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The Colosseum. The Taj Mahal. The Louvre. The Empire State Building. These are buildings from all over the world that draw attention to themselves, attracting people with their sheer impressiveness and reputation.
Although it may not be on the same scale as those landmarks, the Barkley Memorial Center at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln (UNL) in Lincoln, NE, now fosters a similar attraction, at least for audiology students, according to T. Newell Decker, PhD, professor of audiology and chair, graduate faculty.
UNL just completed a two-year expansion on the building, adding 9,300 square feet and updating the audiology space, which hadn't been modified since it was designed back in 1975. Now, the program houses a modernized hearing aid dispensary, improved clinical areas and offices and a new vestibular lab, as well as a new office area for graduate students.
"It is often the case that Audiology is the smaller program in terms of both students and space in most programs in Communication Disorders." Dr. Decker says. "I've been here for 33 years and our space was as it was when I came and never expanded, even though the faculty and the student body expanded, so we were stumbling over one another. I think our building is now a big draw for students when they come and visit.
"Audiology curriculum is pretty much the same everywhere, and so the question is 'How do you stand apart?'" he continues. "As I go around the country and look at other programs, they are often times housed in older buildings. This remodel project gives us a state-of-the-art facility. I think that's going to make a difference with students, particularly students who visit multiple schools. When they come here, see the facility, see what we've got, oftentimes, it's the deal maker."
Boys Town Connection
Of course, an impressive building isn't all UNL's program has to offer. The program also has a working relationship with the Boys Town National Research Hospital in Omaha, NE, which is renowned for its work in pediatric audiology.
"When we conceived this notion of having an AuD, we realized we weren't going to get any more University resources and so we needed to find a partner," Dr. Decker says. "Our students had gone to Boys Town for practicum when we had a master's program, so we asked them if they'd be interested in teaching for us and allowing our students access to their labs. They agreed to do that and we've forged a solid relationship, which appeals to many of our students."
Boys Town also offers two or three research assistant stipends and, although UNL has a diverse full-time faculty of six professors, several PhDs from Boys Town also teach
classes at UNL, lending real-world, clinical experience along with several other adjuncts.
"Even though students recognize that certification is sort of a universal type of thing in terms of curriculum, they do come to programs with special interests, and they like to be able to attach themselves to somebody who knows about those special interest areas," says Dr. Decker. "We have all the areas covered with our full-time faculty-rehab, hearing aids, basic sciences, electrophysiology, balance, acoustics, and so forth. Our contacts at Boys Town only strengthen this aspect of our program."
Pre-Program Boot Camp
UNL's AuD program also runs an orientation program for first-years called the Audiology "Boot Camp." The camp allows incoming students and faculty to get to know each other in an informal environment, while familiarizing students with the profession as well as the program's procedures and policies.
"What we do is bring all the new admits onto the campus the first week before classes, and they spend that whole week involved in learning about the equipment in the building and the program," Dr. Decker says. "We go through our AuD manual, they get some hands-on experience and learn the clinical ins and outs in terms of the routines and billings so that when school actually starts, they're ready to get into the actual clinical process."
Dr. Decker admits UNL's boot camp isn't a novel idea--he credits University of Iowa's program for the idea--but just because it's not original doesn't mean it's not useful. Dr. Decker says both faculty and students have responded positively to the boot camp over the last three summers, especially because it allows the students to hit the ground running once school starts. "The biggest difference is we don't spend as much time with those little details in the first semester with the students," he says. "We get it all done up front, which allows us to move on to bigger and better things."
Program Basics
UNL's 105-credit AuD program admitted its first class in 2003 and currently has about 25 students. However, the recent expansion will allow the program to take in more students each year (eight to nine, as opposed to six to seven).
According to Dr. Decker, UNL has always been very well equipped with state-of-the-art equipment, and the expansion is just now exploiting UNL's resources to their full potential. For instance, even though UNL had all the equipment required for a balance clinic, the program had nowhere to set it up. Now, with more space, Dr. Decker says they've "taken the equipment out of hiding" and anticipate not only a fully functional balance clinic, but also a part-time physical therapist to do balance rehab and so forth. "The expansion is allowing us to add these extra dimensions we weren't able to before," he says.
As with most institutions, UNL employs a stepped clinical rotation--students stay close to home in year one, get increasing off-campus experience in their second and third years and then move on to a full-time externship somewhere in the country during their fourth year.
The program also offers a combined AuD/PhD program that takes about six years. Dr. Decker believes such combined programs are important to entice students with some PhD interests to continue on in their education and thus keep hope alive for future scientific work in the discipline.
"Students gravitate to the AuD programs because they don't want to do research, they want to be clinicians, and that's all well and good except it leaves a big hole for advancing your science," he says. "I think we have to do things as a profession to attract students into PhD programs and that is one way to do it--to get them hooked as clinicians and then say if you're interested in research, if you're interested in discovery and teaching in a higher education, here's the route to it and it's only two more years."
UNL and Lincoln
UNL is actually just one part of the University of Nebraska (UN), which is split up into four campuses-besides UNL, there's the medical center in Omaha, the University of Nebraska at Omaha and the University of Nebraska at Kearney. UNL is the flagship campus with an enrollment of roughly 22,000 students and a history that dates back to 1896. It is well known as a land-grant, Carnegie Research institution, is the birthplace of the ecology discipline, and was the first university in the American West to grant a PhD degree.
Being in Nebraska's capital gives students the bustling city atmosphere, but the nature of the West also means there's plenty of great outdoor green space. According to the UNL Web site, Lincoln has the most city park land (200 acres) per capita in the United States, with 10 lakes and over 98 miles of bike paths and trails. Furthermore, the city is ranked among the top 25 cities in the nation for affordable housing, and the cost of living in Lincoln hovers around 10 percent below the national average.
"Our draw is largely from the states that surround us, as you might expect," Dr. Decker says. "Most of these kids are Midwest type kids, Great Plains type kids and, you know, I think they and their parents have certain feelings about going to big cities. Even though Lincoln is a city of about 250,000 now, I still think, with all of the recreational opportunities, the fact that it's a state capital, and that it is safe and affordable, I think that combines to be a big draw for students and parents."
Frank Visco is assistant editor of ADVANCE for Audiologists. Contact him at fvisco@advanceweb.com.
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