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Volume 89 Issue 6 • Oct. 27, 2014
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Transfer degree pros outweigh cons By Bleah B. Patterson
bpatterson13@student.alamo.edu
Diwali Dancer Ahagha Prasad, 13, performs a classical dance of South India called Bharatanatyam Wednesday between Gonzales and McCreless halls for Diwali, a festival of lights celebrating good over evil. Ahagha has been dancing for seven years. Neven Jones
Dental laboratory technology program closing Decline in enrollment, lack of exposure caused the closure. By Cynthia M. Herrera sac-ranger@alamo.edu
This college is closing the doors on its dental laboratory technology program, which is one of only two such programs at community colleges in Texas and among the most venerable in the United States. The closure mirrors a trend throughout the country, said Richard W. Valachovic, president and CEO of the American Dental Education Association. Mike Swain, program coordinator of dental laboratory technology, said the decision to close the program was made nine or 10 months ago because of a lack of students. “I am deeply disappointed, and so are laboratory owners that I have talked with in San Antonio,” he said. The program has nine students enrolled. That’s down from 17 who started in fall 2013, when the dean had to approve the class because enrollment was under the 25-student minimum. The program did not receive enough exposure, Swain said. Some students found out about it only by chance, he said, noting he is a one-person operation. “The National Association of
Dental Laboratories is saddened to see the program close,” said Bennett Napier, CAE, chief staff executive and publisher of the Journal of Dental Technology. Dental lab technicians make dentures, crown and bridges. Dentures are removable frames that hold artificial teeth. Crowns and bridges, unlike dentures, are permanent artificial teeth cemented together with existing teeth. The program began in 1970 at the University of Texas Health Science Center, Napier said. It remained there when this college acquired the program in 2005. Two years later, the program moved into the nursing complex, where a laboratory was built specifically for the program. The program is one of the oldest in the country and served as a model for other schools, Napier said. The only other community college program in Texas is at Texas State Technical College in Harlingen. When the program started, it flourished with 26 students and two instructors at its peak, Swain said. He has been with the program since 1978. Safan Ali, a 2009 graduate of the dental laboratory technology program, said it is a “really good and strong foundation, and good starting point.” Ali owns Jim’s Orthodontics
Ryan Bloom, dental laboratory technician sophomore, practices putting caps on the casted teeth of an articulator in his Dental Laboratory Technology course Oct. 22 in the nursing complex. Ian Coleman Lab in Houston, which he opened about five years ago. Ali said he will provide internships for students if they are in good academic standing and receive Swain’s approval. Dental laboratory technology is a growing field, according to the Journal of Dental Technology from the National Association of Dental Laboratories. Ali attributes this to the increasing use of digital technology in the dental field. Wages for dental technicians have gone up 4 percent from last year, and the hiring percentage for new technicians went up 4.5 percent, according to the U.S. Department of Labor. Despite that, dental lab tech-
nology programs aren’t attracting as many students nationwide. First-year enrollment has declined from 908 in 1989-90 to 435 in 20112012, according to the American Dental Education Association. At this college, five of the program’s students will graduate in spring 2015 with a certificate and associate degree; the other four will receive a certificate and continue general education courses to complete their degree, Swain said. “The dental community at large and lab owners in particular have benefited greatly from the knowledge and skills of technicians who had their start in this program,” Swain said. “Lab businesses in San Antonio will have to settle for a lesser qualified employee.”
Students should worry less about losing a concentration specification on diplomas and more about losing credit hours during the transfer process to a four-year university, Jo-Carol Fabianke, vice chancellor of academic success said. Fabianke and Chancellor Bruce Leslie talked with trustees at the Oct. 21 Student Success Committee meeting about new transfer degrees that students who entered the Alamo Colleges this semester will get. The decision to remove concentrations, or major specifications, from diplomas was made by the Presidents and Vice Chancellors Committee, or PVC, in April when degree plans in the 2013-14 and 201415 catalog were changed from Associate of Art or Associate of Science degrees with “concentrations,” to “advising guides.” District administrators have faced backlash from the media, students and faculty as the process has progressed. “Students need to know that there’s a lot going on and also a lot of confusion,” Fabianke said. “And this isn’t something that’s happened all of a sudden, out of the blue. This has been a slow process that began three years ago.” According to her slideshow, in the online Oct. 21 board agenda, students transferring to UTSA with an Associate of Arts in English will only be able to transfer 12 of the 18 hours required above the core. The same student transferring to TAMU-SA can transfer none of the 18 hours. Fabianke compared psychology, biology, math and business administration degrees and found similar results. “When we asked the department leads to make this work, the feedback we received was that it’s virtually impossible to align the courses so that they would transfer to all three,” she said. District 8 trustee Clint Kingsbery said, “My biggest concern is how it’s been rolled out. We need to communicate better.” He said students and faculty feel they have been caught off guard because they have not been a part of the discussion. “Why didn’t we do forums at all of the colleges, go out and talk to people? If there had been those discussions, it wouldn’t be the big dilemma it’s become,” he said. Fabianke never directly answered the question but District 6 trustee Gene Sprague said students do not need to be outraged. “They need to understand that the degree is a stepping stone,” Sprague said. “Sure, universities will like that you’ve gotten that degree, but other than that someone who just gets an A.A. or A.S. and tries to enter the work force is essentially in the same category as the drop out. And if you don’t like how that sounds, I’m sorry, but that’s the real world. The concentration is really just to make students feel better and carries no real value.” The board of trustees will vote in Tuesday’s meeting on transfer degrees. For the board agenda, log on to Alamo. edu and click on About us and then Board of Trustees. For the full story, log on to theranger.org.