OCR Text |
Show 4 THE SIGNPOST Wednesday, May 23, 1990 New programs and training fortify foreign language department By Robert W. Belka Contribulflng writer to The Signpost Salaries in higher education in Utah over the past decade have not held pace with inflation while those in other areas of the country have surpassed inflation for nine straight years. Salaries in Utah now average 30 percent below the national average. Not only will faculty who do not have family or emotional ties to Utah continue to leave Weber State for higher paying positions outside the state, but over the next decade while we experience a bumper crop of high school graduates. This will make it increasingly difficult to recruit faculty. One result may be a heavy influx of people who are willing to accept a lower paying position in Utah for philosophical (religious) reasons. This would mean a reduction of diverse ideas and concepts essential for the intellectual life at the university. To attract quality faculty the institution must be competitive. This often means offering a recent graduate a position for more money that a faculty member who has proven hisher intellectual mettle over a period of ten or twenty years. On one hand, we ask existing faculty to do more for less pay, and then we hire an inexperienced junior faculty member for more pay. This phenomenon is one of the morally bankrupt inconsistencies of a market-driven educational system that people insist we must live with, but it may lead to massive disenchantment of senior facutly and perhaps militant unionism and strikes. The decade will continue to bring an accelerated incorporation of electronic technology. In the foreign language department, video cassettes will replace audio cassettes making it possible for studetns to see and heat the language being used on location. Computers will paly an increasingly important role. Videos and computers working together may make it financially feasible for institutions of modest means to offer almost any langauage to small numbers of students. The entire department has taken training in interviewing techniques that makes an accurate diagnosis of a person's functiuonal ability in a lanauage possible. We have applied for an NEH grant to undergo an extensive, three-year revision of our curriculum. Over the next few years we expect major changes in the way we teach and Communication (Continued from page 3) civic responsibility and for employment opportunities in light of resources that probably ' will continue to be inadequate. A continuing concern will be whether the department is abreast of and in tune with changing needs in the job market. For example, the traditional broadcasting industry is deluged with applicants for comparatively few positions. Department faculty might consider the possibility feasibilitydesirability of changing our current broadcasting emphasis to a corporate media emphasis or even a major. Another possibility might be to combine the current broadcasting and public relations emphasis into a corporate communication major which would include the study of organizational communication. I anticipate several advances. Department faculty will continue to become increasingly sophisticated. In the spirit of a "metropolitan university," faculty will share their knowledge and expertise with business and government seeking to help better our society. Communication technologies such as computer-interfaced video disks will play an important role in augmenting traditional lecture-discussion instruction. During the 1990s, we may see the oral communication equivalent of Writing Across the Curriculum developed and put into place. Overall, I believe the 1990s will be an exciting decade of new challenges and developments. There will be change, adjustments and innovations all of which must be harmonized with our new status of Weber State University. nd the finalists are... MASTER TEACHER OF THE YEAR James Christian Graia Oberg Gordon Allred Brian Davis Karen Lofgreen PERSONALITY OF THE YEAR Gary Toyn Melinda Royiance Darren Ewing Treg Julander Byron Anderson SCHOLAR OF THE YEAR Dan Alsup Dee Larsen Michelle Berry William Luna Carol Norman ORGANIZATION OF THE YEAR Signpost WSC Cheerleaders Orchesis Dance Theatre 88.1 KWCR Chantonelles evaluate languages, we expect increased articulation of programs with our public school colleagues, and we expect increased professional activity. Authorization of a full-time position in Japanese is the first major expansion into a language other than French, German, or Spanish. We hope to increase the choices for langauage study at Web?r Ssite over the next 10 years. Next year we will be offering first year Russian during the day schedule and a first year Portuguese course and a Portugese literature course at night. This summer we will be offering the first Weber State language immersion program in French, German, Italian and Spanish. If it is successful, we may offer less commonly taught languages following the same model. ST -: . ''Tp?... - - ; jJ " v1,,,,.,, .,,...-, I- I i) I i .,...,- Ill OUINN JACOBSON THE SIGNPOST '90s bring HPERD new building, administration By Gary Willden Contributing writer to The Signpost The Weber State Department of health, physical education, recreation, and dance, begins the decade of the 90s with great expectations! The move into our long-awaited new facility in June with full use of the complex beginning autumn quarter. Many new opportunities and capabilities will be open to students, staff and faculty as a result. We will provide majoring students with "state-of-the-art" experiences in the use of technology for health and fitness appraisals, exercise prescription and testing, performance analysis, and classroom and lab teaching stations and of facilities for free intramurals are included. Our new Health and Physical Education Center (the Swenson Gym and the new building complex) will be a fitting component of the Weber State University of the 90s and beyond. Major curriculum review and revision is underway in the department's physical education teaching major. Several minors and other programs are receiving scrutiny and updating. Our greatest area of growth is expected in our new physical lifestyle management major which prepares students to work in the areas of commercial fitness, corporate health promotion and fitness programming. HPERD will start the 1990-91 academic year with a new (See HPERD page9) We now have tan through suits S !IJ I M MJ E n i or the hottest styles the biggest selection visit 158 W 36 St. Ogden (North of Mervyn's) 392-4362 i- Soon to be known as California's Swlmwear |