Opinion ID: 569324
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: The Special Education Program

Text: 3 In the wake of the sweeping Education Reform Bill passed by the Texas Legislature in 1984, and as part of an effort to define a general mission for each public college and university in the State, two separate committees--the Teacher Education Review Committee (TERC), appointed by UTD's Vice President for Academic Affairs, Dr. Alexander Clark, and the Ad Hoc Committee, appointed by Dean Thomas Tighe of the School of Human Development--were established to conduct a comprehensive review of UTD's teacher education and certification programs. In March 1985, the Ad Hoc Committee recommended to Dean Tighe that all Special Education programs, except those recently discontinued by the State of Texas, be continued. One month later, TERC made the opposite recommendation to Vice President Clark: 4 Abolish the Program in Special Education if no substantive and conclusive evidence is provided that a significant reversal will occur in the declining enrollment patterns, and the programs can immediately become financially self-sustaining. This abolition would eliminate the degrees of [Bachelor of Science and Master of Science.] It would also eliminate the faculty positions not required to sustain the doctoral program in Human Development and Communication Science. 5 Dean Tighe and Professor George Fair, Director of the Special Education program, objected to the data relied upon and the recommendation advanced by TERC in separate memoranda to Vice President Clark. 6 After receiving these comments, Vice President Clark appointed yet another committee, the Council on Teacher Education Subcommittee, to study the issue. Its report, issued in February 1987, recommended that all undergraduate teacher education programs be eliminated, and ranked in order of priority the twenty-two graduate programs in teacher certification that it thought should be maintained. Programs in Special Education ranked eight, ten, eleven, twenty-one, and twenty-two. Dean Tighe, writing on behalf of the School of Human Development, agreed with a number of the CTE Subcommittee's recommendations, but took strong exception to the low priority given several of the Special Education programs. 7 Vice President Clark circulated the CTE Subcommittee report to the appropriate deans, who were charged with consulting with appropriate members of their respective faculties, and then met individually with the deans involved with teacher education programs. In June 1987, Vice President Clark recommended to UTD's President, Robert H. Rutford, that UTD eliminate its undergradu[a]te and graduate degree programs in Special Education, effective August 31, 1989. President Rutford agreed. On July 15, 1987, President Rutford wrote to the affected faculty members, informing them that, due to declining enrollments and insufficient research support, the Special Education programs were to be phased out and that their positions would be terminated as of May 31, 1989.