Campus Talk: U.S. Report Notes Job Projections In Transportation Industry

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U.S. REPORT NOTES JOB PROJECTIONS IN TRANSPORTATION INDUSTRY
The U.S. Departments of Transportation, Education, and Labor released a joint report entitled “Strengthening Skills Training and Career Pathways across the Transportation Industry.” The report details the future growth areas or employment “hot spots” in transportation by industry subsectors, occupations, career areas, and geographic areas. It also identifies good-paying, high-demand transportation jobs and analyzes the patterns in the education and work experience required for entry, including on-the-job training requirements for new entrants to gain full competency.

The report indicates that employers will need to hire and train a total of 4.6 million new workers – 1.2 times the current transportation workforce – due to expected growth, retirements, and turnover in the transportation industry through 2022. Projections suggest that 417,000 of these positions will be created as a direct result to increased demand. The highest percentage of the needed jobs will be in transit and ground passenger transportation and those new openings will be concentrated in the West Coast, the Gulf Coast, the upper Mid-Atlantic, several Mountain States, and the Midwest.

STUDY: TEACHERS’ NEGATIVE EXPECTATIONS HAVE ALARMING EFFECT ON BLACK STUDENTS
A new study by professors at American University and Johns Hopkins University finds evidence of systematic biases in teachers’ expectations for the educational attainment of black students. Specifically, non-black teachers have significantly lower educational expectations for black students than black teachers do when evaluating the same students, the study said.

The 43-page report, called “Who Believes in Me? The Effect of Student-Teacher Demographic Match on Teacher Expectations,” investigates whether student-teacher demographic mismatch affects high school teachers’ expectations for students’ educational attainment. The effects of the lowered expectations are especially larger for black male students and math teachers, the report notes.

UA RANKS 19TH AMONG BEST COLLEGES FOR STUDENT-ATHLETES
The University of Arkansas in Fayetteville was ranked 19th in the annual ranking of the “25 Best Colleges for Student Athletes in America,” according to AffordableSchools.Net, an independent college search and rankings site that centers on unique and affordable offerings within higher education.

Three California schools were at the top of the ranking, which was compiled by looking at the number of NCAA team sport national championships each school has at the Division One level, as well as the academic prestige of the school as noted by other top ranking sites. Stanford University came in at the top spot, followed by the University of California Los Angeles (UCLA) and its crosstown rival, the University of Southern California.

ARKANSAS TECH TRUSTEES OK NEW GAME DESIGN DEGREE
Arkansas Tech University is developing two new undergraduate degree programs after the university’s Board of Trustees voted to create a Bachelor of Arts degree in game and interactive media design and a Bachelor of Science degree in environmental science. Letters of intents from the trustees will now be forwarded to the Arkansas Higher Education Coordinating Board (AHECB) announcing the university’s plans.

The next step in the process will be for the university’s Art and Biological Sciences to continue program proposal preparations. Once complete, the program proposals would require approval by faculty governance, trustees and the AHECB before the degree tracks are made available to students.