Office of Communications

Contact: Amy Houle

Communications Specialist

Office: (817) 531-7521

ahoule@txwes.edu

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

TEXAS WESLEYAN CERTIFIED AS LICENSED TRAINING FACILITY FOR SCUBA

Texas Wesleyan University is now one of just a few academic institutions to be listed as a licensed training facility for one of the three major international certifying agencies for SCUBA diving. In April, Scuba Diving International/Technical Diving International (SDI/TDI) issued the certificate of recognition to Texas Wesleyan and added the University’s name to its list of certified training facilities. Texas Wesleyan is the only academic institution in Texas to be licensed by SDI/TDI.

Students who earn their certification through Texas Wesleyan will now have SDI/TDI certification, which is recognized throughout the world. “Most of the good places to dive are outside of the U.S.,” said Dr. Pam Rast, associate professor and chair of the department of kinesiology at Texas Wesleyan. “With the international certification, our students can dive anywhere.” SCUBA divers must be certified in order to do things such as rent SCUBA equipment, fill air tanks, or purchase regulators.

The certification also allows the instructors to purchase training materials through the University, rather than going through a dive store. SCUBA training materials are only available from certifying agencies. “You can’t just jump in the water and dive,” said Rast. “You have to really learn how to do SCUBA first.”

Texas Wesleyan began offering open water-level certification in 1993, and expanded the program to include a recreational diving management minor in 2003. Since 1993, more than 300 students have earned open water-level certification. Students who complete the minor requirements can be certified as dive instructors. The program has been growing every year since its inception; a recent group of 22 people on a recent dive trip to Cozumel was the largest ever for the University.