Enrollment dips challenge quality of education
By VANCE HINER and IAN SIMPSON Staff Reporters
Plato planted the seeds of the modern university 2,400 years ago in the olive groves of Athens. He wanted to mold the ideal man, one accomplished in all facets of knowledge, be it music, mathematics or grammar.
On the slopes of Mount Oread today, this ideal collides with reality.
As the University of Kansas faces the '80s, declining enrollment and funds, reduced faculty and increasing dependence on the private and government sector may radically affect the quality of higher education.
PLATO'S GOAL, that of preparing students to cope with all aspects of life, is still the primary intent of the educational system at KU, according to many administrators and faculty.
David Ambler, vice chancellor for student affairs, said that more stringent English and mathematics entrance requirements were evidence of the University's dedication to a broadly liberal arts education for all students.
"We're trying to make it clear to students that receiving a liberal education is a prerequisite to understanding and coping with the realities of life."
Ambler and other administrators point to various academic reforms on campus as an indication of KU's resistance to the decline in the quality of higher education that many universities are experiencing.
KU'S BACHELOR of General Studies program was recently revised to include 16 hours of a foreign language and minimum mathematics proficiency requirements for graduation.
"During the '60s, many universities lowered their standards and expectations," Ambler said. "I think there is a sign that KU is re-examining this. For instance, it's now quite possible for a student to flunk out of KU."
"Students have to really work and achieve or they won't get their degrees."
However, good intentions cannot keep an institution alive. As the baby boom of the '506 fade to a whisper in this decade, the nation's student population will peak at 11.7 million in 1982 and begin its slow but certain decline.
The Office of Institutional Research and Planning (OIRP) has projected an enrollment decline at KU of nearly 20 percent.
KU's ENROLLMENT has steadily increased in the past 1979, and the University does not forgive any delay this fall.
Although a drop in enrollment is inevitable, accurate predictions of its size are difficult to make. Last year, the University's enrollment jumped beyond the number projected by OIRP.
"We have done much better than we have anticipated." Dana did. "I am constantly赞助ed and pleased with our enrolment."
However, Teeter said that such projections are "a guessing game at best." She said factors like the location of the University, its prestige, the region's economy and population shifts could influence enrollments.
A GREATER PERCENTAGE of high school graduates who choose to attend college may offset the projected enrollment decline, according to John Myers, director of admissions.
Myers said that the increasing number of older and part-time students might also inhibit the decline.
"There's a real trend of more adults coming back to school, or current students continuing their education," he said. "But we do have that problem called the baby bust. There were just fewer people born after 1857."
The number of high school seniors nationwide will drop 19 percent by 1986, and Kansas is projected to have 17 percent
SUCH A SLIDE means KU will have a smaller, traditional market from which to draw the students it needs to fill classrooms. Fewer students could mean less money from the state.
The state legislature bases its expenditures on the number of credit hours taken by students. The formula, desirable in a time of steadily increasing enrollments, is in disfavor with administrators because of its rigidity.
"You lived with the formula on the way up, now can you live with it on the way down?" asked Jerry Hutchison, vice chancellor for academic affairs. "I hope we don't get to that point."
In the proposed formula, credit hours would play a smaller role in budget proposals. The quality of research, libraries, student services, administrative and professional developments would be considered before arriving at budget requests.
TO MAKE UP for the loss of funds that result from declining interest rates is advocating a less rigid formula for setting funding levels.
KU's budget would then be compared with those universities in its peer group: the University of North Carolina, the
University of Oregon, the University of Oklahoma, the University of Colorado and the University of Iowa.
Tony Genova, chairman of the department of philosophy, said formula funding would limit interdepartmental fighting.
"It will get the faculty not to think, credit hours, credit hours, credit hours," but to work with other departments and do joint projects," he said. "Departments won't put large or small classes of students, or resist sharing credit hours with other departments."
KEITH NITCHER, director of business affairs, said formula funding allowed the University a period of time to prepare for the effects of lower enrollment, rather than being surprised by sudden budget cuts.
"The new formula is designed to react to changing levels of funding." he said.
Although the University already submits its budget to the Regents in a formula form, the Legislature has yet to adopt formula budgeting, and Gov. John Carlin has given it only qualified support.
"The governor has never recommended the full adoption of formula funding," said Don Smith, assistant press secretary to Carlin. "Formula funding is a useful tool for comparison. It can be used in conjunction with the budget of similar institutions and use this as a benchmark."
IF FORMULA FUNDING is not adopted by the Legislature, the subsequent decrease in funds could make it difficult to finance the project.
Junior faculty, for example, may tend to neglect their classes to do the research necessary to land a permanent position. James Gowen, chairman of the department of Engg., will provide faculty to be dismissed would be the temporary instructors.
see EDUCATION page 15
Who will next live in the KU chancellor's residence? Currently occupied by Acting Chancellor Del Shankel and his family, the residence will have a new family, KU's 14th chancellor, in about a year. After seven years of service, Chancellor Archie R. Dvkes resigned last June to set off a flow of
moving vans. His resignation also began questions about KU's direction in the next decade. Some of these questions about KU's financial autonomy, educational quality and the kind of chancellor needed are addressed in this section.
City's business leaders want another chancellor like Dykes
Rv SHELL V COKER and TAMMI HARBERT
If city government and business leaders had their way, they would make a carbon copy of Archie Dykes to fill the chancellorship of the University of Kansas for the next 20 years.
"If you could clone Archie Dykes, I'd be very happy with that," Ed Carter, Mayor of
Staff Reporters
R. A. Edwards, president of Douglas County Bank, said Dykes did an "extremely fine job" as chancellor, and was good at negotiating between the University and community.
"The new chancellor should be a person similar to Chancellor Dykes, someone able to get along with legislators, alumni, students, and faculty," said Edwards, a 1973 KU graduate.
ALTHOUGH ALMOST all community
Ed Carter
residents surveyed by the Kanaa thought Dykes been an abomination had taught his response to run things differently.
Ton Gleason, president of the Orcad Neighborhood Association, said the next chancellor should not put as much emphasis on public relations as Dykes did.
"I'd like to see someone who is less concerned with appearances and more concerned with your personality."
Residents of the Oread Neighborhood are concerned about the new chancellor's interest in the city because of their proximity to the campus, he said. Plans for a new alumn building, which will be located near the bourboc's western border, led some residents to question, the University's sensitivity to
see CHANCELLOR page 13
Master's degree needed for administrative jobs
By SUSANA NAMNUM Staff Reporter
Just as the invention of the automobile made the horse and buggy obsolete, the master's degree has replaced the bachelor's degree as a requirement for many KU administrative jobs.
In Strong Hall, the administrative scepter of the University of Kansas, the law of supply and demand seems to be feeding the fires of a galloping academic inflation. Kawaii School District admit that the higher standards correspond in part to a swelling pool of highly educated applicants.
IRONICALLY, WHILE a job seeker without a master's degree may not be worth his salt in the marketplace, the glut of applicants with advanced degrees lower the market value of their master's degrees.
"It if there are enough highly qualified people, it makes sense to set high standards," said George Woodyard, associate dean of the Graduate School where he directly hired a Ph.D. as an assistant to the dean.
"Lawrence happens to have a large number of applicants with advanced degrees. This is either fortunate or unfortunate, depending on whether you're an employer or a job seeker."
The KU spiral mirrors national trends, which show that the number of master's and doctoral degrees granted nationwide each year jumped a whopping 50 percent from 1988 to 1973. At KU the number of doctoral degrees swelled to 1,029 in 1979. Also 400, PhD.s were granted in 1979, compared with 284 in 1978.
JOAN SHERWOOD, assistant vice chancellor for the office of Student Affairs, where a master's degree has technically been a minimum requirement for full-time directors and assistant directors since 1978, insists that the policy was motivated solely by a desire to hire persons with a "broader perspective." The policy technically affects at least 65 jobs.
Another effect of more stringent requirements for administrative jobs is that they shrink the pool of applicants. Although Sherwood said this
see MASTER'S page nine
KU grads must work harder to join competitive job market
By WALTER THORP Staff Reporter
Staff Reporter
KU graduates are finding that they must work harder to find jobs in a more competitive job market, according to University placement states and state and local employment officials.
Vernon Geissler, University placement director, said students should research prospective employers and pay careful attention to details such as spelling and neatness in the resume. Student should begin looking for employment long before they graduate.
There are plenty of jobs available for students who work hard to find them, he said.
"All the statistics aren't in yet for the 1980 graduating class. Up until the end of last semester, our placement was high and we were in a real tightening in the job market," Gaelser said.
HE SAID most KU graduates last semester were entering managerial positions that had not been affected much by major company cutbacks. In backups, he said, had been in production line jobs.
Ed Mills, manager of the Job Service Center in Lawrence, said KU graduates make up a large part of the 4.9 percent of Lawrence residents who are unemployed.
"It is very difficult to place KU graduates of professional positions is limited," he said.
Bill Layes, research supervisor for the Kansas Deartment of Human Resources, said unemployment claims had doubled from last year. He said, the state would extend benefit payments.
Health-related career fields such as doctors, dentists, nurses and therapists; computer science fields; electrical engineering fields; and accounting have shown the highest increase in employment demand recently. Layes said. Economists are in moderate demand. But there is little demand for journalists, architects, art teachers, medical engineers, sociologists and teachers in Kansas.
"Liberal arts and sciences graduates are definitely coming out on the short end," he said. "Employers now seem to be looking for people who can be easily trained in specialized fields."
JAMES HENRY, placement director for the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences, said that although demand for liberal arts graduates was high, she noted that many graduates, the job possibilities were still good.
"Liberal arts and sciences students, because of their broad educational background, make better teachers."
There is a high demand for geology, chemistry and computer science graduates, Henry said. But demand is low for graduates in German, art history and personnel administration.
"No one ever comes to me and says 'I have this great job for someone with a BA in German,'" he said. "The question often has to be asked is whether I can be flexible and look at some other options?"
REFERRING TO AN increase in the number of company visits, recruiter visits and student interviews conducted at KU last year, Geissler was a national trend toward more recruiting.
He said the increase reflected a "healthy demand in industry for KU graduates."