President Baker Addresses National Business-Higher Education Forum

SAN LUIS OBISPO -- Cal Poly President Warren J. Baker addressed the winter '06 meeting of the Business-Higher Education Forum (BHEF) last week in Scottsdale, Ariz.

President Baker, a member of the Forum Executive Committee, represented the California State University system at the meeting at the request of CSU Chancellor Charles Reed. Baker joined UC President Robert C. Dynes and California Council on Science and Technology Executive Director Susan Hackwood on the forum panel: "Collaborating to Address the Math and Science Teacher Shortage: A State-University-Business Partnership."

In his remarks, President Baker reported on the CSU's Math and Science Teacher Initiative and on strategies for engaging business in support of California's teachers. The 23-campus CSU system is working to increase the number of math and science teachers it prepares each year from 750 to 1,500 and is actively seeking to partner with business and industry in finding new ways to support the recruitment, retention and ongoing professional development of math and science teachers.

"Placing more credentialed math and science teachers in California and the nation's K-12 classrooms is key to ensuring that we retain our capacity for scientific and technological innovation and development," according to Baker.

The panel was one of two that addressed the broader issue of participation by U.S. students in science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) academic programs and careers.

President Baker and Cal Poly alumnus Bill Swanson, chairman and CEO of Raytheon, co-chair a Business-Higher Education Forum task force of corporate CEOs and university presidents, providing leadership for a major BHEF initiative to strengthen the nation's capacity in STEM disciplines. "Unless the United States keeps up with the rest of the world in the numbers of engineers and scientists we produce, we will lose our global competitive edge," Baker predicts. "China is said to be already producing 600,000 engineers a year, compared to only some 70,000 in the U.S."

This critical national issue is receiving increased attention all across the country and at the highest levels of government. Recognizing the importance of sustaining America's capacity to innovate, President Bush, in his 2006 State of the Union Address Tuesday evening, called for increased investment to spur research and development in the physical sciences and to strengthen education in math and science, in part through education of 70,000 additional credentialed math and science teachers.

About the Business-Higher Education Forum:
The Business-Higher Education Forum is an independent, nonprofit membership organization of businesses, college and university, and foundation leaders from across the nation. The forum works to engage and inform members, policy-makers and the public about strategic national challenges of high priority to both business and higher education, and to help shape sound policy to address these challenges. For details, visit:
http://www.bhef.com/.

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