Bowling Green, Ky. - An innovative partnership has brought national recognition for excellence to Western Kentucky University.

The online WKU Master of Science in Communication Disorders for the United Federation of Teachers in New York City has been honored by the Association for Continuing Higher Education (ACHE) with the 2006 ACHE Distinguished Credit Program Award.

The prestigious award, given to one college or university annually, was presented to representatives of WKU on Monday (Oct. 30) at the ACHE Awards banquet in Los Angeles. The program was part of the 68th Annual Meeting of the ACHE.

Beth Laves, Assistant to the Dean at the WKU Division of Extended Learning and Outreach (DELO), accepted the award on behalf of WKU.

According to the ACHE criteria for the award, winning programs must be judged as being original or innovative and successful.

The United Federation of Teachers speech chapter in New York City was looking at ways to further the education of bachelor’s level employees providing speech therapy in schools. “The UFT has had a shortage of speech pathologists for many years,” said Dr. Joe Etienne, Communication Disorders department head. “The UFT approached WKU after learning that the University was offering an online master’s program in communication disorders.”

DELO administers the partnership between WKU’s Department of Communication Disorders and the UFT. The program offers speech teachers in New York City the opportunity to earn their master’s degree in Communication Disorders through online instruction from WKU with locally supervised and assessed clinical experience. Students take two academic courses each term and must complete an internship and three externships as part of the 52-hour master’s program.

“This is one of the few part-time programs of its kind in the country, allowing the teachers to earn their master’s degree without leaving the service of the city’s schools,” according to Dr. Barbara Brindle, assistant professor and coordinator of the distance education program. “The project has proven successful, growing from 30 to 130 students in four years.”

The program’s first graduates began their coursework in the fall of 2002 and WKU conducted a special convocation ceremony in New York City on Sept. 14 for the second cohort of graduates from the program. WKU President Gary Ransdell, Provost Barbara Burch and several other WKU officials attended the ceremony.

According to Dr. Don Swoboda, Dean of the Division of Extended Learning and Outreach, “This award for the online Master of Science in Communication Disorders is one example of the value DELO brings to WKU. Our staff works hard ensuring that colleges, departments and individual faculty receive recognition on state, regional and national levels for the excellent work they do in outreach programming. The WKU Communication Disorders faculty and staff have put in a lot of hard work and they are very deserving of this recognition.”

Recent winners of the ACHE Distinguished Non-Credit Award include Stanford University, the University of Tennessee, the University of Alabama and Penn State University. “Being included in this group shows that WKU is on track for being recognized as a leading American university,” Dr. Swoboda said.

The Association for Continuing Higher Education (ACHE) has members in 45 states, the District of Columbia, and six countries (Canada, Jamaica, Japan, Mexico, Puerto Rico, and United Arab Emirates). There are 1,535 individual members representing more than 458 institutions and organizations dedicated to the promotion of lifelong learning and excellence in continuing higher education. For information on the ACHE, go to www.acheinc.org.

For information about the communication disorders program, contact Dr. Joseph Etienne at (270) 745-8998 or Dr. Barbara Brindle at (270) 745-4299; for more on distance learning opportunities, contact Dr. Don Swoboda at (270) 745-1900 or Beth Laves at (270) 745-1900.

More WKU news is available at www.wku.edu. If you’d like to receive WKU news

For information, contact Bill Oldham at (270) 745-1926.

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