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page 10
daily nebraskan
friday, december 15, 1978
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Engineering college stiffens entrance requirements
By Cindy Cogliancse
The increase in e i:, ,i unt, coupled with a stabilizing
source of funds at -Ik- ( ilege of Engineering and Tech
nology has resulttu ui a stiffening of academic
requirements.
A committee of faculty members voted to raise some
ot the college's academic standards, particularly regarding
the entrance requirements for freshmen and giving
priority to the better students for available space in en
gineering and technology courses.
A change in the general policy will require all students
to earn and maintain a current cumulative grade
point average of 2.0 or better. Also after Jan. 1, 1979.
students will not be allowed to repeat more than three
courses previously failed in the college nor will they be
allowed to repeat courses more than once except in
special situations.
Pre-students
Change in the criteria for pre-engineering and pre
technology students state that any student with high
school deficiencies, who does not meet entrance criteria
or fails to meet the 2.0 GPA requirement will be classified
as pre-engineering and pre-technology.
Composite scores from ACT and SAT's will also be
taken into consideration for entrance criteria.
Engineering and Technology Dean George Hanna said
the requirement change was necessary because resources
in the college are inadequate to serve the number of
students entering the college.
"This will also give us the oppoitumtv foi uising loial
college standards." Hanna said.
Dr. Edward Wilson, chairman of the civil cngincciinc.
department, said the committee's intent was to limit col
lege enrollment.
Logical way
"It was decided that we would raise ceitain academic
standards to discourage people." Wilson said. "The pri
mary purpose (of the requirements) was to find some
logical way to handle the increase of students."
Wilson said overall there has been a 40 percent in
crease in enrollment each year in the college. With 300
students currently enrolled in his program, Wilson said
there are about 130 students who will be denied class
entrance.
"This big increase started four years ago. There has
been a 50 percent increase in this department over the last
four years," Wilson said.
"There is no increase in resources and no more
faculty than four years ago."
Professors underpaid
Dr. Gerald Smith, chairman of the engineering mechan
ics department, said he has fewer full-time faculty mem
bers than he did three years ago. He said there is a
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8
money
problem with attracting good faculty to the university
because an engineering graduate can make more money
his first year out of school than the college can offer a
professor with a Ph.D.
"The job market is so good for engineers that a
graduate can make $20,000 out of school," Smith said
"I hat is the problem with attracting young engineerin
faculty because graduates can make more
going out than a Ph.D. can make coming in.
"You're just not going to get any Ph.D.'s that are in
terested in going into the academic field," Smith said.,
adding that he does not know where the new faculty will
come from when the older faculty retires.
22 percent increase
The chairman of the mechanical engineering depar'
ment, Dr. Alexander Peters, expressed the same opinions
as the other professors. Alexander said enrollment in his
department has increased 22 percent from last year.
"If we are going to serve the students adequately we
will have to hire more professors," Alexander said. "A
student graduating with a B.S. can earn more than the
present salary of a junior assistant professor."
Wilson and the other professors agreed that the in
crease in enrollment is probably a result of the growing
job market for engineers.
Jobs easy to find
"Anyone who is graduating and is interested in em
ployment gets a job," Wilson said.
Despite the agreement of the three professors and the
passage of the new requirements, Wilson said he doesn't
think the provisions are going to work. He said there is the
possibility that students will challenge some of the
requirements on a legal basis.
"I think we're going to find juniors who have GPA's
of 2.4 or 2.5 who are going to get bumped out of class
space because there are so many students with higher
GPA's and there are no provisions to keep that student
from being continually bumped," Wilson said.
He added that the requirements might be a hindrance
to some of the upper-classmen in completing graduation
requirements.
Zero reallocation
"The primary problem is that the college of engineer
ing has had an increase in the reallocation of resources of
zero."
Hanna said the college has been negotiating with the
Vice Chancellor of Academic Affairs, Ned Hedges and the
administration is aware of the money problems of the
college.
"We keep asking," he said. "In all fairness to the uni
versity, the administration is cognizant of the problem
and is trying to assist us through the reallocation of funds
but that is a very slow process."
Though the faculty members say the problem
is serious, some departments in the college are not yet
facing the same problems.
Robert Zilly, chairman of the construction manage
ment department, said his department is not yet over
crowded but enrollment is approaching the 200-student
limit that the department has set.
Rodney Soukup, chairman of the electrical engineering
department, agreed that he has not yet experienced the
same kind of overcrowding in his department.
"If the enrollment does go up, we will have a serious
problem in this department also."
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