Student Senate grants Physical Therapy Club Level IV recognition

09/25/08 - The University of Rhode Island Student Senate voted unanimously last night to recognize the URI Physical Therapy Club as a Level IV student organization. As a Level IV student organization, the Physical Therapy Club is not eligible to receive funding under Senate by-laws.

URI offers a three-year doctorate in the physical therapy graduate program, as well as kinesiology major specializations for undergraduates hoping to enter the graduate program.

Chad Burnham, who spoke on behalf of the Physical Therapy Club at the Senate meeting, said the club will work to provide new opportunities for undergraduate students.

Burnham is a graduate student in URI's Physical Therapy program and is helping to organize the club.

He said the club will provide an opportunity for students to network with their peers and with professionals in the field.

"It's pretty much a great opportunity for pre-PT students to meet the graduate PT students." he said. "Networking is definitely one of the most important features of the club."

Although the club has not scheduled any activities, Burnham said the club hopes to provide opportunities for members to visit physical therapy programs at other schools, shadow professionals in the community, volunteer within the field and the community and host guest speakers from the professional and academic worlds.

The club will also provide guidance to students unsure about their future academic and professional careers.

"Usually when you're in a pre-physical therapy program you only have the one option to do after school . to go to graduate school, and a lot of kids don't really understand where to go, so I think it's a great opportunity," Burnham said.

The club is open to any student interested in the field. The inclusion of both undergraduate and graduate students is a central feature of the club.

Burnham said graduate student involvement in the club would greatly benefit the undergraduate members.

"A connection between the graduate and the undergraduate school is definitely a plus for the undergraduate students in terms of the future," he said.

Currently, the club has 30 graduate members and about 55 undergraduate members.

Burnham said that he saw the need for exchange between the graduate and undergraduate communities while an undergraduate himself.

"As an undergraduate student I was always looking for other opportunities and without that help it was kind of difficult as to where you go after undergraduate school, so I felt that it was a club that definitely needed to be initiated," he said. "Otherwise if you don't have that mentorship from the graduate students it's always hard as to where to go, because you don't know where to get the information."

Burnham said an unofficial physical therapy club for undergraduate students existed on campus, but few students knew about it and it lacked graduate participation.

Burnham said he was pleased the Senate officially recognized the club.

"Feels awesome, that was one of the big things we were going for, especially because not a lot of people know about the club, and to get recognized as the first URI physical therapy fully recognized club, that's great."

Burnham said he was not concerned about the lack of senate funding for the group.

"Funding isn't a big issue because the graduate school has all the space and equipment that we need," he said. "If we do have to get funding we can easily do fundraisers or whatever it may be to get that going, but I don't think that that's going to be an issue."



In other business:



Paul Whitney, director of the URI Bookstore, spoke about plans to work with the Senate's Academic Affairs Committee to find ways to reduce the cost of books.

"With the Academic Affairs Committee, I want to . get student input on how they feel the store could improve and how we may be able to improve the whole process this year at the university to help students in the end," Whitney said.