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Program Funding Priorities
Professor Parson is a nationally respected artist, and has been a painting and drawing instructor at Dixie State College for 20 years. In an interview Professor Del Parson stated that he has been working for about 6 years with the administration of DSC to get a 4 year program instituted. When asked why DSC didn’t have a 4 year degree program for the arts he answered: “…the administration has to make decisions on priorities, and we were not on the top of the list of priorities.” When asked what he understood Dixie State College's priorities to be, he replied: “They would say; you’d need to have reason for a degree and what are the potential jobs [students] would have. If you were a dental hygienist you’d probably have a much better chance getting a job than say an art major, right? So that was kind of the priority.”(Parson) That argument seemed practical enough to me, and I was surprised that Prof. Parson was resigned to that practicality. But is that priority an honest one?
Dixie State College has created successful Nursing and Dental Hygiene programs. Students completing these programs expect to enter the private sector and secure gainful employment. But are such careers as plentiful and secure as we are led to think? A report in 2009 published by the American Dental Hygienist’s Association stated that 30% of Dental Hygienist’s with a degree work jobs that provide them less than 20 hours per week of work, and that of those with degrees in the Dental Hygiene field that are seeking jobs 62% are unable to find work in the geographical area they live in (ADHA). While Dental Hygiene does appear to have some stability there appears to be an oversaturation in the jobs market which would cause difficulties for graduates of those programs, such as the need to relocate for work and possibly find themselves in situations where they are ‘underemployed’.
The jobs markets for nurses and dental hygienists in the local community are already over-saturated. With only two major medical centers and a finite number of dental offices, they cannot accommodate the number of students those programs pump out, and those students must relocate or settle for a situation where they are working less hours than most would like.
The argument that DSC chooses programs where students have the best chance for employment as it’s criteria for funding falls short when you consider that most colleges pour substantial amounts of funding into their athletics programs, and Dixie is no exception. Granted, athletics programs have the potential of generating money in ticket sales and merchandising of the school properties, but apparently they do not generate enough money to pay for the program itself since schools continue to funnel funds into them. That having been said, the NCAA published this chart tracking student-athletes estimated probability of success beyond the high school level. This breakdown was posted on their official site in an effort to make student-athletes aware of their actual chances of having a successful career in professional sports and athletic programs.
| Student-Athlete | Men's Basketball | Women's Basketball | Football | Baseball | Men's Ice Hockey | Men's Soccer |
| High School Student Athletes | 540,207 | 439,550 | 1,109,278 | 427,644 | 36,475 | 391,839 |
| High School Senior Athletes | 154,345 | 125,586 | 316,937 | 135,041 | 10,421 | 111,954 |
| NCAA Student Athletes | 17,008 | 15,423 | 66,313 | 30,365 | 3,945 | 21,770 |
| NCAA Freshman Roster Positions | 4,859. | 4,407 | 18,947 | 8,676 | 1,127 | 6,220 |
| NCAA Senior Student Athletes | 3,780 | 3,427 | 14,736 | 6,748 | 877 | 4,838 |
| NCAA Student Athletes Drafted | 44 | 32 | 250 | 600 | 33 | 76 |
| Percent High School to NCAA | 3.10% | 3.50% | 6.00% | 6.40% | 10.80% | 5.60% |
| Percent NCAA to Professional | 1.20% | 0.90% | 1.70% | 8.90% | 3.80% | 1.60% |
| Percent High School to Professional | 0.03% | 0.03% | 0.08% | 0.44% | 0.32% | 0.07% |
Note: These percentages are based on estimated data and should be considered approximation of the actual percentages.
This chart indicates that at best (Baseball) a student-athlete has less than half a percent chance of continuing on from high school athletics to a professional career. Many of these students certainly study other disciplines, including art, and use their sports education as a vehicle to get a college education which is a very good thing. Many of them may go on to careers in related fields, such as sports medicine or Physical Education and coaching careers. However investing funds in the athletics program can’t be because it has a solid chance of securing employment for its students as professional athletes.
It would be easy to take pot shots at athletic programs, and certainly many naysayers attempt to point out the inequality as it relates to athletic programs. However, one of the biggest values an athletics program offers is a sense of heritage within a community. Everyone loves to rally around the home team, wearing the red hats and jackets and the occasional license plate can be found emblazoned with a Dixie State College frame. What the administration at DSC has overlooked was the value that art plays in the local community and Dixie State College’s unique role in that legacy as well.
When Dixie state college was first founded in 1911 as a high school/college combination, half of its staff of six was in the arts disciplines of Music, Dance and Painting. The Latter-Day Saints settlers had always valued the arts and used them to beautify their places of worship and enhance their communities (Blakely).
As DSC celebrates its 100 year anniversary it has evolved into a community college and then into a full-fledged state college. Its role in the arts has remained, The Peggy Sears Gallery, located within the Dolores Dore Eccles Fine Arts Center, hosts the Sears Invitational annually on the Saturday of President’s Day weekend. The invitational is considered the 2nd largest in the state of Utah and attracts talent from all over the world and is considered to be the top-selling show in Utah.
In addition to the college’s role, St. George itself holds an art festival which will begin its 32nd showing at the time of this writing. Nationally acclaimed artists such as Roland Lee, Mike Malm (DSC alumni) and Delwin Parson are among the more notable artist who regularly participates in both the Sears Invitational as well as the St. George Art Festival. After all these years the community continues to show its support for the arts and truly values the development of its members. To illustrate the community’s dedication to art instruction the only high school level magnet school in the greater St. George area is dedicated to the arts.
Tuacahn High School is a nationally recognized and fully accredited 9-12 Charter School located at the foot of Snow Canyon State Park. Its mission is to provide its students the best academic and artistic education it can (Tuacahn High School). Unfortunately once these students graduate their option for higher learning in St. George diminishes in light of the lack of degrees in their fields of interest. What they should expect, what the community as a whole should demand, is that their children and their culture be represented in the local college.
So you see, it’s not a matter of picking on athletics, or nursing or dental hygiene, it is a matter of honestly looking at the pool of students within our communities and offering them higher learning in a field that has a rich heritage and potential employment opportunities.
