The History of the Oswego State University Technology Department (1989 – 2003)
Written by:
Jason Fabian
Introduction
The Oswego State University Technology Department has been in existence since 1886. Over that time there has been many changes. In this paper the author will be focusing on the changes between 1989 and 2002. Even though there has been changes in the program over the years it has consistently been a leader in preparing technology teachers for the teaching field. When talking about any educational program there are four main areas that should be addressed; the faculty and chairperson, the curriculum, the facilities, and the students.
Faculty and chairperson
The faculty in the Technology Education program at Oswego are very deticated to their careers. When the university was cutting funds the faculty received donations from companies to ensure they would have enough supplies and help keep the program up-to-date. Over the years the faculty has received numerous awards including Teacher of the Year to Dr. Salvagin from the Technology Education Association. The faculty has be very active writing multiple articles, putting on conferences, assisting in writing new textbooks, and putting on workshops. They also attend an average of 30 conferences a year. The department has had three different chairmen between 1972 and 2003. Dr. Vernon Tryon was the chairman from 1972 until 1993, Dr. Linda Rae Markert from 1993 until 1997, and Mr. Philip Gaines from 1998 to present. Every year the faculty puts on the Fall Conference, which is a two-day conference for technology teachers to come and see what is new in the field. The number of people attending the conference has increased just about every year for the last ten years.
Curriculum
Oswego State Department of Technology offers three different curriculums; the Technology Education undergraduate curriculum, the Technology Management undergraduate curriculum, and the Technology Education Graduate curriculum. Over the past few years the curriculum for obtaining a Bachelors of Science degree in Technology Education has had a few changes. Up until the 1997-98 school year incoming freshman needed to take a total of 127 semester hours, 60 of them from general education requirements and electives, the other 67 credits make up the Technology Education major. In the 1998-99 school year students were required to take TEL 348 Electronic Publishing and Technical document instead of TED 200 Engineering Materials, which are not offered any more. Then in the 2000-01 school year the curriculum changed again for incoming freshman. Students would now need 65 credits for the Technology Education major. Rather than being required to take all five of the Materials and Processing Labs a student only needed to take four of them. Also, students would now be required to do a field experience observation, assisting and practicum for one credit each. The two professional field experiences that were worth seven credits each were then worth six credits each. Then again in the 2003-04 school year the curriculum changed for the incoming freshman. The Foundations Labs and Materials and Processes Labs are now called the Core Requirements. Most of the classes are the same, one of the classes that changed was C.A.D.D., which was one of the Systems Labs, is now one of the Core Requirements. Electronic Publishing and Technical Documents is no longer required. A student also needs 27 semester hours in the Core Requirement section compared to only needing 24 credits between the Foundation Labs and the Processes Labs. Under the Systems Labs section a student now needs 12 semester hours instead of 9. The new class under the Systems Labs is Communications, which replaced Integrated Electronic Imagery. The last change in the curriculum in 2003 was that students only need one Technical elective instead of two. All of the professional education requirements are still the same, needing 26 semester hours. All four of the sections total 68 semester hours for the Technology Education Major.
When the master’s program began every student had to write a thesis paper to obtain his or her degree. In the 1961-62 school year a second option was offered in place of the thesis paper, a research project. Now there are three options for students to choose from along with the six core courses that have to be taken. The third option that came about was taking twelve semester hours of graduate courses that are approved by the student’s advisor. Students are aloud to transfer six semester hours into Oswego toward your elective credits with advisor’s approval. Due to staff shortages the Technology department currently offers only three one credit electives towards the twelve that are needed. In the past it was exceptible to take all twelve-semester hours in Driver Education, now only six semester hours are excepted. Also, with the core classes a student needs to choose three of the classes to take a proficiency exam in.
Facilities:
The facilities for the Technology Education program are located in Park and Wilber Halls. Between the two halls there are fourteen technical laboratories totaling 39,500 square feet with $4.5 million dollars in equipment, tools and inventory. There is also one methods laboratory with 1,824 square feet, one Art studio with 2,135 square feet, a BOCES laboratory with 3,000 square feet, and a Niagara Mohawk training unit with 5,112 square feet that was put in for the 1992-93 school year which is now gone. Between the two buildings there are also twenty-four offices, nine classrooms with seating capacity of 20 or more, and an auditorium that holds 300 people. In May 3, 1996 there was a fire in Wilber Hall in room B-5, which was Dr. Sorrenson’s photography lab. All of the contents of the room were destroyed, but luckily no one was hurt. A sofa that was in the room started the fire. In 1990 room 165 Wilber was converted into a construction systems lab. Then in 1993, 202 Park Hall was renovated into a CADD lab with twenty state-of-the-art computers.
The amount of money allotted to the Technology department has decreased just about every year. In the 1985-86 school year the Technology department was given $40,000 for supplies and expenses, which worked out to be $139.89 per student. In the 1998-99 school year they received $21,884 or $68.17 per student.
Students
In 1989 there was 234 Technology Education majors with a ratio of 10.4 students to every teacher. At that time the campus average ratio was 22 to1. There were 61 students that graduated with undergraduate and 21 with graduate degrees in Technology Education that year, which was the third most productive college in the United States. That year there were six times as many jobs available than there was graduates, with the average starting teaching salary being $24,258. The construction class that year designed and built benches for the university as a gift. In 1990 there was 223 technology majors. That year the staff put on a big push recruiting to increase enrollment in the department by visiting two year schools, sending out filers, putting up posters around campus and even putting a full page ad in the Oswegonian. In 1991 there was 160 undergraduate students 151 of them male and 9 female, which was an all time low. In 1993-94 the average salary for Technology majors was $26,075. Between 1994 and 1999 the student enrollment for the Technology department increased an average of 14.8 percent a year. By 1997 the average starting salary was up to $28,753 for Technology Education majors. During the 1997-98 school year there was 107 part time graduate students, but by the following year that number was down to 98. In 1998-99 the department was projecting that the enrollment would reach 450 to 500 majors. By 2000-01 the department was at an all time with 336 Technology Education majors. That year 52 students graduated with undergraduate degrees and 24 with graduate degrees. During the 2001-02 school year there was 71 undergraduates and 17 graduates that received their degrees. Which was the most in the United States. During the2001-02 school year there are 327 undergraduate Technology Education majors with the employment opportunities still much higher than the amount of graduates (76 undergraduates and 21 graduates) that will receive there degrees this year.
Conclusion
In conclusion the author believes that the Technology department at SUNY Oswego has done a good job of making the appropriate changes to the curriculum to keep in up to date, but not change it so much so that it became a totally different major. With the enrollment going up, the department has also done a good job of selling its program to students, making it the largest Technology Education program in the state. The facilities, equipment, and supplies that are used by the department are an appropriate representation in size and quantity to what would be used in a high school setting.
Bibliography:
Tryon, V., Gaines, P., Markert L.R., 1989-2003 Technology Education Department Annual Report, School of Education, Oswego State University.