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Goal Statement: The Department will continue to strengthen collaboration with community partners and stakeholders with an emphasis on the following:

• Enhancing and sustaining adequate placements within local educational and medical settings for all students to complete their internship experiences.
• Sustaining and expanding our free speech and language services to local communities through ºÃÉ«ÏÈÉú Speech and Language Clinic.
• Reconnecting with alumni to promote engagement in mentoring the next generation of SLPs.

Issues: It becomes increasingly difficult to secure internship placements for our students because of the growing competition from local and online SLP programs. To sustain our ability to offer free speech and language services to local communities, ºÃÉ«ÏÈÉú Speech and Language Clinic needs to establish a feasible and sustainable budget plan through fundraising campaigns and collaborating with community partners. ºÃÉ«ÏÈÉú SLP Department currently does not have an effective method to connect with alumni to encourage participation and engagement in department activities.

Yearly Objectives:

By Spring 2024, SLP Department will: 

• Offer morning clinics to expand our pro bono services to clients across the lifespan.
• Increase outreach efforts by distributing clinic and donation flyers.
• Continue to renovate clinic spaces to provide state-of-the-art care and clinical learning experiences. 

By Spring 2025, SLP Department will: 

• Successfully place at least 30 students each semester for two internships across the settings in Los Angeles and Orange County.
• Distribute a newly designed department newsletter to alumni.

By Spring 2026, SLP Department will:

• Regularly update department social media to provide department updates.
• Partner with CHHS to host homecoming/open house events to maintain relationships with alumni, clients, community partners, and adjunct faculty.

Strategies:

• Seek funding through the College of Health and Human Services and community donations to continue upgrading and expanding our clinical and instructional resources.
• Recruit student interns or assistants who specialize in or have experience with public relations to assist in managing social media and redesigning newsletters.
• Actively reach out to potential internship sites to establish future partnerships.
• Actively invite more off-campus supervisors to attend our annual advisory board meetings to brainstorm the most effective ways to identify, promote, and sustain placements for ºÃÉ«ÏÈÉú students.
• Partner with credible CE providers to offer workshop opportunities to off-campus supervisors and practicing SLPs.

Goal Statement: In acknowledging the ASHA initiative to increase diversity in the profession, the Department will increase its enrollment of students from underrepresented groups to reach 50% of total graduate enrollment by 2026.

Issues: The SLP MA program currently has an average of 30% of students from underrepresented groups. However, the number of Black students has been historically low. The low enrollment is also seen in international, male, and bilingual students. To better serve clients from diverse backgrounds, there is a pressing need to increase workforce diversity.

Yearly Objectives: 

By Spring 2024, SLP Department will:  

• Maintain enrollment for at least one Black student per graduate cohort.
• Maintain the enrollment of historically minoritized/marginalized students in the profession by at least 35%.
• Increase the enrollment of bilingual/bicultural students to 30%.
• Increase the historically minoritized/marginalized students' program completion rate above 95%.
• Attend or support Black student recruitment activities at least once per academic year.

By Spring 2025 and Spring 2026, SLP Department will:  

• Maintain enrollment for at least two Black students per graduate cohort.
• Maintain the enrollment of historically minoritized/marginalized students in the profession by at least 40%.
• Increase the enrollment of bilingual/bicultural students to 35%.
• Maintain the historically minoritized/marginalized students' program completion rate above 95%.
• Attend or support Black student recruitment activities at least once per semester.

Strategies:

• The department will participate in at least one off-campus and one on-campus event per year to promote the profession of communication sciences and disorders. Off-campus events will specifically target local high school students in underrepresented groups.
• The department will continue refining and implementing a holistic graduate admission process that considers all aspects of an applicant, such as linguistic and cultural background, the ability to serve clients from diverse backgrounds, etc.  
• SLP faculty members will actively share student resources at The Beach with historically minoritized/marginalized students.
• The graduate advisor will offer more individual office hours to address individual student needs and reach out to students regularly to ensure successful program completion.

Goal Statement: The department will continue to assess and revise the curriculum to 1) update contemporary issues in educational settings to better prepare students working in schools, 2) include the discussion of contemporary issues in medical settings and private practice, and 3) emphasize culturally responsive service delivery, cultural humility, and implicit bias/microaggression across different subject areas.

Issues: 1) to address contemporary issues occurring across settings and to better prepare students for working with clients across the lifespan, 2) to cultivate students' cultural competence and humility as well as their ability to work with clients from diverse backgrounds, and 3) to address the feedback received from the advisory board and program exit survey.

Yearly Objectives:

By Spring 2024, SLP Department will:

• Start offering revised SLP 678 by incorporating contemporary issues in medical settings and private practice, such as billing, insurance, counseling, and a transdisciplinary model of care in clinical settings.
• Start offering revised SLP 575 by incorporating up-to-date contemporary issues in educational settings.

By Spring 2025, SLP Department will:

• Start offering revised SLP 667 by incorporating behavior management, counseling, and a transdisciplinary model of care when serving clients with ASD across the lifespan.
• Start offering SLP 679 Introduction to Medical SLP once a year to enhance preparation for students working in hospitals.

By Spring 2026, SLP Department will:

• Have at least one student learning outcome in every graduate seminar/clinical course to address cultural humility, culturally responsive service delivery, implicit bias, and microaggression.
• Start offering SLP 664 Aural Rehabilitation.

Strategies:​

• Every graduate seminar/clinical course will include a learning objective, class assignment, and/or activity to address implicit bias, cultural humility, and culturally responsive service delivery.
• The department curriculum committee will review and provide suggestions for standard course outline revision for at least one class per semester. The revision process will involve faculty members with expertise in specific subject areas.
• The department curriculum committee will lead the development of new courses (e.g., SLP 679, SLP 664) to address student and alumni feedback. The development process will involve faculty members with expertise in specific subject areas.