Vol. 5 •Issue 4
• Page 14
A Brief History of the AuD
Several decades of speeches, meetings and journal articles led to the birth of this professional degree.
By Herbert F. McCollom Jr., AuD
Where were you when the AuD was born? This is not a trick question; it requires a good memory, and a long one. The two-year gestation period of an elephant seems but the twinkling of an eye when compared with the time it took to establish a professional doctorate for audiologists who wanted to serve the public.
Professional Vs. Scholarly Doctorates
Back in 1963, at a conference sponsored by the American Speech-Language Hearing Association (ASHA), Bryce L. Crawford, Jr., PhD, the invited keynote speaker, stated that the attendees of the conference should "keep clearly in mind the distinction between professional and scholarly degrees." Dr. Crawford was dean of the Graduate School at the University of Minnesota, and also chairman of the Council of Graduate Schools of the United States.
At this time, doctoral audiology degrees were for instructors and researchers. It was therefore not surprising that the conference attendees voted to strongly oppose "another degree at a level comparable with the PhD, with emphasis on professional training." About 93 percent of conference attendees had research degrees, and about three-fourths were academics.1
Other professions had clear distinctions between the training of professionals and those who chose to teach and engage in research, but this fact did not sway the vote. Though this was how other doctoral professions devised their curricula, in 1963, our professional leaders took another view.
More Education Needed
A decade later, Barry S. Elpern, PhD, acknowledged the rehabilitation help that well-trained audiologists could provide, but commented that "in all too many training centers, course work and facilities germane to auditory rehabilitation are virtually nonexistent."2 He was referring to the fact that the master's degree and the CCC-A were required to serve the public, but that with little exception, master's degree graduates learned little about offering help to the public. When a master's degree candidate sensed the need for further education, he or she was shuttled off into the research goals of the PhD.
"The only logical road to autonomy and independence [for audiology] has been closed to you," continued Dr. Elpern. "To survive, you are destined to be dependent for your livelihood, not on your own image, but rather the image of some university, some hospital, some speech and hearing center, some physician."
As you may imagine, his article caused an uproar. To my shame, I was appalled at the time that he would advocate that audiologists dispense amplification. But four years later, I resigned my job as audiologist/director of a community hearing center as I realized to the core of my being that what he said was true.
Emergence of Private Practitioners
Thus, when in 1977 Dr. Elpern again attacked the educational content of graduate audiologists, he noted, "This format for distributing hearing aids under ASHA-approved guidelines has already accumulated a disturbing list of failuresÉNevertheless, audiologists continue to consider this format probably because their training has left them with no concept of private enterprise, and no confidence in their own ability to provide services on a private basis."3
Dr. Elpern continued by noting that he had looked for some signs that universities were willing to change their training programs, but said there were none. The idea of professional advanced degrees was out there, and though it didn't have a name at this time, the people who founded the Academy of Dispensing Audiologists (ADA), which was chartered that same year, knew of that idea. I joined, and afterwards, opened a private practice in audiology.
Call for a Professional Doctorate
The 1981 presidential address of then ASHA president Alan S. Feldman, PhD, caught the attention and the cheers of audiologists who sought advanced audiology courses for professional practice. He reminded us that it was recognized, and even considered, that a professional doctorate would serve the profession and the public; yet, such a degree was never adopted.
"The doctoral degree we offer, the PhD, is not a clinical degree. It is a research degree," he noted. "There can be no doubt that the academic degree we utilize as an index of clinical competence, the MS or MA, acts as Achilles heel when dealing with other health professions and the public."4
Dr. Feldman gave this address at the conclusion of his term, and it is quite likely that his term was a lot friendlier than it would have been had he presented this address at the beginning of his term, since the majority of ASHA leaders were academics. A separate degree never seemed to enter their thinking at that time.
It is understandable that academicians were concerned that dichotomizing the PhD into separate areas of research and audiological practice would undermine the research PhD. However, it was well known that there was no reported dichotomy in medicine, optometry, or dentistry when the research track was related to, but distinctive from, the professional track. So when the ASHA Saint Paul Conference on Graduate Education was convened in 1983, it reaffirmed the position of the Highland Park Conference of 1963–that the academic PhD was robust enough to serve both the practitioner and the scientist researcher.5
Modern-Day AuD Movement Begins
In October 1988, ADA held a Conference on Professional Education in Chicago to create a professional doctorate degree. This attempt, which came on the heels of one that failed two years before, began the successful movement to establish our doctoring profession.
Twenty-five ADA members came to Chicago to change the course of our profession. Twenty-one were practitioners; four were academics. There were 16 men and nine women. Eleven held master's degrees, and 14 had doctoral degrees.6 To this date, I think of those 25 as if they were the Second Continental Congress, about to establish independence from King George III.
At the conclusion of the 1988 Chicago conference, attendees decided that audiology needed practitioners to plan its educational future. An Education Planning Committee was formed to "conduct an investigational meeting to address the need for and the feasibility of the institution of a professional doctorate." A subcommittee would develop a model curriculum out of the extensive list of audiology functions and procedures developed by practitioners at the conference. This became the AuD model curriculum.6
AuD Chosen as Degree Designator
A series of meetings ensued at the Pittsburgh airport each Saturday for several weeks following the Conference on Professional Education.
At the first Saturday meeting, Leo Doerfler, PhD; David Citron III, PhD; David Cieliczka, MS; George Osborne, PhD; Susan Whichard, MS; David Goldstein, PhD; and Thomas Zachman, PhD, voted on the degree designation. To call the degree "DA" was out, as the public would think "district attorney." Similarly, "AD" was out, as in most universities, the A.D. is the athletic director.
Dr. Goldstein, on advice from Richard Nodar, PhD, suggested "AuD." This made sense to the committee, as it was also the abbreviation for audiology and it provided an acronym that agreed with the abbreviation. It was voted on and passed.7,1 If the birth of the AuD is thought of as a living organism, then Dr. Goldstein was there as the adviser on fertility and conception, and also the obstetrician who assisted in "delivery" of the degree.
Cieliczka, now an AuD degree holder, recalled that there was intense discussion regarding the type of school or setting for the AuD. Committee members unanimously decided that the AuD should be based in a professional school, as opposed to a school of communication, liberal arts, education or some other PhD track or academic/research type program. Two schools uphold the original intent of the committee—the Arizona School of Health Sciences and the Philadelphia College of Optometry.8
The arrival of the AuD was greeted with more scorn than cheers, as traditional hearing instrument specialists and physicians sensed turf wars, while university speech and hearing programs realized that this degree signaled the demise of the master's degree program.
AuD Promoted to Audiologists
The idea of the professional doctorate grew. Dr. Goldstein introduced the AuD concept to audiologists in Asha magazine. His article generated a large amount of letters to the editor supporting the concept. Letters also poured into Purdue University, supporting that school's efforts to launch an AuD program.8
E.S. Wintercorn, PhD, expressed the views of the audiologist practitioner in a letter to Dr. Goldstein. "As you may know, the Department of Veterans' Affairs is the largest single employer of audiologists and a major supporter of graduate education. A task force recently gathered to address needs for audiologists and speech pathologists in the VA concurred that graduates of master's degree programs are not prepared to handle the expanded scope of practice required in VA medical centers,"9 wrote Dr. Wintercorn, the chief of Audiology and Speech Pathology Service for the Veterans Administration Center, in Washington, DC.
She also noted that the research track of the traditional doctorate did not appeal to those who wished to be audiology practitioners, and that the typical doctorate curriculum does not address the needs of that audiologist.
Thirteen years have passed since Dr. Wintercorn wrote that letter. Those years have been filled with increasing support for the AuD so that organizations that formerly opposed the program are now looking at ways to implement it.
There are still problems, which you may expect from any child that becomes 13. The whole story would require a book, and the tale would involve heroism and treachery, defiance and retreat, calumny and epiphany. I hope that it is written someday.
References
1. Goldstein, D.P. (2002). Personal communication.
2. Elpern, B.S. (1973). The dispensing of hearing aids by audiologists. Hearing Instruments.
3. Elpern, B.S. (1977). The dispensing audiologist. Hearing Aid Journal.
4. Feldman, A.S. (1981). The challenge of autonomy. Asha.
5. Graduate education in speech pathology and audiology. (1963). Proceedings of Highland Park Conference on Graduate Education, Asha.
6. ADA Conference on Professional Education. (1988). Conference proceedings.
7. Cieliczka, D. (2002). Personal communication.
8. Goldstein, D.P. (1989). AuD degree: The doctoring degree in audiology. Asha, 31: 33-35.
9. Goldstein, D.P, Binnie, C.A. (1990). The doctor of audiology degree and professional education. Audiology Foundation of America.
Herbert McCollom, Jr., AuD, is retired from his practice, Hearing Services of Lancaster. He can be reached at 1040 Sherry Ln., Lancaster, PA 17601; (717) 898-1660.
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