Degrees in speech pathology again available at UM

Until recently only three U.S. states – Alaska, Rhode Island and Montana – didn’t prepare their own speech pathologists.

Now the list is down to two. University officials recently announced the creation of UM’s new Department of Communicative Sciences and Disorders.

Part of the School of Education, the new program will offer an undergraduate degree in communicative disorders and a master’s in speech pathology.

UM offered a speech pathology program in the late 1980s, but it was cut, along with several other departments, as a cost-saving measure. Since then, Montana schools and hospitals have experienced a shortage of qualified speech therapists, and schools are required by law to provide language or communication therapy for students with disabilities who need it.

“Schools across the state have very large numbers of vacancies for speech pathologists – typically 20 to 30 a year,” said Rick van den Pol, director of UM’s Division of Educational Research and Service. “Last spring when the Faculty Senate reviewed the University’s proposal to revive the program, we had a gentleman from Eastern Montana come in, and he said his school had to spend something like $100,000 per year for part-time services. It’s required by law, so there is just this giant need across Montana.”

UM President George Dennison said the people of Montana have suffered from a lack of speech and language pathologists.

“Even more tragic is that children have suffered,” Dennison said. “Lack of services will forever follow those young people who, if they had received professional assistance, would have been able to correct most if not all of their delays. The citizens of Montana – most importantly the children – will be better off with this program back in place here at the University. Because of its critical importance, we intend to sustain it this time.”

Van den Pol said UM tried three times previously to bring the program back. Evidently the fourth time was the charm. State lawmaker Wanzenried spearheaded a $700,000 appropriation from the Legislature to jumpstart the program. UM also applied for and received a $353,000 grant from the state Board of Regents for equipment and technology.

The department will begin teaching undergraduate students in fall 2008. A master’s degree is required in order to be licensed as a speech-language pathologist in Montana. “If you earn this degree, you are going to get a job,” van den Pol said. “This is a high-demand career.”

The department will be housed in UM’s Curry Health Center and will require six or seven new faculty hires. Al Yonovitz, an associate professor of speech pathology at Charles Darwin University in Australia, has been hired to lead the developing department.

“We are encouraging high school seniors, students uncertain about their career choice and mature-age students interested in investigating a rewarding career in speech-language pathology to consider us,” Yonovitz said. “To meet the needs of those who already have a bachelor’s degree, we will offer a bridging program, with courses being offered through face-to-face classes taught during weekends and evenings, as well as incorporating instructional television and Web-based delivery.”

Yonovitz is a licensed audiologist with an international reputation. Before working in Australia, he was a faculty member at Conley Speech and Hearing Center of the University of Maine at Orono and the Speech and Hearing Institute of the University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston. He also was the principle audiologist at the University of Maine, where he visited American Indian communities in New England.