On Wednesday, Nov. 19, 2008, the Faculty Senate voted to suspend admissions to the Athletic Training (AT) major of the Bouv’eacute; College of Health Sciences.
While this group already heard the sides of Bouve Dean Stephen Zoloth and AT student Lauren Ziaks, I wish to speak about two members of the Northeastern community who couldn’t attend – athletic trainer William F.X. Linskey and Kerkor “Koko” Kassabian, the founder of the NU Athletic Training Education Program.
Linskey was a founding father of the National Athletic Trainers’ Association (NATA), and an original athletic trainer on the Northeastern campus. He passed away in 1984. Kassabian followed Linskey to Northeastern as athletic trainer and fostered the AT program from its infancy in 1971 to national prominence until his untimely death in 1989. Both were unique men with their own inimitable styles.
Both men were part of the “old” Northeastern, where a handshake and a cup of coffee between administrators and peers produced trust and results – service to others through professional excellence. I’m sure the rumbling outside of the Faculty Senate meeting was not a train leaving the Ruggles MBTA station, but Linskey and Kassabian knocking over some tables and chairs in heaven. Yes, heaven!
The legacy of the AT Education Program has produced some of the finest sports medical professionals in the country. Several graduates became doctors of sports medicine and podiatry, while maintaining their AT certification.
In 1971, only two schools in New England offered AT education approved by the NATA, Northeastern and Springfield College. Today, 27 New England institutions offer degrees in athletic training – and Northeastern still leads the pack in quality, graduation rate and success rate in passing the Board of Certification Test (93 percent – well above the national average of 37 percent).
In the “old” Northeastern image, the AT Education Program was a shining star – a jewel on campus that fostered outreach to Boston schools and other clinical education sites, as well as the Boston Marathon and the Bay State Games.
How can the “new” Northeastern cast this successful program aside? Can the reality of Northeastern’s “five strategic themes,” which include experiential learning, interdisciplinary and translational research, intellectual life and creative expression, urban engagement and global opportunities, exclude a major that is blossoming on a global, international setting, still assisting Boston schools through the “Adopt-a-School” initiative, and, through co-op experiences, practice experiential learning every day? Grant opportunities from the NATA Research and Education Foundation can foster research on campus. Will the integrity, reputation, accreditation and heritage of the AT program survive in a College of Professional Studies world?
I sat with today’s AT students as the Faculty Senate made its decision. Paraphrasing Paul Harvey – it’s time to hear “the rest of the story.” By its own rules, the Faculty Senate now passes its recommendation to the president, provost and Board of Trustees.
I ask President Joseph Aoun, Provost Stephen Director and the Board of Trustees to mirror the vision of Northeastern’s forefathers and meet with the AT students and alumni, and share a cup of coffee and listen to the lore of this program. Retention rates can improve when the strategic goals of some are overshadowed by the desires of the majority.
Sitting on NATA’s Board of Directors, my votes to date are geared toward today’s AT students. Northeastern needs to embrace the future by cherishing the past. By seeing the merits and value of the AT Education Program in the realm of the Bouve College and the fabric of Northeastern, including the Athletic Department, the past vision and mentorship of Linskey and Kassabian will continue to guide our future AT students.
That was the message that Bill and Koko would have wanted to bring to the Faculty Senate.
– Jeff Stone is a 1976 graduate of Northeastern’s Bouv’eacute; College of
Health Sciences and director of District One (New England) for the
NATA. He is the head athletic
trainer at Suffolk University.
