The Department of Communicative Sciences and Disorders at Michigan State University is home to a nationally and internationally prominent, vibrant group of students, faculty and staff. The recommendation to close the department would result in the loss of exceptionally well- prepared undergraduate students, most of whom will earn graduate degrees, and then go on to be employed in good-paying, professional positions in the public schools, hospitals, long term care and private practices. The elimination of the undergraduate program in Communicative Sciences and Disorders will not only effect the nearly 300 undergraduate students, it will have an effect on the whole spectrum of persons with communicative disorders across the entire age continuum, from infancy to aging. The facts are: There are 43 million people in the US with communication impairments; Communication impairments affect the most vulnerable in our society - the young, the aged, the poor, and the disabled. By all indications, trends, and rating systems there is a dire state and national need for speech-language pathologists and audiologists. Graduates get good, well-paying, rewarding, contributing, tax-paying, professional positions. The employment rate is virtually 100%+, given that most graduates have a choice of positions; and many, many positions continue to go unfilled. These undergraduate students have: - the highest overall GPA in the college; -the highest number of majors in the honor's college in CAS; -the lowest number of students on academic probation in the college; -the highest number of graduate school placement in the college; -the highest employment rate for MA graduates (100%) in the college; -the largest student group in the college (NSSLHA membership = 180); -each graduate class contributes over 16000 hours of clinical service to the community; -the longest running study abroad program in communicative disorders in the USA; -a program where over 95% of the graduate students have an international health care experience; -a 97% pass rate on the national exam (Praxis). As a discipline that contributes to the fundamental aspect the quality of human life and the human condition, the loss of the undergraduate program of Department of Communicative Sciences and Disorders would be a disservice to the university community, to the state of Michigan, and to our international constituencies. I oppose the recommendation to close this program.

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