Hello again,
I promise you all this is it from me for today. I appreciate the opportunity to discuss this with all of you on the listserv. For those of you who have taken the time to
read my tomes thank you! Brevity is not my strong suit which is why I ended up in academia.
Personally, the thought of yet again having another ALC meeting where we rehash this old debate makes me want to drink. I see this fight between AOTA and ACOTE to be futile
and it will be devastating to us publically as the rest of the health care world watches us spend our limited time and energy fighting over this with zero chance of changing the outcome. I appreciate the repeated comments from the Board regarding the qualifications
and view of their legal counsel. I naturally assumed the Board obtained and trusted their advice on this matter as it would be reckless otherwise. If this situation was that black and white though this would not be a conversation we would be having and ACOTE’s
legal counsel, who is not new to the accreditation world either, disagrees with AOTA’s legal counsel. Imagine that, legal experts who don’t agree on the interpretation of federal code and governance documents?? The only way to prove the conviction of
the AOTA legal counsel will be through legal action and/or USDE involvement. The AOTA board might think this is the best thing for the profession. I however don’t and our group has been presented with nothing from AOTA legal counsel to justify this action.
So with all of this in mind, there is only one thing that is 100% clear in this chaos that has been created………ACOTE holds recognition as our accrediting body not AOTA. Until
we hear differently from ACOTE or USDE it would be negligent for us to not follow the mandates and accreditation requirements as stated by ACOTE.
All of that aside, I again agree with Gavin…..
I have been participating in these conversations, personally and as part of my volunteer roles in AOTA, since 2004. We in the ALC have had intense debate about this time and
time again. The plane has left the airport, the train has left the station, you can’t put the genie back in the bottle, can’t unring the bell…….programs are transitioning. As part of ACOTE’s data gathering they surveyed PDs ahead of issuing the mandate.
Close to 80% (I believe—don’t have exact number but it was in this ballpark) of us responded we were already making plans to transition…this was before the mandate was issued.
Whether we all agree with it or not, I have gotten this impression from this group that the vast majority of us see it as an inevitability we are preparing for or at the very least not a decision we are willing to drag the profession through a legal battle
to fight.
We as the academic community can control the outcome of this situation we have now been put in by the AOTA board.
111 programs are already OTD entry or are actively in the process. Another 38 have begun working with ACOTE to submit materials. The rest of us have at least had the conversation.
If as a group we can develop a collective statement like Gavin mentioned saying we are committed to moving towards OTD entry it renders this entire fight useless and perhaps we save ourselves from dealing with the fallout as a profession of the senseless
fighting between AOTA and ACOTE.
Gavin, I support the development of a statement like you purposed. Let me know how I can help.
Best wishes all
Tim
Timothy J. Wolf, OTD, PhD, OTR/L, FAOTA
Associate Professor and Chair
Department of Occupational Therapy
University of Missouri
810 Clark Hall
Columbia, MO 65211
573-882-8403
From: ot-pd@aotalists.org [mailto:ot-pd@aotalists.org]
Sent: Saturday, August 11, 2018 8:16 AM
To: ot-pd@aotalists.org
Subject: Re: [OT-PD List - AOTA] - A Message from AOTA Board of Directors on the OTD and OTA Mandates
I would like to comment as a department chair/program director that I find this whole process troubling and am shocked to witness this. Within two days two bodies release opposing
statements that certainly leaves this particular program director in the middle confused, frustrated and at a loss. For the past year I have redirected and invested the time and effort of four of my faculty to facilitate a process to work to the transition
of our MSOT to an OTD, acting in absolute good faith based on the mandates coming down from our accrediting agency. This is a considerable redirection of resources and time as we all know. Whether I agreed with the mandate personally or not I knew that we
had no choice based on the information given to me and so we moved forward. Looking at AOTAs website it would seem that 85 programs nationally have made similar investments of time and money to position themselves, in good faith, for this transition.
To now see this back and forth between AOTA and ACOTE is distressing and disrespectful in my opinion and now we have this ongoing conversation on the PD listserv with a board member
that seems to be a little bit of a “he said, she said”.
This decision does impact the profession as a whole but this morning I am feeling that it is directly impacting the people on this listserv. I believe as a group we need to have
a conversation to determine if we, as the people who have to design and deliver the education programs, the people for whom this is our charge, now feel that this is a mute point and that we are resigned or committed to this move anyway.
I think we need to listen to each other and get to the real issues that programs were facing with this move. I heard a lot of conversation on social media, some of which I thought
was not entirely based in fact but every so often I heard passing comments about the real challenge being faced by individual programs – in the past few days it was about a programs charter that would not allow this - we need to know that information, not
the rhetoric. Then we can work and help each other to overcome these challenges and ensure that all our programs remain successful.
I think this is critical because what I have never heard is anyone disagreeing to the statement that it will happen eventually and we are the group that has to deliver the product
that our students want to buy.
I believe this conversation is too far advanced, the train has left the station, I already have applicants constantly asking me if they should choose an OTD or an MSOT program,
this conversation is already impacting the decision making of the next generation of students. If the 85 programs continue on their path this conversation becomes irrelevant as applicants will dictate with their feet and the programs they choose. Once there
are a critical mass of programs offering OTDs and if we can create programs that address diversity, cost etc. then the infighting of ACOTE and AOTA becomes slightly irrelevant, in my opinion. If I was an applicant today I would be choosing an OTD, especially
based on what we know about this generation of centennials and their worldview.
We now need to have an inclusive conversation and decide how we as program directors want to respond to this. We need a platform for conversation that allows for open, candid dialogue.
My gut feeling is that one way to stop this mess is for us to come together and make a collective statement from those who truly have a major stake in this discussion that we are now committed to moving to the OTD but with the additional statement that we
are also committed to finding a way to support every program to make that move in a
timeline that works for them.
Gavin Jenkins
University of Alabama at Birmingham