Due to pressure for higher faculty wages, competition between universities for qualified instructors, and larger classes, a nationally anticipated teacher shortage has hit NIU.

Junior education major Carolyn Millen said, “I was closed out of three of five of my required classes, causing me to take other classes in my area of concentration.”

NIU chairman of finance, Scott Bauman, also indicated that there is a need for more faculty members in the finance department.

“Students who earn a master’s degree compare salaries of industry to that of teaching and find more competitive wages in industry, thus they often feel it is not worth obtaining a doctorate degree,” Bauman said.

He also said this number is growing. “In the past 10 years this gap has grown larger and now there is a ratio of two to three vacancies for every one new person entering the field.”

In contrast, NIU Law School Dean Leonard P. Strickman said the shortage of faculty in the department is due to lack of university funds for hiring new instructors.

“The law department is understaffed due to financial problems on the school’s part, but there is certainly not a shortage of people who want to be law professors,” Strickman said.

He added, “We are doing a good job now, but not quite as good as we aspire to do.”

Accountancy chairman John Smith said there has been a shortage in the department for about twenty years. “The demand has outweighed the supply as long as I have been with the department.”

Students are usually lured by the attractiveness of going out into the field rather than teaching. This creates larger classes and less selection of classes, “but NIU has been very successful in obtaining faculty and are not as affected as other universities,” Smith said.