August 5, 2005: Headlines: COS - Sierra Leone: University Administration: Autism: Syracuse Post Standard: Sierra Leone RPCV Douglas Biklen appointed dean at Syracuse University amid controversy
Peace Corps Online:
Directory:
Sierra Leone:
Peace Corps Sierra Leone :
The Peace Corps in Sierra Leone:
August 5, 2005: Headlines: COS - Sierra Leone: University Administration: Autism: Syracuse Post Standard: Sierra Leone RPCV Douglas Biklen appointed dean at Syracuse University amid controversy
Sierra Leone RPCV Douglas Biklen appointed dean at Syracuse University amid controversy
56 people signed a statement from the Commission for Scientific Medicine and Mental Health that censured SU for appointing Biklen. Critics of facilitated communication claim that facilitators influence what is communicated by guiding the autistic or disabled person's hand; that facilitated communication has been associated with unfounded allegations of sexual and physical abuse against family members of autistic individuals; and that the communication method's success has not panned out in controlled studies.
Sierra Leone RPCV Douglas Biklen appointed dean at Syracuse University amid controversy
Commission criticizes SU for dean selection
New educaton school chief introduced to U.S. facilitated communication
technique.
Friday, August 05, 2005
By Nancy Buczek
Staff writer
Syracuse University was criticized Thursday by 56 psychologists, psychiatrists and physicians from across the country for its decision to promote one of its faculty to be dean of its School of Education.
Douglas Biklen, who became dean Monday, brought the tech- nique of facilitated communication to the United States from Australia in 1989. It's a technique in which a facilitator physically supports one of the hands of a mute individual with autism or other developmental disability, so that person can communicate by typing on a computer keyboard or letter pad.
The 56 people signed a statement from the Commission for Scientific Medicine and Mental Health that censured SU for appointing Biklen. Critics of facilitated communication claim that facilitators influence what is communicated by guiding the autistic or disabled person's hand; that facilitated communication has been associated with unfounded allegations of sexual and physical abuse against family members of autistic individuals; and that the communication method's success has not panned out in controlled studies.
"I have to publish my work in peer-review journals as does any other professor," Biklen said. "The work is worth it. I felt if there is going to be the controversy, I just have to live with it because what choice do I have if I think the work is important? I have to proceed with my work. This looks to me like an intimidation strategy."
SU supports Biklen and stands behind its decision to promote him to dean, said Kevin Morrow, speaking for SU.
"There were several good candidates. Doug exhibited great personal qualities: honesty, in-
tegrity and superior intellectual abilities and seemed to be a great package to be the dean of the School of Education," Morrow said.
Scott Lilienfeld is an associate professor in the psychology department of Emory University and editor of "Scientific Review of Mental Health Practice," which is associated with the commission. He said he does not want SU to fire Biklen.
"Syracuse and other major universities should be very circumspect in their appointments and should make sure that their appointments reflect their scientific principles," said Lilienfeld, whose name is among the 56 attached to the commission's statement.
Biklen established SU's Facilitated Communication Institute in 1992. Whether a facilitator guides someone's hand has always been at issue, he said. But he said the method has been proven to work - citing examples of people who now type without assistance and/or utter words before they type them, and people whose communication style remains the same even with different facilitators.
"When someone is learning to communicate early on, obviously you don't know if these are the words of the person or not. Maybe the person was cued. That is absolutely possible. I would never argue that somebody learning to communicate in this method cannot be cued. I've always seen that that's a possibility," Biklen said.
As for the false allegations of abuse, he said that like children learning to communicate, people who have never before communicated may lie or tell of something they are thinking about.
"What disturbs me about some of these attacks is that they (the critics) presume that people with a certain level of disability are incompetent and couldn't possibly be communicating," Biklen said.
When this story was posted in August 2005, this was on the front page of PCOL:
Peace Corps Online The Independent News Forum serving Returned Peace Corps Volunteers
| The Peace Corps Library Peace Corps Online is proud to announce that the Peace Corps Library is now available online. With over 30,000 index entries in 500 categories, this is the largest collection of Peace Corps related stories in the world. From Acting to Zucchini, you can find hundreds of stories about what RPCVs with your same interests or from your Country of Service are doing today. If you have a web site, support the "Peace Corps Library" and link to it today. |
| Military Option sparks concerns The U.S. military, struggling to fill its voluntary ranks, is allowing recruits to meet part of their military obligations by serving in the Peace Corps. Read why there is rising opposition to the program among RPCVs. Director Vasquez says the agency has a long history of accepting qualified applicants who are in inactive military status. John Coyne says "Not only no, but hell no!" Latest: RPCV Chris Matthews to discuss the issue on Hardball tonight. |
| Friends of the Peace Corps 170,000 strong 170,000 is a very special number for the RPCV community - it's the number of Volunteers who have served in the Peace Corps since 1961. It's also a number that is very special to us because March is the first month since our founding in January, 2001 that our readership has exceeded 170,000. And while we know that not everyone who comes to this site is an RPCV, they are all "Friends of the Peace Corps." Thanks everybody for making PCOL your source of news for the Returned Volunteer community. |
Read the stories and leave your comments.
Some postings on Peace Corps Online are provided to the individual members of this group without permission of the copyright owner for the non-profit purposes of criticism, comment, education, scholarship, and research under the "Fair Use" provisions of U.S. Government copyright laws and they may not be distributed further without permission of the copyright owner. Peace Corps Online does not vouch for the accuracy of the content of the postings, which is the sole responsibility of the copyright holder.
Story Source: Syracuse Post Standard
This story has been posted in the following forums: : Headlines; COS - Sierra Leone; University Administration; Autism
PCOL21547
23