entry-level management positions in a variety of hospitality sectors, such hotels, resorts, restaurants, country clubs, theme parks, stadiums, casinos, event planning, microbreweries, wine bars, food and beverage vendors, and spas. Because the hospitality industry is so diverse and lucrative, a degree in hotel and restaurant management from a nationally-ranked program opens the door to vast opportunities for advancement.

Student Learning Outcomes

Hotel and Restaurant Management Content Knowledge

Students will demonstrate the ability to:

• List and explain the career choices in the hospitality industry.
• Demonstrate work and career preparation and understanding of professionalism within the hospitality industry.
• Classify hotels and restaurants in terms of their ownership, affiliation, and levels of service.
• Describe how hotels and restaurants are organized, and explain the roles and responsibilities of the various departments and job positions.
• Identify and define important concepts related to the successful management and operation of hotels and restaurants.
• Identify customer service and guest relations standards and policies that must be in place for the successful operation of a hotel and restaurant.
• Describe and identify foundational cooking tools, techniques and ingredients used in the professional kitchen.
• Apply and evaluate safe, sanitary procedures, habits, and behaviors in hotel and restaurant facilities.
• Apply a systems approach to room and public space cleaning.
• Discuss facility sustainability principles that address environmentally preferable products, water and energy conservation, indoor environmental quality, operational and maintenance practices, and building and equipment design.
• Discuss the importance of effective leadership and management and distinguish between leadership and management skill sets and competencies.
• Have a clear sense of the purpose of leadership, the ethical dimensions of leadership, and the relationship between leaders and followers.
• Define and evaluate strategic management and leadership trends and issues in the hospitality sector.
• Perform common hotel and restaurant tasks and analyses using industry-specific and generic applications.
• Calculate key hotel and restaurant performance metrics (e.g., ADR, Occupancy %, Labor and Food cost %, RevPar, etc.)
• Describe control systems necessary to monitor the purchasing, receiving, storing, issuing, production and service functions in a food service operation.
• Explain effective methods for scheduling staff and controlling labor cost.
• Prepare hotel and restaurant budgets and revenue and expense forecasts.
• Use ratio and variance analysis for interpreting hospitality financial statements.
• Explain how an information system is managed and protected within a hospitality organization.
• Understand and apply hospitality industry analytics to maximize total hotel and restaurant revenues and profits.
• Describe and understand foundational hospitality marketing principles, concepts, theories, and terminology such as segmentation, targeting, positioning and marketing mix variables (e.g., product/service development, pricing, location, distribution, and promotion).
• Have a basic understanding of the law of contracts and torts which affect the hospitality industry.
• Understand the legal relationship between a hotel and its guests and the laws related to employment in the hospitality industry.
• Explain how to recruit, hire, and train staff with the goal of maximizing performance and retention while maintaining high company standards.
• Apply time value of money concepts to assess expenditure programs, loans, and other applications.
• Apply disciplinary knowledge and analytical tools for conflict management, problem solving, and decision making.
• Create a business plan for the key functional areas of a hospitality organization.
• Demonstrate the ability to integrate the concepts of hospitality management, operations, leadership and ethics, human resources, marketing, finance, and accounting to analyze interdisciplinary case and simulated management situations.
• Prepare and present case analyses, and to respond to questions regarding the formulation and evaluation of alternatives and the recommended course of action.

Analytical/Problem-solving Skills

Students will demonstrate the ability to:

• Analyze and interpret a balance sheet and income and cash flow statements to evaluate financial performance and support operational and strategic decision making.
• Analyze and interpret non-financial information, such as changes in consumer behaviors and spending patterns, to assess its impact on financial and market performance and operational and strategic decision making.
• Recognize and resolve common hospitality operational issues and problems.

Communication and Leadership Skills

Students will demonstrate the ability to:

• Communicate in a manner consistent with the professional language of the hospitality industry in both written and oral formats.
• Deliver effective presentations to small and large groups.
• Use and integrate various theoretical approaches and principles to leadership in conflict resolution, intergroup and interpersonal relations, and team building.

Critical Thinking

Students will demonstrate the ability to:

• Identify the essential question, issue, and/or problem.
• Gather data relevant to the essential question, issue, and/or problem.
• Interpret appropriate data effectively.
• Recognize and evaluate assumptions, major alternative points of view and related theories, principles, and ideas relevant to the question, issue, and/or problem.
• Develop informed conclusions/solutions.
• Articulate implications and consequences that emerge from the conclusions/solutions.
• Analyze and resolve cases specific to the hospitality industry.
• Apply learned academic concepts to industry problems to generate applicable solutions.

Professional Responsibility

Students will demonstrate the ability to:

• Discern the legal and ethical issues at stake in individual and collective decisions.
• Choose an ethical and legal alternative and defend that choice.
• Integrate professional, ethical, and legal standards into hospitality business practice.

Successful Adults

It is the commitment of the Faculty of the School of Hotel and Restaurant Management to support and enhance the formation of our students as holistic individuals as emphasized in NAU’s Liberal Studies Curriculum. We believe that, in addition to the professional knowledge gained from the HRM program, our students will demonstrate the ability of:

• Discovery (Investigation);
• Integration (Synthesis);
• Application (Engagement);
• Cultural and Global Diversity Awareness (Recognition and Understanding).

Technical Skills and Knowledge

Students will demonstrate the ability to:

• Use industry specific and generic business technology applications to retrieve, create, organize, and communicate information in ways that inform and enhance individual and organizational performance.
• Understand and perform hospitality work tasks through lab and field work experiences.
• Identify and explain common hotel and restaurant management terms, procedures, policies, processes, standards, business practices, and performance calculations and formulas.
• Apply the concepts of planning, organizing, directing and controlling to the functional areas found in hospitality organizations.

Gain a valuable advantage with our 70% Professional Placement rate and 75.3% Student Retention rate. Source: Accreditation Commission for Programs in Hospitality Administration, with data provided by HRM.

Hospitality Leadership Professional Placement Rates

Student Retention Data

The School of Hotel and Restaurant Management is accredited by the Accreditation Commission for Programs in Hospitality Administration (ACPHA).  This accreditation was reaffirmed in spring 2018 after a review team assessed the School’s achievements and compliance with several quality assurance standards. We are proud to have exceeded the standards and to continue as an accredited School.