Just what is happening with RT faculty? I observed a lack of participation of RT educators in the ATRA name change issue. We are down to a handful of universities with Ph.D. programs in RT. Very little seems to have resulted from the summer educators’ conference. ATRA has indicated it won’t be sending anyone to the Allied Health Educators Summit this summer in Chicago. What has happened to the ATRA educators’ list serve that permitted regular communications among faculty?
Where is the leadership from university faculty that was so prominent in the 1970s when RT was attempting to establish itself as a profession? Faculty then were willing to “go the extra mile” for their profession. For example, I can recall that when our national organization didn’t have the financial resources to send a representative to a meeting that a faculty member would get his or her university to pay the expenses or would personally assume the expenses.
Faculty involvement seemed to have begun to decline soon after the Post-Doctorate Institutes for faculty held in the mid-1980s. In fact, it is my view that faculty have not taken any substantial leadership within our profession for a number of years.
The most evident example is that faculty have not stepped forward to improve curriculum. Instead, they have let NCTRC call the shots. I’m glad NCTRC exerted itself or we might not have had any advancement in terms of curriculum. The point is that faculty should have been out front in the area of curriculum reform and they have not been.
Where are you RT faculty? Do you lack an organized means to join together for the betterment of the profession? Do you not understand your roles as leaders within our profession? Do you lack the leadership skills to help lead the profession? Or do you simply not care what happens to our profession?
I must confess that I am perplexed and disturbed by the lack of involvement by faculty. Do others feel the same?
