CPD Celebrates 35 Years of Service

USU’s Center for Persons with Disabilities celebrated its 35th birthday June 14-15 with two days of activities that brought friends from as far away as Puerto Rico to join the party. More than 200 people attended what for some was a coming home of sorts to the place that established their professional careers.

“We are ecstatic at the turnout from the community and from across the state, but we are particularly pleased with the many people who traveled long distances to return,” said Marty Blair, assistant director of the center. “Many of these people were the faculty, students, staff, policymakers and consultants who helped make the CPD what it is today. We are grateful to them for coming to celebrate both the early history of the center and the successful programs that continue today.”

 

Blair said the numbers were higher than anticipated, and visitors came from across the country. Two people came from Puerto Rico, and others traveled from Pennsylvania, Oregon, Kentucky, Colorado and Nevada.

 

“It was a great opportunity for people to come together after being apart for a long time,” Blair said. “One person told me it was like a family reunion of sorts, and he left feeling he needs to call his ‘cousins’ a lot more often and stay in touch.”

 

Blair said one honored guest was Helmut Hofmann, the person responsible for the attracting the people who would later start the CPD. Hofmann was in the psychology department when the dean of what was then the College of Education asked him to start a department of special education – with no money. Over the next five years, Hofmann generated the funding and started a department that would quickly become one of the top special education programs in the nation. The program attracted top researchers from across the country, and it was these people who began talking about a center devoted specifically to people with disabilities.

 

Originally called the Exceptional Child Center, the CPD was one of 19 “university-affiliated facilities” established in the early 1970s. All but the USU facility were founded at public university medical schools. The USU facility was the first in the United States to be established in a College of Education.

 

Its primary mission was, and continues to be, providing leadership in education, research and services that enable individuals with disabilities to exercise self-direction, be independent, productive, and included in all facets of community life.

 

The CPD has grown into one of the largest and most dynamic Centers in the network of over 70 national and international centers. The CPD administers more than 60 projects and programs on local, national, and international levels, all focused on improving life for people of all ages with disabilities and their families.

 

The CPD’s operating budget in 2006 was more than $14 million. CPD staff leveraged every state $1 into more than $8. Over 85% of its funds are external.

 

CPD is one of the largest research centers at USU, second in size to the Space Dynamics Lab. In 2006 the CPD supported more than 120 USU students through stipends, jobs, and assistantships. Faculty and staff represent many disciplines including: biology, physiology, medicine, special education, social work, nursing, landscape architecture, computer science, economics, nutrition, psychology and more. CPD research staff and faculty taught 24 university courses in 7 academic departments last year.

 

Services were provided to 4,774 people last year. The CPD employed more than 200 people in several western states during the last fiscal year. Last year, CPD education and service activities reached citizens in every Utah county. In late 2003, the CPD opened a Disability Support Center for Families in Salt Lake City to assist families that include a person with a disability.