Clarification of the recent media reports about the elimination of CSD

For those who may be interested in the recent announcements about the MSU budget cuts. The Department of CSD will be eliminated over the next few years. Eventually, what remains of CSD will be absorbed into the Department of Communications The undergraduate degree program will not accept new students beginning in January 2010. The MA program will continue, at least as of this round of budget cuts; that is what we have been told. The decision to eliminate the department was made by the college administration and by the University's Provost, Dr. Kim Wilcox (a CSD faculty member and an ASHA Fellow, BTW). CSD facutly had virtually no input into the decision. It is not clear how this decision would save the university any funds, or with the loss of the undergraduate tuition, it may actually lose revenue. We were told that the decision to elminate the undergraduate program is because of the drastic decline in state funding to the univeristy, and an attempt to increase graduate enrollment at the institution.

There are 300 undergraduate students and ~62 graduate students who are currently enrolled. It is noteworthy that CSD has:
- the highest overall GPA in the college;
-the highest number of majors in the honor's college in CAS;
-the lowest number of students on academic probation in the college;
-the highest number of graduate school placement in the college;
-the highest employment rate for our MA graduates (100%) in the college;
-the largest student group in the college (NSSLHA membership = 130);
-each graduate class contributes over 16000 hours of clinical service to the community;
-the longest running study abroad program in communicative disorders in the USA;
-a program where over 95% of the graduate students have an international health care experience;
-a 97% pass rate on the national exam (Praxis).