Shortage of doctoral faculty predicted
By Dionne Searcey
Staff Reporter
A wave of faculty members with doctoral
degrees could retire from the University of
Ncbraska-Lincoln, officials said, making a
pipeline of students entering doctoral programs
essential.
Marijane England, academic systems coor
dinator for the vice chancellor for academic
affairs, said 45 of 1,213 tenured or tenure-track
faculty members at UNL arc age 65 or older.
“These people eventually will need to be
replaced by a pool of new Ph.D.s,” she said.
John Vaughn of the Association of Ameri
can Universities in Washington said the large
number of retiring doctorate professors stemmed
from an increase of doctoral graduates who
entered the work force 20-30 years ago.
In the ’60s and ’70s, the number of doctoral
graduates in America increased from about
10,000 to roughly 26,000, he said.
In subsequent years, students turned away
from an academic market that was filled, Vaughn
said.
Now, the people who made up the surplus of
doctoral degrees are retiring, he said. Replace
ments for those professors may not be easy to
find.
Merlin Lawson, associate dean of graduate
studies at UNL, said half the people with doc
torates in the United States are age 45 or older.
“There will be an abrupt shift in the market
from oversupply to undcrsupply,” he said.
James Gricsen, vice chancellor for student
affairs, said demand for university faculty
members with Ph.D.s has prompted more stu
dents to seek doctoral degrees in education.
Sixty of 208 doctorates awarded at UNL
from December 1989 to August 1990 were
obtained in the area of education, he said.
And, Lawson said, the overall enrollment
for the doctoral program at UNI. is up 9 per
cent, from 1,246 enrol led in the fall semester of
1989 to 1,357 students enrolled this fall.
“Students are recognizing that graduate work
is important to achieve career goals,” Lawson
said.
Despite a growing number of students seek
ing doctorates in education, Griesen said, the
academic world doesn’t have a surplus.
“We’re all competing for a fixed number of
them,” he said.
Vaughn said universities need to start in
creasing enrollment in doctoral programs so
graduates with Ph.D.s will be available to the
job market as faculty members begin to retire
in the next five to eight years.
“If we wait until a demand appears... then
we’ll be a decade out of phase,” he said.
A shortage of doctoral graduates is expected
in all disciplines within five to 10 years, Vaughn
said.
Roger Bruning, associate dean of graduate
studies, said one way to increase enrollment in
doctoral programs is to improve minority re
cruiting efforts.
The graduate student office is working with
other departments to recruit ethnic and racial
minority doctoral students, he said.
“One of the goals of UNL’s graduate pro
gram is to increase ethnic and racial diversity
of students obtaining Ph.D.s,” Burning said.
Lawson said that of23,172 doctoral degrees
earned in America last year, only 2,124 were
obtained by Asians, blacks, Hispanics and
American Indians.
Another way to encourage students to seek
doctorates, Vaughn said, would be to increase
available financial aid.
In 1969, the federal government financed
about 60,000 doctoral fellowships. This has
dropped to 13,000, Vaughn said.
But, Bruning said, financial support isavail
able to students who look hard enough for it.
Students can cam stipends from research
obtained in education, he said.
“Many students don’t realize the kinds of
support available in getting financial help,” he
said.
Maintenance priorities listed1
By Adeana Leftin
Staff Reporter
A recent survey conducted by the
•University of Nebraska-Lincoln has
provided the university with a list of
maintenance priorities that must be
met, an official said.
Rich McDermott, UNL director of
facilities management, said the sur
vey, which was conducted overa five
month period, checked all the pri
mary university facilities.
Now, McDermott said, urgent
projects must be sorted out and listed
for funding.
McDermott said renovations must
be made to Burnett and Richards halls
and campus buildings must be re
paired to meet building codes.
Elevator repair and improvements
to fire or life-safety systems are ex
amples of priority maintenance that
can’t be deferred, McDermott said.
Heating, ventilation and air condi
tioning will be on the deferred list,
but “really need a lot of work,” he
said.
Facilities management is able to
do everything that must be done, he
said, “but we aren’t able to get to a lot
of things that ought to be done.”
And, McDermott said, it’s the
deferred list that’s causing the back
log of needed maintenance at UNL.
“My concern,” he said, “is how
long can we let the building deferred
maintenance backlog grow before we
seriously impede program delivery?”
If maintenance keeps putting off
what should be done, McDermott said,
those projectscventually will become
“must be done.”
“It would be cost effective for the
state to increase routine maintenance
at UNL and avoid the higher cost of
breakdown maintenance,” he said.
McDermott said he is under pres
sure to make existing resources go
further.
“Facilities management is continu
ally striving to optimize the use of
what resources we have, but to fully
accomplish our role, we need help,”
he said.
According to the University of
Nebraska capital construction request
for 1991-93, UNL requires mainte
nance funding of about $4.6 million.
This year, UNL facilities manage
ment received S2 million from the
state through the operating budget
and $1.7 million from the Deferred
Maintenance Task Force set up under
LB309.
LB309 was passed in 1978 and
allocates funds for university mainte
nance, said H.L. Pete Petersen, ad
ministrative consultant to the gover
nor for deferred maintenance.
McDermott said this year’s allo
cation was “the strongest support we’ve
gotten from 309 in a long time.”
“Right now, they (the Deferred
Maintenance Task Force) represent
the gap between being able to get
‘must’ requests done or not.”
In 1989-90, UNL received $ 1.409
million from the task force. That
amount was up from $685,(XXi in 1988
89.
Because funding from the task force
changes annually, support for UNL
fluctuates, he said.
“Our real hope is that 309 will
expand and we’ll be able to get more
done at UNL,” McDermott said.
He said that currently, funds from
the task force arc for the envelopes of
buildings, like doors, windows and
walls. McDermott said he would like
to sec an expanded scope for the task
force so funds could be used for inter
nal subsystems such as classrooms.
“They can only do that if they
receive more funding support from
the state of Nebraska,” he said.
“Whenever we get the chance to talk
to people at 309, we tell them it’s
critical money for critical projects at
UNL.”
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