Following is an article featured in today's Chattanooga Times-Freepress Metro section.  Again, we are proud of the maturity and professionalism demonstrated by our students during their meeting with the Provost.  


Shannon Marie Smith
Principal Secretary
Occupational Therapy
1 West Unum- Provident Bldg.
PH:  (423) 425-2357
FAX: (423) 425-2380

UTC students back occupational therapy program
By Dorie Turner Staff Writer 

If UTC's occupational therapy program is phased out, junior Tonya Gill said, she will leave the university.
   "I refuse to change my major because occupational therapy is something I really want to do," the 20-year-old Humboldt, Tenn., resident said at a meeting Tuesday with administrators about a proposal to cancel the program. "I came to UTC because of this program."
   Ms. Gill is one of several University of Tennessee at Chattanooga students with plans to apply to the occupational therapy program this fall after completing general core classes. Administrators said they are considering phasing out the program because of increasing operating costs.
   Under the phase-out, no new students would be accepted to the program, but current students would be allowed to complete their degrees, administrators said.
   UTC Provost John Friedl said new accreditation standards from the American Occupational Therapy Association require UTC's undergraduate program to transition into a master's degree program within two years. That means doubling the program's $250,000 budget and adding at least two faculty members with doctoral degrees in occupational therapy, he said.
   "I simply don't have the money to do that," Dr. Friedl said.
   Dr. Friedl met with about 40 current and potential occupational therapy students, the program's three faculty members and other administrators to discuss the proposal.
   "I'm concerned that cutting a high-quality program like occupational therapy will have a negative effect on this university," Dr. Friedl said.
   Students enrolled in the program expressed their concerns about the community's need for occupational therapists. Students have jobs lined up months before graduation, they said.
   The number of jobs for occupational therapists is projected to increase up to 35 percent by 2010, according to 2002-03 data from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics.
   Mary Jett, a UTC student who has applied to the program for the fall, told Dr. Friedl she is "devastated" by the proposal because she and her husband are settled in Chattanooga and have no plans to move to another city for her to complete her occupational therapy degree.
   "I came here from Cincinnati. If this program closes down, what will I do?" Mrs. Jett said. "I could do special education, but occupational therapy is where my heart is."
   Lanny Janeksela, dean of the UTC College of Health and Human Services, told students he and the occupational therapy staff are working on a plan that includes several options for dealing with budget problems without actually shutting down the program.
   Ashley Wright, an occupational therapist with Health-South, said UTC is one of the main places the hospital recruits occupational therapists. If the program closes down, local hospitals will have to spend more money recruiting therapists from out of town, she said.
   "It is a devastation for the folks who have wanted to be an occupational therapist their whole life and stayed in school and now they're being told they have to go somewhere else," Mrs. Wright said.
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