Closing the margin
Reprinted with permission of
The Herald Journal
Center for Persons with Disabilities director Bryce Fifield talks in his office during an interview Thursday. (Alan Murray/Herald Journal)
By Kim Burgess
Tuesday, January 13, 2009
For Bryce Fifield, becoming head of Utah State University's Center for Persons with Disabilities was a kind of homecoming.
The USU alum, who took the post in July, is the son of Marvin Fifield, the CPD's first director.
"It is kind of unusual in higher education to literally follow in your father's footsteps," Bryce Fifield said. "It's a real honor to be here."
In 1968, a then-teenaged Fifield visited the CPD's building shortly after it was constructed. The empty facility was on the fringes of campus.
A lot has changed in 40 years.
Today, the center includes five buildings and employs 200 people. The $15 million budget goes to fund 70 to 80 projects, including studies of immune function genes in Cerebral Palsy and storytelling to promote literacy.
The Edith Bowen Laboratory School and College of Education and Human Services headquarters are nearby on 700 North.
Fifield says he looks forward to guiding the CPD through the coming years, which will be tough economically.
"These will be defining years for us as we decide and establish priorities in this crisis," he explained. "People with disabilities have often been marginalized when there is a crisis. Our challenge is to use the most creative talent that we've got to keep that disability agenda as a human rights issue before the community."
In an interview with The Herald Journal, Fifield discussed more about his future plans and reminiscences.
Q: So you recently moved here from Minot, North Dakota. What kind of work were you doing there?
A: I was the director of a similar research center at Minot State University. It wasn't nearly as large as this program. It didn't have the history and the diversity of projects and programs.
Q: Is USU the way you remember it?
A: Not at all. I did my undergraduate work here. That was before the College (of Education and Human Services) had been relocated, so we were hoofing it here and across the Quad to the old education building. The campus has matured a lot in size and its programs and diversity. It is exciting to see not just on the campus but in the community as well. Those are things that make the work that we do a lot more interesting--you deal with more complex issues with the community, the kinds of issues families might be dealing with.
Q: What does your father think about you having this job?
A: I don't know. He won't let on. (Laughs) I think he's happy about it. He still lives here (in Logan).
Q: Is there any chance that one of your children will also go into this area?
A: Probably not. But all four of our children are Aggies. We have three still here in the valley. The Aggie tradition is important to our family.
Q: What are your early memories of the CPD?
A: It was a big empty building. In fact, there was no furniture here. People were kind of starting to identify locations and offices. The first memories I have were of the classrooms that we have in the back. We had demonstration classrooms, services being provided to school-age kids with disabilities, even adults with disabilities. That has evolved considerably as the responsibility of schools has been made more explicit. Schools are required to provide services to folks with disabilities. That function of that space back there has really evolved over time. We focus more on very young children. We have some transition projects going on for high school students who are getting ready to leave high school.
Q: Is this satisfying for you to see this organization at this size that your father helped in the beginning?
A: Yes. That is a matter of personal and family pride. It is also a little threatening. The CPD is one of the largest programs of its kind in the country. We're part of a network of these similarly charged centers. There are about 70 similar programs around the country. In our class of non-medical school centers, one of the two or three largest. There have been many great people who have done some of their finest work here at Utah State University. There is a real tradition here. I'm treading in very honored steps. It's not just a family thing. These are folks who were my colleagues, mentors and peers and now some are employees. That is a heavy responsibility, a challenge.
Q: When did you decide you wanted to go into this career?
A: It was here at Utah State University--actually (during) coursework I took here. I originally started out going into engineering. I came to find that I had more of an interest in working with people than with things. It was not specifically in the disability field. I went into school psychology and I enjoyed that work. I did that in a small Idaho rural community just north of here. I enjoyed working with people. Opportunities came up and I had the chance to get my doctorate. A series of events kept opening up interesting opportunities.
Q: Would you ever have guessed back in 1968 that you would be sitting here today?
A: Never ever. It was not something that was planned. It was not something that I even aspired to. I wanted to do outstanding work and be in a place where I could make a difference with people. When this opportunity came up, there was a fair amount of discussion and debate in our family about whether this was something we wanted to do--do we want to go back to Utah State University? Could I achieve what I want professionally by taking on an administrative role? The jury is out on that. Believe it or not, we had fallen in love with North Dakota. It's cold out there but the people are warm. We had a very good situation out there, a good program with good people to work with. It was a matter of giving up on those and taking a chance that we can create the same kind of excitement and success here. That's what we're working on.
Q: What are some of the highlights from your time in North Dakota?
A: We were instrumental in developing the entire campus' capacity to do distance education. Our center had done some pioneering work in distance speech therapy using telecommunications and desktop conferencing and delivering services to very rural, isolated schools. We're talking about schools that have 12 or 15 kids, all ages and they're two hours from a city. During winter, you can't get there. You have to figure out how to deliver training and therapy services to kids in those environments. We were effective at developing that capacity.
Q: What are some of your hopes in this position?
A: Sustaining a tradition of excellence is my focus here. CPD has a long history of working with people in the community, with disability advocacy groups, being a campus partner. We want to sustain that. We want to reinforce the focus on good science and using the best of our research capabilities to answer some of the difficult questions facing the disability community. The economic crisis that we're in affects everybody--the campus, the community, our programs. These will be defining years for us in the coming little while as we decide and establish priorities in this crisis. People with disabilities have often been marginalized when there is a crisis. Our challenge is to use the most creative talent that we've got to keep that disability agenda as a human rights issue before the community. These are our families, our neighbors, our friends.
Q: Could you describe more about how people with disabilities are marginalized? Do you mean that they are laid off first?
A: Yes, often. They are often viewed as less productive and more costly. Incidentally, data don't support that at all. They will be the first to be let go and the last to be rehired. They'll take the brunt of downsizing. This has historically been the case. Not to say that it's going to be easy for anybody. But if we are successful of achieving our goals, people with disabilities are fully enfranchised and fully part of the community, with the same opportunities as anybody, so the disability is a non-issue. (Disabled people) have health benefits and sustainabilty of independence issues. It's hard on anyone (to get laid off), but it's doubly hard on folks who have disabilities and their families. We have to get away from a charity mindset. That's one of the dangers of the economic downturn, that it will come back to charity--providing for folks rather than giving them opportunities.
Q: I know the budget is a big topic up here. Are you feeling secure with your budget?
A: We are never secure. It's always a scramble. We do have university funding. We will take a hit just like everyone else will. It will require some adjustments. We have to be creative about how we address this. We have many sources of funding. They're all at risk. It'll become a challenge. We're not quite sure how we'll respond. We're in competition with a lot of other worthy, appropriate interests. The next two years, we'll be making decisions that define our generation in terms of what becomes our priorities in this economic downturn.
Q: Does a big chunk of your funding come from Utah State?
A: Probably about 20 percent comes from the university. The rest is from external sources. We have federal and state grants, service contracts. It's not just the university funds, but those are critical for us to launch new endeavors. We use that as seed money. When Congress convenes in the next few days, they'll be dealing with a new federal budget. The stimulus program that the president-elect is proposing will put a lot of money into research. There are possibilities there for us, for the disability community and others. Everyone is going to want to get a piece of that.
Q: Are there any other future plans you want to highlight for the CPD?
A: We are a few years out from our 40th anniversary. We hope to connect with people the CPD has touched and involve them in helping us shape our future. CPD has a long history and has touched literally tens of thousands of people over the years. There is not a family in Utah that has a child with a disability that has not been touched by one of our programs. We want to hear their stories. We're interested in did we make a difference. We'll use that information to shape our future plans.
