Restaurant, Hotel and Institutional Management Partners with New Overton Hotel
June 26, 2009
Hotel hospitality program will facilitate unique hands-on learning experiences for RHIM students.
The Overton Hotel will feature state-of-the-art facilities that will give students the opportunity to learn and hone their skills to become successful professionals in the hospitality industry.
Restaurant, Hotel and Institutional Management (RHIM) students will have an opportunity to work and learn in the brand new Overton Hotel.
The 15-story 303-room hotel will provide a classroom on the second floor where students can experience software programs provided by 1859 Historic Hotels Ltd, the hotel’s management, and take classes to further their education. Shane Blum, chairperson of the Department of Nutrition, Hospitality and Retailing, said this is a rare chance and an advantage for RHIM students.
“It will give our students an advantage over other students from universities that do not have state-of-the-art hotel facilities,” Blum said. “Very few hospitality programs have hotels associated with them, and none have one as new as the Overton Hotel.”
In the fall, a hotel operations class will be offered, which examines the principles and practices of managerial functions relating to hotel and motel operations.
"The class has a laboratory component during which students will rotate among the different areas including front desk, reservations, housekeeping, maintenance and sales,” Blum said.
While this is the only class offered in the second-floor classroom in the fall, Blum and Hunter Carmichael, general manager of the Overton Hotel, look forward to offering more in the future.
“The students who are looking at hotel management as a career will allow us to have more professional, goal-oriented associates at our line level,” Carmichael said, “This should be a big win for our students, our hotel and especially our guests.”
The Overton Hotel is set to open July 25 and RHIM students and faculty will help the hotel staff set up rooms and prepare for its opening.
RHIM
The Restaraunt, Hotel and Institutional Management (RHIM) program is part of the College of Human Sciences at Texas Tech.
The program is designed for students to gain extensive management skills and work experience in the hospitality industry.
RHIM offers an undergraduate degree, a graduate degree with professional and research specialization options, and a doctoral degree program in hospitality administration.
Labs in hotel operations, food production and computers, among others, give students hands-on training that increases their marketability in the industry.
High departmental expectations along with a rigorous, leading-edge curriculum lead to an undergraduate experience diverse in its scope and responsibilities.
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