Caitlyn & Brad
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Mother and Daughters!
Jackson in his tux!
Mother & Son
One need only visit the quarters of the University of Tennessee’s Department of Audiology and Speech Pathology (ASP) in the bowels of Neyland Stadium to realize it’s a stepchild in the UT College of Arts and Sciences. Despite the fact the department is highly regarded in its field and also provides much-needed clinical services, it doesn’t really fit or sit well in the college’s academic scheme of things.
Thus, it should have come as no surprise that, when faced with having to make cutbacks due to an $11.5 million cut in UT-Knoxville state funding, Arts and Sciences Dean Bruce Bursten should single out the ASP department for termination. What’s utterly astounding, though, is Bursten’s inept handling of the matter.
There are so many flaws in Bursten’s ill-informed and ill-advised decision, it’s hard to know where to start in listing them.
Probably the most flagrant was his unawareness of a long-standing contract with the Tennessee Hearing and Speech Foundation that commits the university to continue operating hearing and speech clinics that are an integral part of the department. This commitment binds the university until 2057 “to continue to operate the Hearing and Speech Center at the same or greater level of services to the public.”
If Bursten had consulted with the department’s head, Ilsa Schwarz, before making his termination decision, as he certainly should have, his blunder would have been avoided. But the first Schwarz learned of the decision was 20 minutes before Bursten announced it. This peremptory announcement stands in sharp contrast to the way in which programs proposed for termination have been afforded hearings in the past.
It’s true that UT was under pressure to act quickly to make cuts after Gov. Phil Bredesen imposed reductions in higher education funding for the coming year in May. UT President John Petersen had stipulated that these cuts be made “strategically” in the narrow rather than spreading them across the board in a way that would weaken the university as a whole.
But when faced with the commitment to the clinics and waves of protest from its users as well as other ASP stakeholders, Petersen backed off. On June 17, he announced postponement of programmatic cuts until October “to allow campus and system leadership additional time to seek faculty input and involvement.”
Clinic commitments aside, if Bursten’s claimed savings of $1,374,818 from termination of these programs were for real, they might be more telling at a time for hard decisions. But in fact, his claims are mostly a charade. In order to allow presently enrolled students to complete their degrees, only $182,431 in reductions would be realized in the first two years. The balance of the $1,374,818 would come from leaving 25 presently vacant faculty positions unfilled across the broad expanse of the Arts and Sciences Department—the very sort of across-the-board reductions that Petersen is seeking to avoid.
Even when the ASP programs are eliminated in subsequent years, the net savings to the university wouldn’t amount to much. According to Schwarz, annual tuitions paid by ASP students totaling nearly $1.6 million exceed the claimed savings.
Interim Chancellor Jan Simek contends, “The tuition issue is disingenuous because all students pay tuitions, and the tuitions fund the whole operation, not specific departments.” However, the ASP program is virtually self-contained; its 114 undergraduates and 111 graduate students take almost all of their courses and get their clinical training in the program and wouldn’t be here if it weren’t for them. Moreover, university bean counters claim that $2 million of the $11.5 million budget cut will come from tuition derived from increased student retention rates and enrollment, which is to say they count tuition revenues when it serves their purposes and disregard them when it doesn’t.
The workings of the department and the clinics are intertwined. About half of the department’s 25 faculty members are primarily engaged in running the clinics and supervising the graduate students who staff them as an important part of their training. “Keeping the clinics without the department would be like keeping a chemistry lab without any chemists,” says Schwarz.
The cruelest cut of all is the deprivation that loss of the ASP programs would mean for East Tennesseans with hearing and speech impairments. The program’s graduates staff hospitals, stroke-rehabilitation centers, and school systems in meeting the requirements of the federal Individuals with Disabilities Education Act.
Ironically, the proposed cuts come just as the state Legislature has enacted what’s known as Claire’s Law, which requires hearing-loss screening for every newborn in the state. This promises to add to one of the audiology clinic’s most important roles, which is fitting infants with hearing aids and also counseling their parents and otherwise nurturing their development.
Simek says he would like to see the ASP program continued—just not as part of UT-Knoxville. And it may well be that the program could find a better and more valued home under the aegis of the university’s Health Science Center. But it certainly needs to be sustained one way or another.
by Marat Moore
Faculty, staff, and students in the Department of Audiology and Speech Pathology (ASP) at the University of Tennessee (UT) galvanized community support to oppose a sudden threat to the department's survival and have—at least temporarily—succeeded.
On June 2, with no warning, the dean of the College of Arts and Sciences informed department chair Ilsa Schwarz that the entire department—and the university's Speech and Hearing Center and its four associated community clinics—were targeted for closure as part of Gov. Phil Bredesen's 2009 state budget cuts.
"It was a complete shock," said Schwarz, who oversees the largest audiology and speech-language pathology program in the state, with 225 undergraduate and graduate students and 41 faculty and staff. The department awards six degrees—BAs in audiology and speech pathology, MAs in speech-language pathology and audiology, the AuD in audiology, and a PhD in speech and hearing science. The employment rates for master's, AuD, and PhD graduates continues to be 100%.
Closing UT's program would deepen the existing crisis of clinical and doctoral shortages in Knoxville, a city of 180,000—plus 26,000 UT students—and the region, Schwarz said. The department contracts with nine public school districts, and its network of clinics serves more than 2,000 clients each year from more than two dozen counties in East Tennessee and surrounding states.
"If this goes through, we will have less supply to meet the growing demand for speech-language pathology and audiology services," she said.
Overall the university faces $11.1 million in cuts, with nearly $1.4 million coming from the College of Arts and Sciences, which includes the ASP department. ASP is the biggest program on the university's chopping block; also targeted for closure are a dance program and a small graduate business program.
The university proposed a gradual phase-out of the ASP department. Tenured faculty would be retained and reassigned. Non-tenured faculty and staff would be allowed to work two more years, and the program would close in four years. Students who are entering or currently enrolled would be allowed to complete their studies before the program closes in four years.
"Our primary student concern is that, although the university has committed to seeing everyone through the program, they have not addressed the need to retain our accreditation, and the phase-out does not take into account the number of courses that need to be taught in years three and four," Schwarz said.
"The university also has not considered the need to keep our clinics open with a diverse client base past the second year," she said. "AuD students entering this year will be particularly disadvantaged because they will need an active clinic in their third year to get the hours in specific clinical areas."
Rationale and Rebuttal
Bruce Bursten, dean of the College of Arts and Sciences—the largest college on the Knoxville campus—proposed the closure of the ASP program. In a statement he gave three reasons: ASP's lack of impact on other programs and majors; UT's desire to preserve "regional strategic alliances" with entities such as Oak Ridge National Laboratory; and the state's three other CSD programs (Memphis, Nashville, and Johnson City). These programs, however, have stated that they are unable to accommodate all the UT program's students and likely could not expand to meet the future deficit created by the UT closure.
The Council of Academic Programs in Communication Science and Disorders (CAPCSD), in a June 8 letter to Gov. Breseden, the UT president, chancellor, Board of Trustees, and Dean Bursten, offered compelling reasons to preserve the program:
ASHA President Kate Gottfred also wrote to UT leaders in support of the ASP program, and noted that UT offers the only specialty training in aural rehabilitation in the state.
"The department is a referral source for many physicians and public schools in the region and its closure would create gaps in the quality and quantity of service," Gottfred said.
Grassroots Momentum
After the initial shock, the ASP department rallied. Organizers sent out a quick broadcast e-mail, and current and former clients, physicians, school districts, parents, local merchants, civic leaders, and alumni in the Knoxville area joined forces with faculty, students, and staff to speak up about the value of audiology and speech-language pathology services and training.
Parents wrote checks to support the effort and started online blogs. Students who had just graduated showed up to volunteer and spread the word about the growing controversy through Facebook and other social media outlets. An undergraduate's petition gathered 500 names.
Supporters began a Web site as an information clearinghouse. Letters poured in to UT's Board of Trustees, the chancellor, dean, and university president from physicians, current and former clients, school districts, hospital CEOs, and others to document the negative impact of shutting down the program.
"I am amazed at the number of people—who I had never heard of or known—who have come forward to support the department," said James Thelin, an assistant professor of audiology with 18 years' experience in the ASP program.
"The school districts were very worried about the impact on their workforce," Schwarz added. "Cochlear-implant surgeons were concerned that they would lose our aural rehabilitation services and mapping resources. I think the university grossly underestimated the impact of this move."
Local media ran frequent stories about the controversy, and letters to the editor and op-ed articles appeared almost daily. Students played a key role in energizing the community and getting the word out.
"The biggest student concern was our professors. We can't expect them to remain at UT and not pursue other job options while we finish our degrees," said Erin Carini, president of UT's chapter of the National Student Speech Language Hearing Association and a second-year master's student in speech-language pathology.
Carini and other students, who have been interviewed by news outlets, painted the huge "rock" that acts as a campus message board and organized events like a "Chalk Walk," in which chalk messages are drawn in heavy traffic areas. "We believe that if we can educate people about who we are and what we do, the facts will speak for themselves," she said.
A Stay of Execution
On June 17 the UT president announced that the decision on "strategic cuts" will be delayed until October.
"We're relieved, but we know the battle isn't over," Schwarz said. "We will use this much-needed time to get our facts to the public and demonstrate our financial efficiency and value to the state. And we encourage our supporters to keep up their contacts with decision-makers at the university."
Marat Moore, managing editor of The ASHA Leader and a Tennessee native, can be reached at mmoore@asha.org.
Jenna and Valerie
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