Department Teaching Speech Pathology Wins National Accreditation

University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa
Contact:
Tina Shelton, (808) 692-0897
Communications Director
Posted: Jan 27, 2009

The University of Hawaiʻi John A. Burns School of Medicine‘s Department of Communication Science and Disorders (CSD), formerly the Speech Pathology/Audiology program, has won a five-year accreditation, through 2012.

"Congratulations to you, the faculty and staff in the program, as well as the administration, on making sufficient progress to meet the Standards for Accreditation," wrote Judith Page, PhD., Chair of the Council on Academic Accreditation in Audiology and Speech-Language Pathology, in a letter to CSD Interim Chair Dorothy Craven on January 8, 2009.

Among other advances, the Council praised the University‘s response to complaints by staff about mold in the department‘s buildings at Mānoa. "The program is to be commended for its expeditious handling of the mold problem," Page wrote.

CSD has graduate professionals who work throughout the state, helping children and others with hearing or speech difficulties.

"We‘ve heard from more than 30 of those graduates already," said Craven. "They‘ve written saying, ʻI don‘t know if you remember me, I graduated from Speech Pathology and Audiology. Thank you for saving our program!‘" said Craven.

CSD offers a Bachelor of Science degree in CSD and a Master of Science degree in CSD (emphasis in speech-language pathology). A particular strength of the program is clinical training. Students learn in a modern setting, with a dozen clinical training rooms, complete with audio monitoring and closed-circuit television equipment. The clinics feature multidisciplinary evaluations and treatment for infants, children and adults. The clinics also serve as an initial site for graduate clinicians in our training programs. All clients (pediatric to geriatric) are seen on an out-patient basis and under the direct supervision of nationally-certified clinical staff and faculty.

Beyond Hawaiʻi, CSD graduates can be found throughout the Pacific Basin and Asia, including Palau, Taiwan, Hong Kong, Singapore, and Thailand; across the Continental U.S., through the Caribbean and Europe and India.

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