Cal State System to Address Need for Teachers : Chancellor Describes Plans at American Assn. of University Women Meeting

The quality of public education in California depends on how successful universities are in recruiting capable people and preparing them to enter the field of teaching, Dr. W. Ann Reynolds, chancellor of the California State University system, said Friday.

“California will need an estimated110,000 new teachers by the early 1990s--mostly at the elementary level. You will see multiple programs in the California State University (system) designed to attract able young (and return) professionals to teaching,” Reynolds said.

Reynolds’ speech opened the annual three-day conference of the American Assn. of University Women (AAUW), a nationwide organization dedicated to the promotion of higher education and civil rights, at the Westin South Coast Plaza hotel in Costa Mesa.

Speaking before hundreds of members--women college graduates and their guests--Reynolds outlined the role of the CSU system in the 1980s.

“You have probably heard of several recent national studies that were critical of the undergraduate program in the nation’s colleges. In examining our own curriculum, we concluded that it was time to require a comprehensive pattern of college preparatory courses as a condition to admission,” she said.

Reynolds said that with recent changes in the CSU system raising admission requirements, “students will soon be able to start their college studies already equipped with foreign languages, fine arts, some science, and even more mathematics and English classes.”

Requirements include a raise in grade point averages, early supervision, structured formal interviews to evaluate applicants and evaluations of students’ abilities, Reynolds said.

“At first glance, it might look like we will be reducing the pool. But we believe the opposite will happen. . . . Our activities are being undertaken in concert with such (California) initiatives as increased salaries for teachers and improved working conditions,” she said.

Reynolds, the first woman chancellor of the CSU system, which includes 19 campuses, was appointed to that post in June of 1982. Before moving to California, Reynolds had been provost of Ohio State University for three years.

Lt. Gov. Leo McCarthy is scheduled to speak day at 10 a.m. on “Feminization of Poverty.” The talk will deal with the growing numbers of single women, including heads of households, living at the poverty level, said conference spokeswoman Karen Grinfeld of Fullerton.

Also on Saturday, Wendy Lozano, projects coordinator of the South Coast National Organization of Women (NOW), is scheduled to speak on “Pornography and Women’s Rights,” along with Pat Herzog, member on the board of directors of the Orange County Bar Assn.

Helen Thomas, United Press International White House Bureau chief, is scheduled to speak at a 2 p.m. Sunday luncheon. Thomas began covering the White House for UPI in 1961.

The AAUW was organized in 1881 and is the oldest and largest national organization of women university graduates.

The California State Division (CSD) of AAUW was organized in 1921. With 186 branches and more than 32,000 members, CSD ranks first in size among state divisions.