
                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: TUESDAY, June 26, 1990                   TAG: 9006260426
SECTION: EDITORIAL                    PAGE: A6   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: 
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Medium

WOMEN'S WORK/ SCIENCE AT HOLLINS

TAKE the shortage of American scientists and science teachers and students. Add the fact that women and minorities are especially underrepresented in scientific fields. Throw in forecasts that white males will soon become a minority of the work force. What do you have?

You have a big problem. If more minorities and women can't be attracted into scientific and technical fields, America's work force will continue to lose its competitive edge.

Hollins College, Appalachian Power Co. and ITT are trying in a small way to do something. Last summer, they sponsored a residential, precollege science progam for minority girls. The two-week program exposed high-school juniors and seniors to college life while they studied sciences with Hollins faculty. The program was such a success that this year it's being expanded.

Only 11 percent of all employed scientists and engineers are women. Evidently girls and women are still getting a message, subtle or otherwise, from parents, teachers, peers and society at large, that they are not as fit as men are for the mentally gruelling disciplines of science, math and engineering.

That message must be countered and repudiated, and it's to the credit of Hollins and the corporate sponsors of this program that the effort is being made. Hollins, as a women's college, is a natural for such an effort: Women entering the sciences there find encouragement and high expectations.

As for Appalachian Power's and ITT's support, that's natural too. The employers see the changing demographics of the work force every day. American industries in general have a stake in broadening interest in scientific and technical careers. National interests are at stake, too.

by CNB