Psychology Department
Ryan McKelley, Ph.D., LP, HSP
Chair and Associate Professor
608-785-6879
Robert Dixon, Ph.D.
School Psychology Director
608-785-6893
________________________________________________________________________________________________________
October 13, 2015
Re: Suspension of the Psychology/Occupational Therapy Dual Degree Program
Dear SAH College Committee & CLS Curriculum Committee members,
Last year, the Department of Psychology and the Occupational Therapy Program jointly agreed to
suspend admitting new undergrad students into the Dual Degree program starting Fall 2015
(https://www.uwlax.edu/Occupational-Therapy-MS/Dual-degree/). The program was initially designed
to promote the Occupational Therapy Program when it began, and there was little public awareness of it.
Since then, OT has grown to become a highly competitive graduate training program at UW-L that does
not necessary benefit from being part of an accelerated program. The accelerated nature of the program
also benefitted highly motivated students who were certain about obtaining a B.S. in Psychology and
M.S. in Occupational Therapy.
In recent years, only one or two of these Dual Degree students are admitted in the OT program every
year as admittance is not guaranteed. We have noticed that the majority of students in the Dual Degree
program experience unique challenges of the program. Below are several of the main concerns:
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Pressure from parents to pursue this route to save money causing some students to feel pressured
to pursue an undergraduate degree in psychology without being sure that is what they really want
to do
Students make ill-advised decisions early in their careers that lead to poor outcomes (e.g., taking
high credit loads of challenging classes)
Specific coursework in Biology and Chemistry (including MTH 150) are required early, and
students with insufficient foundational education or study skills struggle to complete them the
first couple of semesters
Some students don’t really even know what occupational therapy is as a career, and the
accelerated nature of the dual degree program prevents them from volunteer and part-time work
experiences to learn about the field and develop a more competitive application
Early in the advent of the program, the message was “you have nothing to lose” – given that they
could apply, not get in, and then apply, but now we see an issue where they "lose" because the
accelerated aspect of the program may hurt their early grades and chances to explore and mature
Over the years, admission to the Occupational Therapy masters’ programs has become more
competitive in programs all around the country. As the number of students applying increases,
occupational therapy programs select students not only with excellent GPA’s and excellent
science pre-requisite GPA’s, but also with additional experiences to make them more well-
________________________________________________________________________________________________________
608-785-8440 (Psychology Office)
335 Graff Main Hall, 1725 State Street
La Crosse, WI 54601
608-785-8443 (fax)
608-785-8441 (School Psychology Office)
Psychology Department
Ryan McKelley, Ph.D., LP, HSP
Chair and Associate Professor
608-785-6879
Robert Dixon, Ph.D.
School Psychology Director
608-785-6893
________________________________________________________________________________________________________
rounded (i.e. international travel, undergraduate research, large number of volunteer or work
hours with vulnerable populations, participation in student organizations, sports, leadership
opportunities, etc.). Dual Degree students do not have time to complete the coursework with
high GPA’s and build competitive portfolios in three years.
To summarize, although 1-2 students per year are accepted to the OT graduate program each year
through the Dual Degree path, many more miss out on other experiences and are not accepted
(oftentimes with a fairly unsatisfactory senior year). As noted above, they miss out on opportunities to
broaden their experiences resulting in a non-competitive application portfolio. This severely limits their
competitiveness for admission to the UW-L Occupational Therapy program as well as other
occupational therapy programs around the country.
This memo serves to formally request suspension of the Dual Degree program until further notice.
Rather than seek termination, this would allow flexibility to revisit it in the future if the landscape
changes in a way where it would be beneficial to start up the program. Suspension until further notice
would allow us to remove all mention of it from marketing and recruiting materials to reduce any
confusion to the prospective students. The six current Dual Degree students will be permitted to
complete the program as intended.
Sandy Grunwald contacted UW System to confirm that this change does not require System-level
approval. Below are the steps required to formalize the suspension.
1. This suspension would have to go to the SAH College Committee and CLS Curriculum Committee to
provide endorsement of the proposal.
2. The Deans of CLS and SAH provide letter(s) of support to the Provost.
3. Chair and Dean letters would then go to the Academic Planning Committee and then to Faculty
Senate.
Sincerely,
Peggy Denton
Ryan A. McKelley, Ph.D., LP, HSP
Chair & Associate Professor of Psychology
Peggy Denton, Ph.D.
Program Director of Occupational Therapy &
Associate Professor
________________________________________________________________________________________________________
608-785-8440 (Psychology Office)
335 Graff Main Hall, 1725 State Street
La Crosse, WI 54601
608-785-8443 (fax)
608-785-8441 (School Psychology Office)