Students on the pre-speech-language pathology track are being forced to restructure their plans after the retirement announcement of Horabail Venkatagiri, psychology professor and speech-language pathologist.

With no plan to replace Venkatagiri (“Giri”), several complications have arisen for psychology and linguistics students on the speech-language pathology (SPL) track. Giri, who has worked at Iowa State for over 20 years, announced his retirement at the end of the 2022-23 academic year.

Jacey Kilby, a sophomore majoring in psychology, was informed by another student of Giri’s retirement and the neglect of his position’s replacement. Kilby said to complete her degree here at Iowa State, she must look into taking her SPL credits at another university, online or transferring schools.

“There is a reason I chose Iowa State,” Kilby said.

She explained her frustration regarding her academic plans being uprooted and having to re-evaluate her aspirations for next year.

“Taking classes somewhere else or online would be expensive, and I do not want to transfer,” Kilby said. “So, I looked into national student exchange, which is similar to studying abroad except it is domestic and would only be for a semester.”

Kilby understands Iowa State is an engineering and business focused school, but she feels the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences (LAS) is being neglected.

“Unless you’re a junior or senior this year, you’re kind of screwed over, as freshmen and sophomores haven’t taken the necessary courses yet because we needed to take the prerequisites first,” Kilby said.

Arielle Naeve, a senior in linguistics and on the pre-SPL track and the president of the Communication Disorders Club, also spoke about Giri’s retirement and its effects.

“The Communication Disorders club promotes the path of speech-language pathology for students that are interested in the career,” Naeve said.

Naeve explained the club assists with creating students’ four-year plans and provides volunteer opportunities and activities related to SPL for students to get involved in.

“We all have loved him as a professor, and we’ll be sad he’s leaving as he was the club advisor for years,” Naeve said. “But, we do now have a new adviser, Dr. Carrie Richie, and she is doing everything in her power to help this program continue running.”

Naeve explained speech pathology is a growing field with many occupations. She expressed her surprise regarding the cuts in the psychology and linguistics departments.

“Speech is one of the most important things regarding being able to build relationships with others,” Naeve said. “I think that it’s really important to be able to communicate and give that opportunity to everyone and give people a chance to share their voice.”

Naeve emphasized that she believes speech-language pathology is an occupation that should be encouraged at Iowa State and thinks many students aspire to go into the SPL track. She hopes that the program can continue running.

Susan Cross, chair of the psychology department, spoke on Giri’s retirement and why his position will not be replaced.

Cross explained that the communication disorders department was a larger program years ago. The program shut down, and three faculty members entered the psychology department. The university established an agreement in 1998 that the faculty members could continue teaching psychology as long as they remained at Iowa State.

“Two of those faculty members retired and Dr. Giri stayed here and has been allowed to continue teaching those courses for the last 24 years, but it has always been the understanding that once he retires or leaves, it won’t continue,” Cross said.

While she acknowledges that the affected audience is small, Cross said she sympathizes with students who must re-evaluate their plans to complete their degrees. She also mentioned her respect for Giri and his independence in running the program by himself, stating that he has earned his retirement.

“In the minds of the national science foundation, psychology is considered a STEM field,” Cross said. “That said, we don’t get the attention or the resources that other STEM fields get despite having extremely strong faculty, great productivity and excellent teaching.”

She believes the department could use more resources, as even though the student numbers in the department have grown, the faculty numbers have declined.

“We never offered all the courses needed for P-SLPA,” Giri said in an email response. “Students always took a few courses online from other universities. After my retirement, they will need to take a few more online classes at other universities. They may also be able to transfer some credits from these classes to apply toward their degree at ISU.”

Cross recommends students affected by Giri’s retirement take a look at online resources provided by the university and look into taking courses online to build the foundation they need to pursue the SPL occupation track.