By Cheri Hawkins

The following NIRSA Core Competency titles were unamiously updated earlier this month:

  • Business Procedures has been updated to Business Management
  • Management Techniques has been updated to Human Resources Management

Why the change?

In 2013 the NIRSA Education Task Force was established to act on options, alternatives, and recommendations provided in the Educational Content Review report. A component of this project involved reviewing the details of the eight NIRSA Core Competencies, established in 2010 by NIRSA, and defining each area into three levels of skill acquisition: basic, intermediate, and advanced.

The Professional Registry is committed to ensuring the RCRSP designation remains meaningful and current in the ever-evolving field of collegiate recreation.

During the vetting process of these levels, it became clear that the actual definition of the two Core Competencies—Business Procedures and Management Techniques—were not as descriptive of the actual content as they could be.

What does this mean?

The Education Task Force has now submitted recommended definitions by professional level (basic, intermediate, and advanced) for the eight NRSA Core Competencies. As this moves through the development process, the Professional Registry Commission will further review the relevancy and accuracy of each of the NIRSA Core Competencies to ensure that they are all keeping pace with the evolution of professional practice.  

How does this affect NIRSA now?

Over the next several months, you will see changes on the NIRSA webpages as competency titles are updated. Additionally, there will be a transition from the previous titles to the new titles on presentation proposals, learning outcomes, and educational content for all NIRSA professional development opportunities at the national, regional and state levels. The NIRSA online CEU tracking system will be updated as will the support materials for joining and renewing the Registry of Collegiate Recreational Sports Professionals designation.