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Show VOLUME 50, ISSUE 80 FRIDAY. MAY 4. 1990 GNPO I- H ST V WEBER STATE COLLEGE QUINN JACOBSON THE SiSNPOST STRAIGHT FROM THE MOTHERLAND: Soviet born and bred Matvel Finkel entertained Thursday's Convocation crowd with tales of Smirnoff Vodka and Soviet egocentrism. Finkel Immigrated to the United States during the '80s. See story page 3. Minority recruitment boosted By Godfrey Akpan Staff writer of The Signpost There are plans to bridge the widening and long standing gap between white and minority students, said Melvin Gillespie, Coordinator of the multi cultural educational resource center. "Basically, what we are doing is to work with the community, parents and students to provide counselling at the very early stage (middle school)," said Gillespie. The multi cultural educational resource center is in the process of developing an extensive minority recruitement designed to attract minorities to WSC. According to the eight annual status reports on minorities in higher education, "from 1986 to 1988 higher percentages of white high school graduates enrolled in college while the college going rates of African-Americans and Hispanic high school graduates remained disproportionately low." It further states "that in a special analysis of 18 to 24-year-old dependent youth, family income and gender are major factors in high school completion and college participation." According to the 1988 data for dependents 18 to 24 years, "low income males in both the African-American and Hispanic communities have alarmingly low rates of high school completion. Forty- three percent of low income Hispanic males and 53 percent of low income African-American males completed high school, compared to 60 percent of low income Hispanic females and 69 percent of low income African-American females." The report further stated "between 1985 and 1987, African-Americans, Hispanics and American Indians continued to experience large declines in educational degrees at the bachelor's and master's levels. Whites and Asian Americans completed more degrees in this field, reversing a 10 year decline." "There is no state wide (See MINORITIES page 7) WSC gets new tech program Utah's only biotech program promises job opportunities galore By Joyce Zabriskie Staff writer of The Signpost For about a year the microbiology, zoology and botany departments of the school of natural sciences have become the steering committee to create a training program in biotechnology. The program received its nod of approval last Friday from the Board of Regents. Dr. Gene Bozniak, department chair of botany, Dr. Alan Stockland, department chair for microbiology and Dr. Steven Zeveloff, department chair for zoology have been instrumental in seeing the dream for such a program become a reality. The official name for the program is the Biotechnology Technicians Educational Program. It is designed to meet the needs of the biotechnology industry by providing technicians with hands on laboratory experience that will open good jobs to students in a variety of biotechnology companies. The three-year training program will allow students to achieve their associates of science degree in the first two years of study plus receive a laboratory intensive course of study that will qualify them for a biotechnician certificate. Dr. Cyrus McKell, dean of natural sciences said, "We have talked to students and have found a lot of interest in the program. "The original idea was to satisfy the needs of the local industries that work in biological applications. Biological technology is the broadest definition that applies biology to produce processes or products," he said. McKell said supporters of the program ran into difficulties with the other universities in the state because they felt that biotechnology signified research efforts in fields such as genetic engineering, plant engineering or pharmaceuticals. "Alan Stockland had a list of 51 companies who have needs for leaders, managers and technicians," McKell said. "They want people they can depend on that are well trained. "This is right for students, this is right for industry, and it fits our mission," he said. "It really has been the sort of thing that has given us optimism to move ahead. It brought three departments together in a cooperative effort, which is always good because they all three have something to contribute." The curriculum is based on input from each of the three departments that would turn out students that have a working knowledge of biotechnology and are prepared to step into the real world to fulfill a vital need. In January the proposal for the program went to the Board of Regents where the state's colleges and universities got a chance to review it. Before the proposal was acted upon it was reviewed by other schools to make sure there was no duplication in programs. "The Board of Regents makes the decision, but the other schools add their opinions to it," Bozniak said. "They review the process which actually helps to make it better. The Board is unlikely to approve something over the strong objections others." "We feel we got an very careful review that was very critical because of our name change here," McKell said. (See NEW JOBS page 7) |