Educators warn of degree fads by Rebeca Rodriguez Knight-Ridder Tribune Engineering and computer science de grees are as hot as ever despite the dot corn bust, but a quieter concern is smol dering at some Texas universities. Liberal arts programs at many schools have been declining or holding steady for years, and fields like English and history have had to struggle for funding and stu dents, said Marshall Hill, assistant com missioner for universities at the Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board in Austin. The dual trends raise the question of whether universities are merely incuba tors for future workers or places where young minds can discover and grow for the sake of learning. "The national rhetoric is that higher education is a place to prepare people for the work force," Hill said. "The core cur riculum is becoming increasingly more practically oriented than liberal arts based, and work-readiness is stressed during the last two years." Downward trends in the dot-com in dustry have not deterred thousands of Texas students from enrolling in com puter science and engineering programs at such schools as Texas Christian Uni versity in Fort Worth and the University of Texas at Arlington. In fact, many stu dents are returning to school to get ad vanced high-tech training to remain com petitive. Although the bust got a lot of news media attention, the dot-corn industry rep resents a small portion of the overall high technology field, said Dana Dunn, vice president of academic affairs at UT-Ar lington. Immediate Openings Local company has several openings working with customer sales and service. Work around classes. All majors considered. $12.80 base-appt. Scholarships and co-ops available. Conditions apply. No experience necessary. Gain resume experience. Call Meghan 10-6 p.m. 814-836-8970 Family Health Council's Erie and Edinboro offices welcome you to campus and our convenient health care offices. Birth Control ° Walkein Pregnancy Tests Emergency Contraception oGyne Exams ° Breast & Cervical Cancer Screening 1611 Peach St., Erie 118 E. Plum St., Edinboro 814-453-4718 Visit our website at: www.flicinc, org "Frankly, it's never been the stable nuts and-bolts professional base that these dis ciplines fuel," Dunn said. Basing one's degree program on mar ket forces isn't smart, said Curt Ely, as sistant dean for enrollment management and student development at the engineer ing school at Southern Methodist Univer sity in Dallas. "If a student thinks that they're going to insulate themselves from layoffs by changing out of engineering, they're kid ding themselves," he said. No industry is immune to layoffs, and high tech is still head and shoulders above other industries in terms of its job offer ings and salaries, he said. "Even with the current layoffs, high tech has created more high-paying jobs than any other industry," he said. The unemployment rate for electrical engineers before the dot-corn drop-off was about 0.4 percent, Ely said, whereas now it's about I percent. That's still much better than the state average of about 4 percent, he said. Much of the stimulus for continued high-tech growth and the popularity of high-tech degrees conies from what Ely called a technological cat-and-mouse game between software and hardware de velopments. For example, the introduction of Microsoft's Windows 95 operating sys tem led a wave of software programmers to enter the field. In the early '9os, hard ware moved to the forefront when 386 and 486 processors were scrapped for the faster Pentium chips. That trend also occurs in other fields, Ely said. For example, when space shuttle Challenger blew up in 1986, enrollment in aerospace engineering departments in- We specialize in confidential, affordable health care for students. a STD Testing & Treatment a Adoption and MORE! Family Health Council, Inc. . . lONAL Cok . il.P: US ,e, creased dramatically. And shortly after the Exxon Valdez Alaskan oil spill in 1989, students clamored for training in the en vironmental sciences, Ely said. Ultimately, students should try to choose fields that match their abilities and long-term goals, rather than picking what's popular at the moment, he said. Computer science and engineering are still strong majors at TCU, as well as com munications, political science and busi ness. Though those are good majors, they may not provide a student with the wide range of skills he or she needs in life, said Mary Volcansek, dean of the college of humanities and social sciences. She pointed out that students today are likely to have several careers in their life times. "Critical reading, analytic thinking, these are the skills that one develops and that become honed in a liberal arts pm gram," she said. "This is the last time in most students' lives until they reach their 50s or 60s that they will have time to con verse with the great philosophers, to read the great literature." But the financial draw of degrees in business or computer science is strong. "Just look at the Nasdaq," Volcansek said. "I think so many parents are look ing at paying a very high tab for college, and they want it to be practical and result in a good first job." Hill, of the coordinat ing board, said that although employers often say they want people who are broadly educated in a variety of fields, the percentage of liberal arts degrees has continued to decline for several years. 'The reality is, fields like English, his tory, sociology, geology and anthropol ogy do have to struggle," Hill said. "I per sonally lament that." 814-734-7600 Friday, August 31, 2001 Credit cards sink students in debt by Rachel Sams Knight-Ridder Tribune Florida State University junior Lloyd Spring has only one credit card. He likes it that way. But that hasn't stopped six other credit-card compa nies from sending him cards in the mail. Spring threw them all away. He saw a friend run up a $5,000 debt on four credit cards in his first semes ter at school, and he doesn't want that to happen to him. So he makes sure he has enough money in his bank ac- count to cover any purchases he charges. "For me personally, having a credit card has been good," Spring said. "But for many of the people I know, it hasn't been a pleasant experience." Having a credit card can be a great convenience for college students away from home -- and from their parents' money -- for the first time. Responsible use of a credit card can be the first step toward building a solid credit history. But, if students don't exercise restraint, credit cards can create problems that take years -- and thousands of dollars -- to fix. The cards are easy for students to get. Credit-card companies spend lots of time and money wooing students. 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Ltiki tits t isis Ise & ),I Istr:s7 AA I wacqt , vi be dad t41)11 Mos Ss, Is NI moo um 00 Ar • i Intere too n j o i n i ng the Beacon e7 I behrcolls@aol.coni writing, 'meet ds •deveop frien new soppo' itunity to work with professionals •looks great on a resume goodies for signing up. Or, as in Spring's experience, they send stu dents card applications by mail. Some students sign up for one card after another. That's their first mistake, financial advisers say. The next mistake many students make is putting purchases on their cards with no plan for how to pay for them later. That's how debt starts to grow. debt is easily Students) have a lifestyle they like to live in avoided, finan- college. If you can't work 40 hours a week, it's real hard to go out a lot, have good clothes, be in a fraternity or sorority." "It's getting to the point where it's common for a lot of young people 20 or 21 years old to have two or three credit cards, and student loans, too," said Mickey S. Moore, vice president and chief lending officer at Sunshine State Credit Union. Statistics back him up. Two recent studies -- a joint survey by the Edu cation Resources Institution and the Institute for Higher Education Policy and a survey by the firm Student Monitor -- found that nearly two thirds of college students had at least one credit card. Between 6 and 13 percent had four or more credit cards. How much are students charging on those cards? Student loan provider Nellie Mae reports the average stu dent credit-card debt is $2,478. Thirteen percent of the students in 814-899-2313 1 400 116 rZet Pips -Mickey S. Moore, vice president and chief lending officer at Sunshine State Credit Union 4402 BUFFALO RD. 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