Speech Department suspends communication disorders degree to make revisions to program

By Monica Kreber

kreberm@thejohnsonian.com

Last year, Winthrop announced the decision to suspend the bachelor’s degree in speech communication disorders, meaning after spring 2011, faculty teaching speech courses associated with that program will be affiliated with another department in the College of Arts and Sciences.

Dean of the College of Arts and Sciences Debra Boyd said the decision was made in April 2009 after the Speech Department conducted a self-study to get a clear picture of the state of Winthrop’s speech communication disorders degree program.

“All Winthrop degree programs conduct self-studies periodically to make sure that our programs are offering the most effective programs of study to our students,” she said.

The Speech Department study included an analysis of the program’s current structure, research into other successful programs, survey data from our program graduates, and general program recommendations from the American Speech-Language-Hear

ing Association (ASHA), which is the association for communication disorders professionals, Boyd said. 

From that study, the department learned that the program needed some revisions that would require “substantial time to enact properly,” Boyd said.

“With all this information in mind,” she said, “we made the decision in April 2009 to suspend – not eliminate – the program and stop admitting new students.”

However, Boyd also said any student who was already in the program would be allowed to finish it and any new freshmen or transfer students who had already been admitted as speech communication disorders majors at that time would be allowed to complete the program. These students have been met with to plan out a course of study so that they will be able to finish required speech courses by Spring Semester 2011.

Although the students have already been met with to plan out their courses, faculty has yet to secure where they will be working in the College of Arts and Sciences.

“I will consult with those faculty (members) regarding an appropriate departmental home for them,” Boyd said.

Vice President for Academic Affairs Tom Moore said the reason the reason for the revisions that need to be made with the program rest with the lack of equipment Winthrop needs, and it is a large investment, which would affect the budget.

“It has become a more and more high-tech professional area of equipment,” Moore said. “The alternative seemed to be to put (the program) on hold.”

Moore said Winthrop is not alone in suspending the program, and the enrollment the university had of the major was not large.

“We had accepted a small number of students and they were committed to complete the program,” he said, “but we didn’t have a large number of majors.”

Moore said what is being done with the program right now, under revisions, is letting Boyd manage the process of course offerings to students, and trying to meet Winthrop’s budget.

“Last year as we were facing severe budget issues,” he said. “It’s all been handled very smoothly.”