Utah has a reputation as a hotbed for information technology, but H. Lynn Cundiff on Wednesday threw a wet blanket on the state's IT future.
Speaking to a crowd of about 200 at a Utah Information Technologies Association luncheon, the Salt Lake Community College president used statistics and opinion to point out potential downfalls that he expects to harm one of Utah's hallmark industries.
One major trouble is a teacher shortage from kindergarten through high school. Cundiff theorizes the shortage will result in fewer students graduating from high school, which would result in fewer college grads and then "no IT."
"There are things that drive the system as well as venture capital, as well as technology, as well as infrastructure and as well as software," he said, emphasizing that Utah's business, education and government communities need to be involved with more partnerships with one another.
Troubles with Utah's "education infrastructure," he said, include having 1,338 full-time faculty without certification, the expectation that half of the state's full-time faculty will retire within the next five years, the state's need for 12,000 more faculty members to augment the existing total of 24,000, and the state's 48th-place ranking in teacher pay.
Cundiff noted that Utah has many attributes, including a great business climate and an employee base with a strong work ethic. But challenges remain.
Another problem related to education involves the lack of familiarity that Utah college grads have with the state's IT companies. That, he said, is one reason 40 percent of the IT grads leave Utah for their first job.
The woes are exacerbated by IT companies' poor recruiting at Utah schools and few partnerships between the colleges and companies.
"We need for you to stand up and show up at our campuses and say, 'We're here,' " Cundiff said.
The number of people getting IT degrees in Utah remains low, far below the demand for those grads, he said. Last year, the state's public higher education institutions produced only 1,468 IT graduates.
"There are probably that many job openings right now," he said. "This is a huge issue, in my mind."
On the technology side, Cundiff decried the lack of broadband infrastructure. That lack is bad for e-commerce, distance-learning, work force training and the development of Utah becoming "Silicon Valley East."
The state ranks at the top in terms of per-capita computer ownership, but low data transfer speeds are a major hindrance, he said. "You can do e-mail but not e-commerce," Cundiff said.
Prior to being named Salt Lake Community College president in May, Cundiff was president of Floyd College in Georgia, where he supervised the issuing of laptop computers to each of its approximately 3,000 students.
Wednesday's luncheon took place in conjunction with the Utah Information Technology Exposition and Conference at the Salt Palace Convention Center.
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