by Michelle Mullen

Lehman College is expanding its graduate offerings with a Ph.D. program in human performance and fitness, making it the only public institution in New York City to offer a doctorate in an exercise-related discipline.

The program, housed in Lehman College’s Department of Exercise Sciences and Recreation, is also the first Ph.D. program to be based directly at the Bronx college. Previous doctoral programs involving Lehman were administered through the CUNY Graduate Center, according to Bradley Schoenfeld, the program’s director.

Lehman College President Fernando Delgado said this addition has been years in the making. The program proposal went through several levels of review at Lehman College and the City University of New York, or CUNY, before receiving approval from the CUNY’s Board of Trustees. New degree programs can take 18 months to two years to move through the process as officials review academics, staffing, finances, competition and potential demand, according to Delgado.

Not only is the new Ph.D. the first program of its kind at a public university in the city, but its emphasis also sets it apart from many other exercise-related doctoral programs in the region, Schoenfeld said.

“We focus on human performance, where most of the other programs, certainly anywhere in this region, are focusing on clinical outcomes, health-related outcomes,” Schoenfeld said.

Instead, Lehman’s program focuses on improving how people perform physically, rather than primarily treating disease or other clinical conditions.

The program looks at healthy individuals and how exercise, training and other interventions can improve performance and quality of life, Schoenfeld said.

Doctoral students are paired with faculty members based on their research interests. Schoenfeld said his students focus largely on muscle strength and growth, while another faculty member has a greater focus on aerobic exercise.

“My goal at this point is to train the next generation of scholars on how to integrate the scientific method in becoming researchers and educators in human performance and fitness,” Schoenfeld said.

The program generally takes four to five years to complete, according to the school. Students take two to three courses per semester while spending at least 15 to 20 hours each week conducting research in a laboratory, Schoenfeld said.

The doctorate also builds on Lehman College’s existing master’s program in human performance and fitness. Doctoral students can help mentor master’s degree students as they conduct research and complete their theses, creating what Schoenfeld described as a stronger research environment across both programs.

“It just really helps to build a thriving lab,” he said. “It’s been a real boon to our program, and yeah, I’ve gotten terrific feedback from the students.”

Although many students pursuing a Ph.D. plan to become professors or researchers, Schoenfeld said graduates could also find work in sports science, strength and conditioning, corporate fitness and military research.

Sports scientists, for example, can use data and statistical analysis to develop training programs and help teams make decisions about players, he said

For Delgado, the program also creates an opportunity to expand Lehman’s reach beyond the students it traditionally serves.

“Our mandate will always be to serve the borough and the city,” Delgado said, adding that bringing students from other parts of the country and abroad can strengthen the experience for local students as well.

A classroom made up of students with different geographic and cultural backgrounds, he said, can introduce perspectives that might not otherwise emerge in discussions or research.

The program could also benefit Lehman and the Bronx by strengthening the college’s research capacity, Schoenfeld said. Doctoral students add researchers to laboratories, work alongside master’s students and can ultimately help produce research with applications in athletics, fitness and human health.

Producing those highly trained graduates, Delgado said, also allows Lehman to become a source of faculty and practitioners for institutions and organizations that need advanced expertise in exercise science.

“We’re hopefully going to look to do more research as an institution overall, a research-based institution, and I believe that our program is going to help drive that, facilitate that.” Schoenfeld said.

Keywords

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Bradley Schoenfeld,

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