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About The daily Nebraskan. ([Lincoln, Neb.) 1901-current | View Entire Issue (March 3, 1989)
Lack of engineering graduates spurs recruit efforts By Eric Pfanner Staff Reporter Following a national trend, de mand for engineers from the Univer sity of Nebraska-Lincoln has grown over the last few years while enroll ment in that program has declined. UNL and other universities are working to alleviate this problem, though. Stan Liberty, dean of the College of Engineering and Technology, said patterns of demand at UNL have almost exactly reflected the national pattern since 1972. “The demand for jobs is there,” he said, “but enrollment in degree programs has not risen.” Replacements for engineering faculty trained in the “post-Sputnik years” of the early 1960s are not going to be available, Liberty said, unless enrollment increases. After reaching a peak enrollment of about 3,900 students in the college in 1982-83, Liberty said, enrollment has dropped to about 2,400 under graduates this year. For UNL’s engineering college, he said, 2,400 students is ‘‘about right.” In 1982-83 the college was over-enrolled, he said. But Liberty said he is still worried about the “steady decline” in the number of engineering students. To fight this decline, more women must enter the engineering field, Liberty said. Female enrollment reached a peak of 12 percent of all engineering students in 1985-86 at UNL, he said. This year, he said, women only make up 9 percent of engineering students. These figures, Liberty said, al most directly match the national decline from 17perccntin 1985-86 to 15 percent now. “The role models (for women) are not there,” he said. The problem of declining enroll ment also has been aggravated by declining high school enrollment, Liberty said. However, relative to the rest of the country, Nebraska is in good shape, he said. Still, he said, engineers have not communicated well with high school students. “Most high school counselors in Nebraska are totally uncomfortable recommending the field,” Liberty said. Information often is out of date, he said, and high school engineering teachers often know less than their students. “Young people are starting to believe we are technologically sec ond-rate in this country,” Liberty said. This “defeatist attitude,” he said, is causing elementary and high school students to think the United States cannot compete with countries like Japan in technological fields. Liberty said UNL is part of a Midwest consortium of universities that is focusing on recruiting high school students into engineering. The UNL College of Engineering and Technology is pulling together general-information videotapes for Nebraska high schools, he said. Liberty also said the federal gov ernment is targeting “magnet schools” for giant programs in engi neering. Omaha North High School is a magnet school that UNL is “devel oping a close relationship with,” he said. High school students all over Omaha, he said, are now going to Omaha North to study engineering. Free University offers original mini-courses By David G. Young Staff Reporter An attempt by University Program Council Free University to move toward more popular programs has resulted in a new set of 12 mini courses to be offered this semester, said Stephanie Herdahl, UPC-Free University chairperson. Subjects range from IBM compat ible computers to “Knotty Things to do with a Scarf.” The courses will meet from one to three times during the month of March. “What we’ve tried to concentrate on now is some of the more popular things,” Herdahl said. “One of the courses we’re offering is ‘Profes sional Ethics,’ since students are more career minded at the moment.” UPC-Free University, which was started in the 1960s, originally spon sored informative programming on subjects such as Vietnam and psyche delic drugs, she said. Although the programming has changed, she said, the purpose has remained the same; to provide information that students do not learn in classes. Classes which have been filling up the most quickly this semester in clude “Yoga” and “Reflexology, Acupuncture, Massage,” Herdahl said. Both, she said, should remain open until registration ends Friday. “We can’t ever have a lot of stu dents because in past years we’ve had to limit the size of classes due to the room size,” she said. Last semester, UPC-Free Univer sity had about 200 students partici pating in the mini-courses, Herdahl said. “We’re hoping for 200 again tips semester,” she said. Subjects for the mini-courses are selected through student evaluations of past courses, input from teachers, and brainstorming from within the Free University committee, she said. “The main problem we have is that all the professors we have are volunteers,” Herdahl said. “Some times you have professors that want to be paid. That’s just something we can’t do.” UPC Free University received $1,786 in refundable Fund A student fees this year. In addition, a $1 fee is charged for students, and $2 for non students. A special fee of $3 is charged for the IBM course due to room rental and security guard ex penses at the Wick Alumni Center. “Usually the people that sign up have participated in previous semes ters,” she said. “We have a few that are the regulars, but we have new people that sign up all the time.” The 12 courses currently being offered are “Folk Dancing,” “Dis covering Your Spiritual Potential,” ‘‘Reflexology, Acupuncture, Mas sage,” “Yoga,” “Self-Hypnosis for Self Improvement,” “Krish namurti,” “Stress Management and Relaxation,” “Knotty Things to do with a Scarf,” “Professional Eth ics,” “Self-Defense,” “IBM Com patible Program” and “Silent Words.” _• RHA sizzles over burger break fund use By Brandon Loomis Senior Reporter Residence Hall Association mem bers debated Thursday the ethics of fund usage after a report that an RHA committee had used funds from the groups’ budget to eat at Burger King. RHA Vice President Marc Shkolnick told members that the Review and Recommendation Com mittee spent $13.05 on food Tuesday at Burger King. Although that amount may seem small, RHA senator Paul Poulosky said, it makes up about 26 percent of the committee’s budget. RHA senator Bill Vobejda said the committee receives $50 from RHA each semester. The committee should, but is not required to, spend all of that money on printing and distributing RHA bylaws, he said. According to RHA rules, the committee can spend the money as it sees fit Matt Wickless, chairman of the committee, said he decided to spend the money as a last gesture as chair man. He said that if the association disapproved, it should pass a bill changing the rules. “I’m not going to apologize to the senate because I don't think anything was done wrong,’’ he said. Shkolnick said he distributed cop ies of the expenditure, which was submitted by Wickless and approved by RHA Treasurer Cara Hansen, to association members Thursday morning. He said he was “furious” when he found out about the incident. Some RHA members objected to Shkolnick’s actions, saying that the incident was not uncommon and that names should not have been included on the record. RHA President Larry Koubsky said Wickless had asked him if he could bring the committee to Burger King, and that he had approved of it. But he said that at the time he wasn’t sure whether Wickless was serious. Plasma center fixes waste disposal problems By Curt Wagner Editor The Lincoln Plasma Corp. has remedied disposal problems that re sulted in the dumping of contami nated medical wastes into an alley in late February, according to Gary Walsh of the Lincoln/Lancaster County Health Department. Walsh, chief of the department’s environmental health division, said health officials and representatives fttim the plasma center met last week to work out the center’s disposal problems. Lincoln Plasma Corp., 126 N. 14th St., has hired a new janitorial service to clean the center, Walsh said. Officials from the center told health officials that the old janitorial service had improperly disposed of the wastes found in the alley, he said. The center also has hired Brown ing-Ferns Industries to pick up medi cal waste products and incinerate them, he said. Walsh said the health department is satisfied with the changes Lincoln Plasma Corp. officials have made, and will not pursue the violations any further. “What they proposed is accept able to us,” he said. Ph.D.s needed SHORTAGE from Page 1 Song said that if freshman chemis try students can work under the more experienced senior faculty members instead of teaching assistants, they may be more convinced to pursue degrees in chemistry. The department also offers an incentive program to senior faculty members so more of them will teach freshman chemistry courses, Song said. If a senior professor volunteers to teach a freshman class, he said, the department will provide the professor with a free research assistantship. The program accomplishes two things, Song said. It helps professors with their research programs by of fering free research assistants, he said, and it gets the more experi enced, research-oriented professors to go into freshman classes. “We have more than 2,000 stu dents taking freshman chemistry,’’ Song said. “This would be a good place to start recruiting.’’ ' COLOR 1 WALLET PHOTOS FROM YOUR PICTURE 8 FOR $2.50 ON SALEjN_MARCH instant’passport photos HOME^OVIESJOyiDEOTAPE 1Kge_m_e_NTS ONE HOUR PRINTING _ANDPROCESSING [centrum plaza! 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