Brian A. Sather

At the 2006 meeting of NAKPEHE, members proposed and discussed a move toward making NAKPEHE an “association for kinesiology administrators” (Finkenberg, Guthrie, & Martens, 2006). The term “profession” has an important connotation in regard to building a professional organization. A legitimate profession in higher education requires (a) a formalized education, (b) an established knowledgebase, and (c) exclusivity. According to these criteria, academic administration fails to qualify as a bona fide profession in kinesiology. To establish professionalism, chairs should gain explicit training in appropriate management for higher education and a repository of scholarly work must be developed. During the interim, kinesiology administrators can benefit from existing interdisciplinary academic administration organizations and conferences.