As a Ph.D. student in the College of Engineering, I can completely understand Sen. Jeremy Ring's stance on cultivating the student culture toward education, sciences and health care. Historically, there has always been a higher demand for teachers, health care employees and scientists in the United States to support the country's infrastructure.
Interestingly enough, these careers are not typically pursued enough due to several reasons. Such jobs require specialized education, larger amounts of responsibility and typically are not perceived as glamorous. But, they do offer job security and do pay relatively well.
As a student who has earned two degrees at UF and is currently working on a third, I can attest to how these fields are important. However, fewer students seem to want to study them because of an aversion to mathematics or the fact that these subjects are too hard or too boring.
Also, most people I know with degrees outside education, math and science do not typically enter career paths that are related to their degrees. These people later regret not taking the education-, math- and science-based track of study due to perceived difficulty.
One friend of mine has a degree in photography, yet she works as an employment recruiter because many of the jobs available to her upon graduation did not pay enough for her to live independently.
Another friend who has a master's degree in fine arts and works for a museum is supplementing his income as a soccer referee because the museum doesn't pay enough.
While I feel that many of the degrees offered by the various arts programs are valuable, many of them do not offer lucrative opportunities to the majority of their graduates upon completion.
