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My email of July 2, 2002 to
Dr. David Powers
Exactive Director
Coordinating Commission for Postsecondary Education
Nebraska

David,

I was thinking to present the attachment in last commission meeting. But I didn't. Since I just forward you an E-Week articles about H-1B. I think this attachment may illustrate the point better. Duncan

Dear commissioners,

I have wanted to do this for a long time. Since I am here today, I might as well save myself some trips. I have worked for CCPE for a while. I know everyone is working hard to improve our postsecondary education. What I like to do today is to provide some of my thoughts. I will focus on the attitude and focus.

Let me first explain what I mean by attitude. Some of you may have heard the story of the UC enrolls too many Asian students. I do like to point out that it is also true that there are very few professional Asian athletes. So, the question is what to make out of this? Some people like to call this the �culture� thing. But I will simply call it the act of attitude. I taught electronics at Metro community college for 2 and half years and I can see a lot of problems with attitude. I got couple of students who is only interested in getting a C because their employer will only pay the tuition for a grade of C or better. I also got a student who claimed that he had done his best but couldn�t get the lab done. I told him that I only needed to work Monday through Thursday but I came to school on Friday just for my students. After that, he showed up every Friday to get the lab done. Eventually, he finished second in that class. There are much more to attitude than I just talked about. When I was working on my graduate degree, the only financial support I got is my assistantship of $10,000 a year, which supports both my wife and me. We lived in a $200 apartment. We did not drink pop. We did not eat ice cream and we did not eat out. Most Asian parents will save almost anything for kid�s education. And you can see their attitude bond to have impact on their kids. This is one of the thing, I think, haven�t been stressed enough.

Now, let me talk about the focus. Taiwan is a tiny island which is about 1/6 the size of Nebraska. There were NO major industries. To strive for survival and growth, the government had been creative and was able to pull the country out of poverty. The key, of cause, is education. But there are more to it. With a barely survived economy, the government simply did not have the luxury to invest in all fields. Through careful research and planning, Taiwan had chosen the Electronics as their main focus. At that time, Electronics is an emerging prosperous field with high demand on trained workers. The country invested not only on the electronic education but also on the electronic industry. In this way, Taiwan was able to keep most of its educated worker. Nebraska, with its limited resources, also needs to use its resources wisely. This, of cause, takes coordination between state agencies.

Finally, let me put a note on the importance of HIGHER education. I know there is a lot of data indicate that Community Colleges have served Nebraska well. However, caution is called for. If we do not aim high, we will NEVER produce best worker and will NEVER ahead of the competitions. Let me just provide a fact for you to think about. In Taiwan, you would be lucky to teach Tech/Trade schools if you have a master degree. The point is, you may think this is a waste of talent. But in the end, you will have better trained student come out of Tech schools. Education is never a waste, however, a focused statewide plan will keep our highly trained student in our state.