Emergency Action Plans (EAP) provide detailed instructions for handling emergency situations including natural disasters, major injuries and illnesses within recreational academic programs. The purpose of this project was to determine if accredited university recreation programs utilize an EAP for recreation courses and secondarily what components of an EAP are included and the process for development and implementation. Twenty-four surveys were returned (25% return rate) from a national sample of 95 accredited recreation education programs. Seventy-five percent of (n=18) programs indicated that they did not require any type of emergency management training for their recreation faculty. None of the programs had all recommended elements of an EAP and 62.5% (n=15) reportedly do not have an EAP in place for the recreation education department/program. Recreation organizations should encourage academic institutions to value emergency management certifications for their faculty and advocate the emphasis and implementation of EAPs in academic recreation programs.

Decisions about sports symbols on college campuses, such as team nicknames, mascots and logos, are often contentious and involve many stakeholder groups (Connolly, 2000; Farnall, 2004 a, 2004 b). The purpose of this study is to determine the salience of stakeholder groups in the decision to change or retain Native American athletic team nicknames. Mitchell, Agile and Wood (1997) theorize that stakeholder salience is comprised of power, legitimacy and urgency. Researchers applied Mitchell, Agile and Wood's (1997) theory to the case of one university which they followed with a nationwide survey of decision makers at 30 institutions having Native American nicknames or mascots. Alumni were found to be definitive stakeholders with power, legitimacy and urgency while other stakeholder groups possessed only one or two stakeholder salience attributes. Respondents rated presidential readiness as the most important decision factor (M = 4.33 on a 5-point scale). Other highly rated factors were access to, communication with and official support from stakeholders. Results provide support for Mitchell, Agile and Wood's (1997) theory and suggest that university administrators must attend to changes in stakeholder salience, particularly changes in the urgency of a stakeholder's claim.

Case study data were analysed from Southeast Missouri State University, a National Collegiate Athletic Association Division I institution, which changed its nickname from Indians to Redhawks in 2004. The purpose was to examine critical factors involved in changing from a Native American sports brand to a more marketable brand and to establish brand equity benchmarks for a brand changed with no attending alteration in core sport product. Both qualitative and quantitative data were collected pre-change and post-change including survey data, attendance records and university documents. Analysis supports the relevance of Gladden et al.'s [1998; Journal of Sport Management, Vol. 12, pp.1?19] conceptual framework for brand equity in collegiate athletics and expands on Gladden and Funk's [2002; Journal of Sport Management, Vol. 16, pp.54?81] work showing the importance of non-product-related attributes including brand marks and logos, nostalgia and tradition in brand associations.