Department of Health, Physical Education and Leadership
Vision and Mission
Vision
The Department of Health, Physical Education and Leadership (HPEL) provides academic programs in health and physical education and pre-physical therapy. Our vision for the future includes adding the following programs: health/wellness promotion, athletic training, outdoor recreation, a graduate program in athletic administration and certificate programs (in coaching, aquatics, and adult fitness). We aim to provide exemplary programs in all of these areas. In order to achieve this goal, we would need the following:
- Faculty − more teaching faculty with research interests in the specific areas mentioned above
- Additional ″smart classroom″
- Improved physiology lab, fitness center, and training room
- Updated equipment for the facilities named above
- Updated equipment for outdoor recreation
- Increase the Office Specialist position from half-time to full-time
Mission
The HPE Department serves the institutional mission by providing quality instructional programs which meet the needs of Southern Oregon and beyond.
We are focused on the development of the whole student: physical, mental and intellectual. Programs within the department are interdisciplinary by nature, and combine the fields of education and social sciences. Central to our mission is the idea of teaching. Our students teach in a variety of settings including schools, sports arenas, fitness centers, community/public health settings, physical therapy clinics, and more.
Our programs:
- Provide opportunities for personal, intellectual and professional growth in the areas of teaching, fitness, outdoor recreation, physical therapy, public health, allied health, coaching, wellness, sports medicine, and sports participation.
- Are distinctive in that the faculty and staff have unique training and experience, particularly in the areas of wellness, sports medicine, outdoor recreation, and athletics.
- Utilize faculty that are engaged in research in a wide array of areas including: wellness education, children′s fitness, obesity, osteoporosis, outdoor recreation, athletic injury prevention, health psychology, spiritual health, healthy aging, and world health issues.
- Provide extensive community based service learning opportunities.
- Create learning environments that embrace the values of critical thinking, integrity, cultural understanding, inquiry, and mutual trust and respect.
