Vincent Haneman, dean of the School of Engineering at the University of Alaska Fairbanks, talks about the difficulty of finding qualified instructors for engineering, directing the formation of a two-year study to evaluate the problem, the results showing some very disastrous trends, 9.4 percent of instructor positions went unfilled in public schools and 8 percent of instructor positions in private schools went unfilled, less and less young people who are qualified not going on to be involved in engineering education, aging faculty, professors being recruited away from schools and entering into private industry, Three fourths of engineering faculty having to increase their teaching loads, close to half the schools having to drop classes because no one was there to teach them, dropping research projects to meet the classroom needs, research bringing modern technology to the students, techniques are being developed in industry and not being taught in the schools across the country, new technologies were coming from the schools of engineering in the recent past, lack of pay for engineering faculty, the shortage of faculty in Alaska possibly curtailing enrollment, at present continuing to accept qualified students, some colleges and universities cutting back, Alaskans having the opportunity to pursue the field of their choice and having the opportunities to practice their professions with quality backgrounds.
