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Kinesiology suffers teacher shortage

The recent shortage on instructors in the kinesiology department may not be as bad as we thought. The kinesiology department has been working hard to fill these empty spots in the department even with it being so late in the semester already.

The solution to fix this problem is to recruit more and soon enough they will find instructors to fill these four vacant spots. They have already received authorizations to fill two out of four vacancies.

According to the department head Obadiah J.K.  Simmons with these two authorizations in hand they should have those spots fill by the beginning of the spring semester. 

Simmons assured that they will fill the empty spots as soon as possible. ”The instructors the department plans on hiring will have the specific credentials to meet in a high demand field,” said Simmons. 

Even though one instructor is teaching an overload. The instructor is receiving compensation and was not demanded to fill the overload, but asked if interested instead. The main reasons for the shortage in the department is mainly due to the recent drop in enrollment, mid-year cuts to all institutions in Louisiana and faculty retirements in the department.

“Another reason why we have a teacher shortage in the department would have to be due to the fiscal crunch placed on higher education,” said Simmons. 

With that being said, once they fill the two positions they have already gotten authorizations for, it will make it easier to fill the other two spots in the department. Once they are filled, these two spots will make it much smoother with scheduling and advising throughout the department. Even thought the instructor shortage sounds like a bad thing, due to the many majors already in the department, it isn’t hurting the department as bad as you would think it would. The department has done well covering the recent instructor shortage by recruiting and having other instructors in the department step in and cover the classes that were needed to be covered. 

This shortage in the kinesiology department is soon to end if they keep going at this pace.