Weber State College COMMENT January 1985 page 2 _ Reflections Tech school In ie this Alumnews i . issue: by Kent Randall Dean, School of Technology e School of Technology at Weber State College is involved in high tech education and training. The school is striving for excellence in all of 12 its programs. The path to excellence in 3 | these high tech programs contains several pitfalls that impede this lofty goal. The pitfalls are national in | 8-9 5| Alumni Awards Basketball “CheMystery” Change of address? 11 Cooperative researchlO Alumni feature Life insurance : Reflections Parole board : President Brady President’s message SSS strives for excellence ‘nature. 6-7 ~ | Pitfall number one: it is difficult to recruit and retain quality faculty members. Because technology faculty | must be familiar with the latest in2 dustrial equipment and_ techniques, ] | they need solid industrial experience to make a full contribution to the educa3 tion and training of students. Those Q | having this experience are often reluc-: tant to leave industry to go into education due to lower salaries and lack of current industrial equipment. The knowledge explosion has contributed to a second part of this pitfall: technology faculty start becoming technically obsolete the day they leave industry to begin careers in education. A vigorous campaign is needed to com- bat this tendency for obsolescence. It is a challenge in our school to provide a faculty development program to remedy this negative situation. Attendance at technical seminars, workshops, short training courses and formal courses along with regular doses of self-study are ways of alleviating the problem. Sabbatical leaves for educational purposes, or to’ allow faculty to update industrial experience needed to be encouraged and supported. Part-time employment or consulting and summer employment are especially valuable to faculty who need to become familiar with state-ofthe-art equipment and the techniques for effectively using the equipment. To integrate complex new equipment into a curriculum requires faculty who have the technical knowledge, and who have experience with the equipment. A second pitfall facing technology is | the lack of modern equipment. | Technology, by its nature, is oriented toward student experiences in the shop and laboratory where equipment is vital to student learning. All curriculum areas in technology have been influenced by computers, making most non-computerized equipment obsolete. Replacement of obsolete equipment is expensive. The lack of modern equipment is a shortcoming that the school of technology shares with others nationally. Solutions must be found to resolve the equipment crises. A technically competent faculty with labs and shops filled with modern equipment are distinguishing characteristics of excellent programs: If these two ingredients are available, graduating students from technology programs have a high probability that they will be fully employable. They will have current technical knowledge and skills through hands-on experiences with state-of-the-art equipment. Employers will find the graduates immediately effective in high tech jobs, and this is a distinct advan-. tage to the employers. Where faculty and equipment are obsolete, graduates Kent Randall joined the WSC faculty in 1957 as a professor of manufacturing engineering technology. He was appointed to his current position as dean of the School-of Technology in March of 1979. instil State are less employable. When hired, in- education. We are fortunate in the sup- life i: dustry port we've received in equipment gifts, but we still have much to be done to educ to le Mate some keep by must subsidize providing their education the “cutting edge” knowledge and skills. This is inefficient and costly to industry. Resources from the state to support higher education are limited. We find it difficult to pay the salaries needed to attract high tech faculty, to provide adequate faculty development, and to purchase modern equipment. New sources of financing must be found. Let me suggest that it may be cost effective for industry to support high tech education and training through donations of equipment and money, thus assuring a quality graduate who brings | to his or her employer current technical knowledge and skills. | Costs of ineffective performance and the costs associated with in-house education and training necessary to develop graduates to be fully effective in their high tech jobs would be eliminated or severely reduced. This would be of great benefit to our industry counter- ' parts. Many businesses and industries are becoming more aware of this, and they are making generous donations to solve the resource problem. Another source of financing is from the income of an endowment fund. Contributions need to be solicited from industry, alumni and other supporters to build an endowment where the interest will provide important dollars) for ment faculty development purchases. We and appeal ; this « ment suffic make State estak areas State to fo As I hav chap the c staff wher on cc Du equip- to our alumni to consider the lasting value of a generous gift as an endowment. With the establishment of these financial supports, it is kinds of possible to / develop high tech programs of excellence. Students will be attracted to our programs, graduates of our programs will be sought after by industry, and be at- tracted to our community. The new dustries will provide employment portunities for our graduates and the community. It is our intent to pursue these high tech industries will inopfor Lofg: Hurs Relat the | fairs, Alun have withi coun Th upda the \ op- tions to insure a high level of excellence} in our programs. We will need and ap- preciate your help! Apology I apologize to G. Val Lofgreen, 1984-85 story. Another letter and photo, duly Alumni Association president, for not credited, may be found on page nine of identifying him on his first letter to the alumni which appeared in the October issue of Comment. Nor did | identify the photo which accompanied the this issue. happ how > T.J. Bond, Editor = b. :