page 8
daily nebraskan
monday, november 3, 1980
Study shows technology brings teacher shortage
By Robin Lynch
Today's society, with all its technology,
is demanding more knowledge in math and
science areas but is failing to provide needed
teachers, according to a study by the Edu
cation Department of the National Science
Foundation. -
There is a serious shortage," said
Dorothy Stevens, assistant professor of
secondary education at UNL. She said the
basic problem is money because industry
will pay math and science majors more
money than education will.
"To train students in technology, we
need teachers who are extremely capable,"
she said. "More knowledge is required to
live in a technical world."
To prove it takes more math ability to
live in today's world, Prof. David Skoug,
chairman of the Mathematics Department,
said, "In the Department of Mathematics
and Statistics, student credit hours have
increased 28 percent during the past six
years.
"At the national level, student credit
hours in the mathematical sciences have
been increasing at about four percent a
year for the past six years," he said.
But Skoug, who has been at UNL for
14 years, added, "The number of under
graduate students majoring in math has de-
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creased about 40 percent during the past
six years. A similar drop has occurred in
the number of graduate students."
More sophisticated
Stevens said another problem that arises
is those seeking employees can't go for the
best person to fill positions, so they take
what they can get whether or not that's
what they need. She said there may not be
enough teachers, but from what she has
seen, the candidates are becoming more
sophisticated.
To solve the teacher shortage problem,
Stevens said she would like to get the
national leaders in math education together
on campus and brainstorm about the prob
lem. Stevens also said an interest in math
must be developed at an early age, and stu
dents need to feel more comfortable with
math.
Skoug said he was unhappy that high
school counselors don't encourage students
to take more math courses.
Stevens said the UNL Math Department
is encouraging math majors to earn dual
matriculation, or earning a math major and
secondary education certification.
"With a math major and teaching
degree, you have clout and versatility,"
Stevens said. She said that teacher training
helps in public relations and other areas.
"People need to be prepared for as
many fields as possible, and teaching is a
good tiling to fall back on. Math opens
doors," Stevens said.
Award loans
Another step Stevens would like to see
taken to solve the teacher shortage is for
the government to award loans for teachers
to go to school, then have them teach a
certain number of years to pay back the
loans.
Math isn't the only area lacking in in
structors, said Prof. George Nagy, chairman
of the Computer Science department at
UNL.
Nagy said there are about 600 vacancies
for teachers in computer science at the
high school and college levels. What is
startling though, he said, is about 200
Ph.D.s are given a year and half of those re
ceiving them go to those in industry.
"There isn't too much incentive right
now to go into g-aduate work when people
with bachelor's degrees get paid so much,"
Nagy said.
Nagy said some incentive might be
higher salaries, new updated equipment
and more research. Nagy added equipment
becomes obsolete in two or three years and
should be replaced and also more interim
work is needed .
Because the United States is ahead of
die world in computer usage, more than 50
percent of the PhJJ.s given in the United
States are to foreign students who come
over and work, Nagy said.
He said since he's been here, he has had
three people earn their PhD.s and two of
these were to foreign students.
A lot returning
Nagy also said he has a lot of people re--turn
to earn master's degrees after receiving
a degrees in other areas. He said they either
like the job opportunity of a computer
scientist or they are interested in comput
ers. Most freshmen get their bachelor's
degree, then get a job because the money
is good, Nagy said. He said he encourages
good students to continue their education
and pick up their master's or Ph.D. later
on.
Nagy said some companies, like Bel
Labs, requires all employees to earn the
master's degree and will even pay for the
additional education .
Among those students earning master's
degrees in computer science are high school
teachers. Cherly Poos try, a past high school
math teacher and current undergraduate
working for a master's degree in computer
science, is one such teacher.
Poostry said she taught math for nine
years and, for the past four or five years,
she has been taking some courses iti com
puter science because she likes working
with computers.
Poostry said Pennsylvania used to have
a federal or state-funded loan for students
who were interested in teaching.
She said they could pay back the loan if
they taught in a poorer school district, but
this really didn't work because the school
cost wasn't what kept people from being
teachers.
"The economics of feeding a family is
what keeps people out of teaching,"
Poostry said.
Conference may help form
state student association
By Betsy Miller
A trip to a United States Student As
sociation national conference last weekend
taken by five members of ASUN and the
Government Liaison Committee should
help start UNL to form a state student
association, one participant said.
Rick Mockler, speaker of the ASUN
Senate, attended the conference and said
that Nebraska students got a chance to talk
with representatives from other student
associations in different states.
According to Mockler, Nebraska is one
of the few states which does not have a
state student association.
An SSA is an organization composed
of representatives from different colleges
in the state that work to gain favorable
legislation for higher education from the
government.
Mockler said that the exposure UNL
representatives got to other state SSAswas
beneficial.
He said members learned how SSAs arc
financed, how they gain influence with
state legislatures and how they lobby.
Representatives from UNO. the NU
Medical Center, Kearney State College and
Peru State College attended the meeting,
he said.
Chadron State College students also
were interested in attending the conference,
he added.
"The possibilities of forming an SSA
look really good. The question is how to
structure it," Mockler said.
Questions that need to be answered
concerning the formation of an Nebraska
SSA include how many representatives
are needed from each school, how to fin
ance the organization and how many
activities it should be active in, he said.
Nette Nelson, chairperson of GLC.
who attended the conference, said that
her committee is playing an active role in
trying to organize a Nebraska SSA.
To form an SSA, Nelson said that the
committee will try to follow some proce
dures that are found in two manuals the
USSA produced.
She also said that members in an SSA
should follow the advice of USSA Na
tional Chairperson Doug Tut hill, who
feels that "education is a right, not a
privilege."
Besides Mockler and Nelson, ASUN
President Renee Wessles. ASUN First Vice
President Maik Hirschfeid and GLC mem
ber Mari Biaylock attended the conference.
Mckler said that student fees were used
to register UNL representatives at the
conference and non-student fees paid for
their transportation and lodging.
The conference was in Lawrence, Kan.