Faculty Profile: Randall Upchurch

Posted by Contributing Writer × 05/24/2012 at 11:31 am

This is the eighth article in a series highlighting some of the 124 faculty members who were hired during the 2011-2012 academic year

Growing up the youngest of three boys in Missouri, Randall Upchurch often would visit his grandmother’s campgrounds off the Black River near Lesterville. He would help out with the cleanup and upkeep of the grounds and befriend the folks who’d come out for a picturesque holiday.

Little did he know that he was already making his way into the hospitality industry, of which he’s been a part for more than 27 years.

“It just made for these Kodak moments that were buried in my mind,” he says. “That’s how hospitality got in my blood.”

Today, Upchurch – a Top 50 Journal of Hospitality & Tourism Research scholar and a recognized expert in the emerging field of timeshare development – is the new associate dean of Academics in the Chaplin School of Hospitality and Tourism Management, a job he likens to being “an academic crossing guard.”

“I ensure that the brand of the school – that the Chaplin name – is intact, and that our students have every academy resource at their disposal to shine.”

Quality control is chief among the tasks Dean Mike Hampton assigned to Upchurch when the latter left his most recent post as director of the School of Hospitality Leadership at the University of Wisconsin-Stout to join FIU last fall. Upchurch previously spent more than a decade at UCF, where he taught in the Hospitality Management Department and held numerous leadership positions, including interim director of the hospitality education doctoral program and chair of Hospitality Operations.

“Dean Upchurch’s job is to reposition our academic recognition so it aligns with the strategic plan of the school,” Hampton said.

Under Upchurch’s academic guidance, the Chaplin School of Hospitality and Tourism Management at FIU will prepare Panthers for leadership careers in positions that require a firm understanding of financial and operations controls and investment strategies. The school will become a repository of financial data that will assist new market entrants, as well as existing companies in the area, to better position themselves within the South Florida marketplace.

He is also helping develop the school’s food and beverage science program into a clearinghouse for food, wine, beer and spirits information and research. Hampton also would like Upchurch to develop the school’s tourism programs further, especially in the areas of medical and sports event tourism.

He’s working on achieving discipline accreditation from the Council on Hotel, Restaurant, and Institutional Education and on “calibrating” the school’s partnerships with international institutions abroad. He’s also ensuring that the hospitality program in Tianjin, China, is well aligned with the program stateside, and is beefing up the school’s distance-learning initiatives.

He’s awaiting approval on two new programs for the fall: a Bachelor of Science in sustainable tourism development that will prepare students for mid-management, as well as a Master of Science in international tourism development designed to train Panthers at the executive level.

Upchurch says what’s he most looking forward to is sharing his publishing expertise with faculty. He previously held the American Resort Development Association’s (ARDA) designation to the Professorship in Timeshare Development. In that role, he developed curricula on the topics of timeshare resort operations, vacation ownership and fractional ownership. A widely published author, he has produced more than 60 academic articles with many of those publications emphasizing timeshare development. He also is the editor of ARDA’s Timeshare Industry Resource Manual and the author of Timeshare Resort Operations, the field’s leading textbook.

“Our students, our alumni will see things are changing at the Chaplin School of Hospitality and Tourism Management at FIU,” he says. “To have faculty published is only going to continue raising our profile within the industry and among other universities.”

As challenging as his new post is, Upchurch says there really is no place he would rather be right now than at FIU’s Biscayne Bay Campus. Except, perhaps, the classroom.

“My job is so rich I’m not currently teaching, but I am looking forward to that,” he says. “It’s the best way to stay in touch with our students and the industry.”

Other faculty members profiled in this series:

Tawia Ansah

David A. Ralston

Margaret Scisney-Matlock