PH.D.S FINDING A HAVEN TWO-YEAR COLLEGES PROVIDING WELCOME OPPORTUNITY TO TEACH.

Byline: Lisa M. Sodders Staff Writer

With his doctorate in biochemistry from the California Institute of Technology, Barrie Logan could be lecturing at an Ivy League university or earning a six-figure salary from a global pharmaceutical giant.

Instead, he's teaching at Pierce College in Woodland Hills.

Educators say Logan and thousands of other teachers who hold doctorates are helping to change the reputation of community college as ``high school with ashtrays.''

``I hadn't really thought about (teaching) as a career,'' Logan said, ``but when the opportunity came up, I discovered what a marvelous thing it could be.''

``When I woke up in the morning, my mind was churning away with ideas about what I could do next. I found myself energized and engaged in a way that was really very positive.''

Nationwide, the number of Ph.D.-holders has grown about 40 percent from 1970 to 2000, according to the National Science Foundation. A tight job market at four-year universities and the popularity of teaching over working for private companies is gradually swelling the ranks of Ph.D- holders at community colleges, educators say.

Within the Los Angeles Community College District, about one-fifth of all full-time faculty hold doctorates, Ph.D.s or Ed.Ds - a number that's remained consistent over the past five years, said Lynn Winter Gross, district spokeswoman.

``Community colleges have had the opportunity to hire Ph.D.s because many cannot find academic positions at four-year or research institutions,'' said Jim Turner, assistant vice chancellor of the graduate division at University of California, Los Angeles.

Many older professors have opted not to retire and state budget cuts also hurt universities' ability to hire new professors, Turner said. He estimated only 15 percent of UCLA's newly minted doctorate-holders will land a full-time, tenure-track faculty job at a four-year university in their first year.

The focus at community colleges is on teaching, not research - which many professors prefer to the publish-or-perish mentality at large research institutions.

Mo Elkerdany, who teaches biology, human anatomy and physiology at Mission College in Sylmar, holds a dental surgery doctorate from Alexandria University, Egypt, as well as a Ph.D. in craniofacial biology from the University of Southern California.

He practiced dentistry for 10 years and taught at a dental school, before teaching at California State University, Northridge for 11 years.

But then he started teaching part time at Mission in 1992 - and discovered his real passion.

``What really attracted me were the small classes and the students,'' Elkerdany said. ``They are kind of at a crossroads - not knowing what to do. I started to think, Who needs me more?

``It's a challenge,'' he said, ``and I thought, well, that's what I like most.''

Pierce's Logan said he did a three-year post-doctoral fellowship after he got his Ph.D. and discovered he just didn't like ``the tedium of day-to-day lab work.''

Logan likes the independence that comes with teaching, the satisfaction of helping students learn and the fresh start that comes with each new semester.

``It's a kind of renewal that is constant. You spend your entire career tweaking and perfecting and trying new ideas and how you approach things,'' Logan said.

Arthur Cohen, emeritus professor of higher education at UCLA, specializing in community colleges, said having more doctorate-holders on their faculty gives community colleges ``a little more stature, a little nudge in the prestige category.''

``(Community college doctorate-holders) are more likely to belong to state and national professional organizations and are more likely to go to conferences ... . Many come back with different ideas in their discipline,'' Cohen added.

Although the number of Ph.D.-holders who teach at community colleges has grown, it's still far fewer than at four-year universities.

According to the National Center for Education Statistics, 61 percent of full-time faculty at four-year private liberal arts institutions and 73 percent at four-year public research institutions held doctorates in 1998. That compares to about 20 percent in L.A.'s community college district.

Universities weren't always supportive of doctorate candidates who wanted to teach, though many today are encouraging students to consider a range of careers that includes teaching.

``Some departments would be hard to get into if you were honest with them and told them, 'I want to teach,''' said Patrick Callan, president of the San Jose-based National Center for Public Policy in Higher Education.

``It's a huge myth and a certain amount of pretentiousness that everyone is doing world-class research all the time. Most of what they do is teach.''

Lisa M. Sodders, [phone]

lisa.sodders(at)dailynews.com

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Pierce College Professor Barrie Logan holds a doctorate in biochemistry but prefers teaching to doing university research.

John Lazar/Staff Photographer