Interview with Ross Roeser Ph.D., University of Texas at Dallas/Callier Center for Communication Disorders
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AO/Beck: Hi Dr Roeser. It is wonderful to catch up with you. I have been looking forward to speaking with you for some time.
Roeser: Hi Doug, it's great to spend time with you too.
AO/Beck: Why don't we start with a little information on you. Where did you go to school and how long have you been at Callier?
Roeser: I received a Master's degree from Northern Illinois University, in De Kalb, in 1967. Following that, I practiced audiology from 1967 through 1969 in southern Illinois. I knew Bob Goldstein at CID back then. He was doing work in auditory evoked potentials, and Lloyd Price and I collaborated with he and David Shepard at Jewish Hospital in St. Louis. It was quite an exciting time and place. Then I went to Florida State in 1969 for doctoral work, and then to Dallas in 1971 to finish my doctoral dissertation. I've been here ever since, so I am just completing my 30th year in Dallas at the Callier Center for Communication Disorders next month.
AO/Beck: That's wonderful. It's becoming more and more unusual to meet people who've spent 30 years anywhere in the same position! I know most audiologists are familiar with your work, and your horseback riding ability, such as on the stage at the AAA opening ceremony, but I think probably less people are familiar with the new Au.D. program at the University of Texas at Dallas/Callier Center. What is your position and title at Callier?
Roeser: Let's not talk about the horseback riding! I am a full professor in the School of Human Development in the Communication Disorders and Sciences Program at the University of Texas at Dallas. I am also the Director of The UTD/Callier Center, which is located about 20 miles south of the UTD campus. In my role as Callier director, I am responsible for the physical facility, fiscal viability and the operations of the Callier Center. Callier has some 80 to 90 professional faculty and staff. We have clinical programs in audiology, speech-language pathology and psychology, as well as educational programs for pre-school children with hearing and hearing loss. Last year we logged over 70,000 patient visits. As a university we have undergraduate and graduate programs, as well as extensive research programs.
AO/Beck: I know the faculty at Callier is simply outstanding. Can you spend a few moments reviewing the audiology faculty for the readers?
Roeser: We are very fortunate to have a number of prominent clinician/scientists representing a broad range of disciplines as Doctoral teaching faculty for the Au.D. program. Included are: Peter Assmann, Jackie Clark, Carol Cokely, George Gerken, Jim Jerger, Susan Jerger, Bill Katz, Michael Kilgard, Carolyn Musket, Angela Shoup, Linda Thibodeau, Tres Thompson, Emily Tobey, Lee Wilson. In addition, we have supervising clinical faculty including: Jennifer Basham, Jackie Campbell, Sara Ferguson, Elizabeth Gill, Judy DeMorest, Beth Dorsey, Jennifer Holcolmb, Brisy Northrup, and Anne Rasmussen. Of course, I also teach in the program.
AO/Beck: I understand the new Au.D. program opens this fall? Is the new program residential, distance -based or both?
Roeser: We have accepted 10 first year students, and 6 of our current Master's students will continue as second year Au.D. students. Our program is residential only. We started working on the program about 4-5 years ago and, as others have learned, it takes a significant amount of work to go through the extensive process. A thumbnail review of the process is that we had to complete a very lengthy application that described the rationale for the new degree, the courses with a complete description, the faculty and the costs. The application itself took about 9 months to complete and involved about 5-6 faculty. Then, the entire faculty, about 35 individuals in our School, has to review and approve the application. Then it goes to a committee in the University, the Provost's office and then the President's office. Once it has passed through the local university, the application is sent to the University of Texas Coordinating Board Office in It is reviewed thoroughly by the staff and there are many, many questions, which required several visits to Austin. Was the rationale valid? Were the cost projections accurate? Did we have the necessary facilities and faculty? Once we got through the application process, a formal site visit was scheduled with internal and external reviewers. The site visit was a 2-day day event and included Drs. Jerry Church from Central Michigan and Alice Holmes from The University of Florida. Finally, the application went to the U.T Coordinating Board on two separate occasions for review. We received final approval in January of this year.
AO/Beck: I've often thought that they should give out awards for just getting through the approval process. It really is quite amazing how these things get done and the amount of work behind the scenes. When did the first students start applying and what is the future projected enrollment?
Roeser: As I mentioned earlier, the first class of 10 students has now been accepted and we are projecting an ongoing first year class size of about the same size, meaning that in 4 years we should have between 35-40 students total. Our current master's students were offered join the Au.D. program and 6 of the 8 applied and were accepted. Since our master's degree is in communication disorders, and currently includes both audiology and speech-language pathology students, so we will keep the degree. However, now that we have the Au.D. degree for audiologists, we will no longer accept audiology students into the master's program.
AO/Beck: Can you tell me anything about the possibilities relating to matching programs for the Au.D. students? I have had some very interesting discussions with other program directors who have described the potential for an off campus matching program, similar to the way medical schools design their residential programs and psychology has for interns.
Roeser: As a matter of fact, a group of us met at the AAA headquarters last week and outlined the basic principles for the Audiology Matching Program (AMP). The idea is that when students are in their third year, they would complete a questionnaire/application describing their areas of interest, possibly their preferred geographical locations, the type of practice they want to participate in. Participating externship sites across the country, and perhaps the world, would also complete an application listing their resources, patient populations and other factors for 4th year students. Bascially, the questionnaire/application would go to a central location, the data would be entered into a computer, and then matches would occur. Of course, the committee, tentatively named the Council of Audiology Matching Programs (CAMP), is still developing this program, and many of the Au.D. pograms and the directors will be involved. The AMP is targeted to begin this fall, and I hope we'll be able to make some solid announcements on this very soon.
AO/Beck: I think the matching program is really a wonderful idea. It certainly benefits the students and helps them prepare for the type of practice they are most interested in, and it allows them a broader clinical perspective and experience. How many Au.D. programs do you think we need across the USA?
Roeser: I really hadn't thought about the number of programs we need. For sure, we need significantly fewer Au.D. programs than we currently have master's audiology programs. The real issue is QUALITY. Programs must have the resources, including faculty and patient populations, in order to give students the broad-based teaching and clinical experiences that are need for quality training. Programs need a multidisciplinary faculty representing a wide range of disciplines necessary for in-depth exposure to clinical and basic areas. I think the ideal situation would be larger programs, with lots of students, faculty, patients and resources. Programs having these attributes will be the high quality programs. If we go back and look at the number of master's degree programs a few years ago, there were too many with limited resources. I don't really have an ideal number in mind, but I think we want to be cautious and we want to learn some lessons from the past.
AO/Beck: What can you tell me about the current program and practicum experience your students can anticipate?
Roeser: The UTD/Callier Center clinical program, including speech language pathology, totaled about 70,000 patient visits last year. As you can imagine, those visits were not just audiology visits, but we had a huge number of patients coming through the program, providing an opportunity for student and patient contact. We are building a new 24,000 square foot clinical facility in North Dallas on the main UTD campus. The ground-breaking will be in November, 2001 and I anticipate it'll open in 2003. This will provide a very significant opportunity for us to expand our clinical programs.
AO/Beck: What about the new students? Can you tell me about the academic caliber of the students coming into your program?
Roeser: We were very pleased with our applicant pool. Overall, we had about 40 applicants, many with outstanding GRE scores and undergraduate grade point averages. All of the students we accepted had GRE scores over 1100 and
AO/Beck: Before I let you go, would you please give me the website address and the phone numbers for people interested in learning more about the Callier Center and the new Au.D. program?
Roeser: My email address is roeser@callier.utdallas.edu. Interested students can call 214 905 3116. Our website address is https://www.utdallas.edu/dept/hd/cc.
AO/Beck: Thanks very much for your time today. I think your new program sounds excellent and I will look forward to learning more about.
Roeser: Thank you too Doug. It's been a lot of fun.
Roeser: Hi Doug, it's great to spend time with you too.
AO/Beck: Why don't we start with a little information on you. Where did you go to school and how long have you been at Callier?
Roeser: I received a Master's degree from Northern Illinois University, in De Kalb, in 1967. Following that, I practiced audiology from 1967 through 1969 in southern Illinois. I knew Bob Goldstein at CID back then. He was doing work in auditory evoked potentials, and Lloyd Price and I collaborated with he and David Shepard at Jewish Hospital in St. Louis. It was quite an exciting time and place. Then I went to Florida State in 1969 for doctoral work, and then to Dallas in 1971 to finish my doctoral dissertation. I've been here ever since, so I am just completing my 30th year in Dallas at the Callier Center for Communication Disorders next month.
AO/Beck: That's wonderful. It's becoming more and more unusual to meet people who've spent 30 years anywhere in the same position! I know most audiologists are familiar with your work, and your horseback riding ability, such as on the stage at the AAA opening ceremony, but I think probably less people are familiar with the new Au.D. program at the University of Texas at Dallas/Callier Center. What is your position and title at Callier?
Roeser: Let's not talk about the horseback riding! I am a full professor in the School of Human Development in the Communication Disorders and Sciences Program at the University of Texas at Dallas. I am also the Director of The UTD/Callier Center, which is located about 20 miles south of the UTD campus. In my role as Callier director, I am responsible for the physical facility, fiscal viability and the operations of the Callier Center. Callier has some 80 to 90 professional faculty and staff. We have clinical programs in audiology, speech-language pathology and psychology, as well as educational programs for pre-school children with hearing and hearing loss. Last year we logged over 70,000 patient visits. As a university we have undergraduate and graduate programs, as well as extensive research programs.
AO/Beck: I know the faculty at Callier is simply outstanding. Can you spend a few moments reviewing the audiology faculty for the readers?
Roeser: We are very fortunate to have a number of prominent clinician/scientists representing a broad range of disciplines as Doctoral teaching faculty for the Au.D. program. Included are: Peter Assmann, Jackie Clark, Carol Cokely, George Gerken, Jim Jerger, Susan Jerger, Bill Katz, Michael Kilgard, Carolyn Musket, Angela Shoup, Linda Thibodeau, Tres Thompson, Emily Tobey, Lee Wilson. In addition, we have supervising clinical faculty including: Jennifer Basham, Jackie Campbell, Sara Ferguson, Elizabeth Gill, Judy DeMorest, Beth Dorsey, Jennifer Holcolmb, Brisy Northrup, and Anne Rasmussen. Of course, I also teach in the program.
AO/Beck: I understand the new Au.D. program opens this fall? Is the new program residential, distance -based or both?
Roeser: We have accepted 10 first year students, and 6 of our current Master's students will continue as second year Au.D. students. Our program is residential only. We started working on the program about 4-5 years ago and, as others have learned, it takes a significant amount of work to go through the extensive process. A thumbnail review of the process is that we had to complete a very lengthy application that described the rationale for the new degree, the courses with a complete description, the faculty and the costs. The application itself took about 9 months to complete and involved about 5-6 faculty. Then, the entire faculty, about 35 individuals in our School, has to review and approve the application. Then it goes to a committee in the University, the Provost's office and then the President's office. Once it has passed through the local university, the application is sent to the University of Texas Coordinating Board Office in It is reviewed thoroughly by the staff and there are many, many questions, which required several visits to Austin. Was the rationale valid? Were the cost projections accurate? Did we have the necessary facilities and faculty? Once we got through the application process, a formal site visit was scheduled with internal and external reviewers. The site visit was a 2-day day event and included Drs. Jerry Church from Central Michigan and Alice Holmes from The University of Florida. Finally, the application went to the U.T Coordinating Board on two separate occasions for review. We received final approval in January of this year.
AO/Beck: I've often thought that they should give out awards for just getting through the approval process. It really is quite amazing how these things get done and the amount of work behind the scenes. When did the first students start applying and what is the future projected enrollment?
Roeser: As I mentioned earlier, the first class of 10 students has now been accepted and we are projecting an ongoing first year class size of about the same size, meaning that in 4 years we should have between 35-40 students total. Our current master's students were offered join the Au.D. program and 6 of the 8 applied and were accepted. Since our master's degree is in communication disorders, and currently includes both audiology and speech-language pathology students, so we will keep the degree. However, now that we have the Au.D. degree for audiologists, we will no longer accept audiology students into the master's program.
AO/Beck: Can you tell me anything about the possibilities relating to matching programs for the Au.D. students? I have had some very interesting discussions with other program directors who have described the potential for an off campus matching program, similar to the way medical schools design their residential programs and psychology has for interns.
Roeser: As a matter of fact, a group of us met at the AAA headquarters last week and outlined the basic principles for the Audiology Matching Program (AMP). The idea is that when students are in their third year, they would complete a questionnaire/application describing their areas of interest, possibly their preferred geographical locations, the type of practice they want to participate in. Participating externship sites across the country, and perhaps the world, would also complete an application listing their resources, patient populations and other factors for 4th year students. Bascially, the questionnaire/application would go to a central location, the data would be entered into a computer, and then matches would occur. Of course, the committee, tentatively named the Council of Audiology Matching Programs (CAMP), is still developing this program, and many of the Au.D. pograms and the directors will be involved. The AMP is targeted to begin this fall, and I hope we'll be able to make some solid announcements on this very soon.
AO/Beck: I think the matching program is really a wonderful idea. It certainly benefits the students and helps them prepare for the type of practice they are most interested in, and it allows them a broader clinical perspective and experience. How many Au.D. programs do you think we need across the USA?
Roeser: I really hadn't thought about the number of programs we need. For sure, we need significantly fewer Au.D. programs than we currently have master's audiology programs. The real issue is QUALITY. Programs must have the resources, including faculty and patient populations, in order to give students the broad-based teaching and clinical experiences that are need for quality training. Programs need a multidisciplinary faculty representing a wide range of disciplines necessary for in-depth exposure to clinical and basic areas. I think the ideal situation would be larger programs, with lots of students, faculty, patients and resources. Programs having these attributes will be the high quality programs. If we go back and look at the number of master's degree programs a few years ago, there were too many with limited resources. I don't really have an ideal number in mind, but I think we want to be cautious and we want to learn some lessons from the past.
AO/Beck: What can you tell me about the current program and practicum experience your students can anticipate?
Roeser: The UTD/Callier Center clinical program, including speech language pathology, totaled about 70,000 patient visits last year. As you can imagine, those visits were not just audiology visits, but we had a huge number of patients coming through the program, providing an opportunity for student and patient contact. We are building a new 24,000 square foot clinical facility in North Dallas on the main UTD campus. The ground-breaking will be in November, 2001 and I anticipate it'll open in 2003. This will provide a very significant opportunity for us to expand our clinical programs.
AO/Beck: What about the new students? Can you tell me about the academic caliber of the students coming into your program?
Roeser: We were very pleased with our applicant pool. Overall, we had about 40 applicants, many with outstanding GRE scores and undergraduate grade point averages. All of the students we accepted had GRE scores over 1100 and
AO/Beck: Before I let you go, would you please give me the website address and the phone numbers for people interested in learning more about the Callier Center and the new Au.D. program?
Roeser: My email address is roeser@callier.utdallas.edu. Interested students can call 214 905 3116. Our website address is https://www.utdallas.edu/dept/hd/cc.
AO/Beck: Thanks very much for your time today. I think your new program sounds excellent and I will look forward to learning more about.
Roeser: Thank you too Doug. It's been a lot of fun.
