Students who had enrolled in the new Master?s Physical Therapy program for Fall 2000 will now have to wait until Fall 2001 to start classes because the program failed its Fall 2000 application for accreditation.

“Some students were not completely happy with this news. Some students were teary-eyed when they were told they couldn?t begin classes,” said Sue McGinty, director of the physical therapy program.

“It?s a major disappointment for them. They worked hard on their goals to get to this point in their academics.”

The 18 students who were accepted into the Fall 2000 program were forced to find alternatives.

With the help of the department, Fresno State and Long Beach State agreed to accept the Sac State graduates, while others chose to take courses locally.

“All students accepted to our program have a guaranteed spot when the Fall 2001 semester begins,” McGinty said.

The physical therapy program was cited mainly for not having a proportional teacher/student ratio.

“The program?s staff to student ratio will be 9:1 after a seventh staff is hired. The national average is 10:1,” McGinty said.

Under the accreditation requirements, faculty must have time to teach, do research activity, provide community service, and fulfill other university responsibilities such as serving on committees.

Staff also feel not having doctorate instructors may have influenced the commission?s decision. McGinty said that the commission prefers to have doctorate staff/instructors, but this is not a requirement for approval.

The only degree requirement is to have staff/instructors with the highest degree available in the field, which at this time is a master?s in physical therapy.

Sac State is the last CSU that has not extended its physical therapy program to a master?s level.

A 1995 campus policy mandated the baccalaureate physical therapy program be accredited before the MPT program accreditation process could begin.

“In a record two years, we were able to have the bacc program fully accredited by 1997 so we could begin working on the MPT program,” said McGinty.

Without at least an MPT degree from a nationally-accredited graduating institution, applicants cannot take the state board exam that provides them with the license needed to practice physical therapy.

“This program delay is a blessing in disguise,” says McGinty. “It will allow us to create a stronger curriculum and complete our doctoral studies to enhance the standards for accreditation.”

Even though the commission does not require a specific number of instructors in the program to have Ph.D.s, those involved in the program?s decisions feel otherwise. “The department instructors should be completing their doctoral degrees before the Fall 2001 semester begins, which will enhance the plan submitted,” McGinty said.

Of the seven staff in the program, two are Ph.D. epidemiology candidates, and one is in the dissertation stage through Boston University. Another staff is in the doctoral exam stage at UC Davis, with two other staff in their fourth year of education Ph.D. studies at the University of San Francisco. The other two candidates, in pediatric physical therapy and clinical psychology, are completing their academics at private universities.

New evaluation criteria for the program became necessary because the commission is raising the bar in an effort to move physical therapy into a higher professional level. Under California law?s Physical Therapy Practice Act, patients have direct access to physical therapists? assessment/diagnosis for referral to doctors, which creates increased responsibility at a primary care level.

This means the physical therapy profession, as a whole, requires a higher academic education beyond a B.S. to a master?s in physical therapy.

With the help of a consultant, a faculty development plan was submitted to the National Commission on the Accreditation in Physical Therapy Education in hopes of getting approval for the program. The plan outlines the P.T. program?s intentions on staff compliance.

If the Commission rejects the plan, the university will have 30 days to submit an appeal, or resubmit a new application by the March 2001 deadline.

An appeal must be submitted directly to the Board of Directors at the American P.T. Association, which will require the program staff to make an in-person presentation in Alexandria, Virginia.

Once approved, the program will begin in Fall 2001 with a 2-year probation before receiving full national accreditation. A decision is expected from the Commission this week.

No application packets are being handed out until the commission has made a decision to approve the program.