7 October 1996 New name for popular Lincoln department

Changes in the teaching and research focus of staff within Lincoln University's Department of Parks, Recreation and Tourism – a flagship department which helped lead campus roll growth in the late 1980s and into the 1990s – have seen it re-named the Department of Human and Leisure Sciences.

"With the advent of the Bachelor of Social Science at Lincoln, we found we had more staff whose orientation was towards the social sciences and humanities as opposed to a direct involvement with traditional parks and recreation work," says Head of Department Dr Jenny Ross.

"Was 'Parks, Recreation and Tourism' therefore the most appropriate name to reflect our teaching and research activities? That was the question staff were debating more and more.

"Somehow we needed to recognise that some staff members were involved in areas different from parks, recreation and tourism.

"After intense debate and discussion and a series of votes on a list of proposed names the University's Vice-Chancellor was approached with a request that a change be approved. The outcome was the new name – Department of Human and Leisure Sciences.

"Of course we wanted to preserve the goodwill associated with the name 'Parks and Recreation' so there are now two sections within the newly renamed department – the Parks, Recreation and Tourism Section and the Social Sciences and Humanities Section."

Dr Ross says the preservation of the name 'Parks, Recreation and Tourism' as a departmental section recognises the inclusion of staff members most closely identified with those areas of teaching and research and the name of the other section "signals" the expansion in those disciplinary areas and covers the staff members whose specialisations reside there.

Ian Collins, Journalist, Lincoln University, Canterbury, New Zealand.