Sommatropic Examinations

No matter how long you teach new things happen.  

Today during my examination I noticed a student sleeping.  He was in the middle of the classroom where it was impossible to get near him without climbing over the bolted down rows of chairs and their occupants.  Concerned for his grade I made a largely unnecessary announcement to wake him.  A few minutes later he was off to dreamland again.  After my third announcement I gave up and let him sleep.

Any other odd exam behavior stories out there?

T.S. Hall

No Gripe Wednesday!?

I suspect that Rep. Emanuel Cleaves of Arizona has had his fill of Sarcastic Wednesdays. He is trying to get a bill into congress to create Complaint-Free Wednesdays. Well in the spirit of Thanksgiving maybe I should take note of a few things I am thankful for this semester.

1) There are a few really good students in my classes, but more importantly there are a bunch of average students who are hanging in there and striving to become more than average.

2) Sure research is part of the institutional mission, but without outside funding I still need to buy reagents out of my own pocket. And just as I realized that bromine is a regulated substance that you can't purchase on a personal credit card an unexpected angle donated to the university a kilobuck for my research program. A great unforeseen gift with great timing.

3) While research can be a struggle I still love the puzzles of the lab and the technical work involved. Every once in a while I see something with the beauty that is found in the details and in everything falling into place in a nearly perfect or truly perfect way.

We live in interesting times. Sarcasm and griping may help us get through the day, but we must take the opportunity to fix our system ourselves, and be thankful for the opportunity.

Happy Thanksgiving

T.S. Hall

Cutting Edge Science and The Oldest Profession

OK Profies, the next time the grad students are complaining about their stipends you might remind them how lucky they are to not be in grad school in Britain.

In case you missed the news, the author of blog and memoirs that have become the cable TV show, "Secret Diary of a Call Girl" has come clean and identified herself as a PhD research scientist who worked her way through grad school with a night job.

Given the laughable salaries for MS graduate students at MCUs, I wonder if this explains why I can never find my research students when I go into the lab looking for them? And the fishnets hanging by the lab coats!?

T.S. Hall

Humility Aside

I have learned that my abstract submission for the Spring National ACS Meeting on San Fran has been accepted. I hope these last few experiments work out so I don't have to fill the time with the description of the great tragedy of Science.

"The great tragedy of Science - the slaying of a beautiful hypothesis by an ugly fact." -- Thomas Henry Huxley

Cost Savings

It's radical idea time in trying to fix Higher Education. Since I believe that we can't just bitch, we must offer solutions, here are a few that should get some dialogue going. These comments may only apply to California, but might be true in other states.

Radical Idea 1: Privatize remedial courses and use the money going to them now for college level courses.

All remedial courses would no longer be supported by state funds. The Taxpayers paid for the student to learn basic math, English, chemistry, etc when they covered the cost of the K-12 education. Students can still get these courses, but they must pay the non-student rate cost.

Radical Idea 2: Limit state support toward a student's education in all State supported institutions to 150 semester units attempted.

This number of units would allow the student to search around a bit and get a dual degree if it fits their career plan, but make the students take the opportunity they are being given seriously. I have seen students come from community colleges with 80-90 units of course work and then take another 100 or so at a four-year institution. Some CSU campuses have instituted rules in which they award degrees once they student is eligible regardless of if the student has requested, just so they can clear space for the next students.

Radical Idea 3: Any attempt at a course after the second is not supported by the State.

This connects to the two suggestions above.

I hope these at least get some of us talking.

T.S. Hall

Something for Nothing

From the Public Policy Institute of California we have a new study on Californian's views on higher education in the state.

Key conclusions are that Californians see budget cuts (70%) and overall affordability (58%) as major problems at the community colleges, CSU, and UC systems. At the same time, 68% oppose increasing student fees (called tuition in most places) and 56% oppose paying higher taxes to fund higher education. About half (52%) believe that a combination of better use of existing state funds and increased funding is the answer to the problems of higher education. Thirty eight percent say just using existing funding more wisely is best.

I find this last idea somewhat humorous in that with a 50% reduction in state support for the CSU over the last 3 years people actually think there might be fat left to cut. California's major problem is that the taxpayers demand services with no costs and the politicians are too busy being ideologues to actually bother with the practical mater of governing. But I doubt it is that much different in other states.

T.S. Hall

Tomorrow's Steep Decline Part III

So, what do PUI and MCU folks do in the face of the decline in majors I have suggested will come?

In my opinion chemistry and biochemistry departments have historically been focused largely on two groups of people. They are would be professional chemists and biochemists and would be health professionals. Others are relegated to general education science courses that often don't really teach much chemistry or biochemistry, or science. As a consequence we make ourselves an elite and separate community who spends much time decrying the scientific illiteracy of the general population and trying to entice people into the STEM pipeline so they will become professional chemists and biochemists. There is not much middle ground in our programs.

There are many students who have a level of science interest and ability that is strong but not sufficient to make a career as a chemists, biochemist or health professional. Our departments lose these students to other majors every semester. But should we? There are many allied careers where a background in chemistry or biochemistry would be of value. In my opinion we should offer the degree options that would give the "lost" students the opportunity to channel their science interest into an allied science career. Doing so would retain students in our departments and would make for a more scientifically literate society. Greater science literacy could lead to greater interest in the "pure" STEM fields, solving our pipeline problem.

If I were in a leadership position in a department, we would institute BA degree options that provide a minor or double major in areas like business, regulatory affairs, pre-law, science communication, public policy, etc. Having a variety of options that serve the students and needs of employers would make us less subject to the vagaries of public interest (which TV shows are popular) and high school guidance counselors. There are already some models out there in schools with Chemistry Business and other allied options. Important in this effort will be ensuring that these degree options are treated as equal to the traditional options and receive the same level of recruitment activity.

The time to start such initiative is now, before the decline begins.

T.S. Hall

Tomorrow's Steep Decline in Majors, Part II

Felix posted a comment on the original post suggesting that I update it in light of a recently published study by researchers at Rutgers and Georgetown. Derek at In the Pipeline has already touched on the issue twice . Given how far behind I am in reading, I thank Felix for his prompt.

The Rutgers/Georgetown study "Steady as She Goes? Three Generations of Students Through the Science and Engineering Pipeline" was released last Wednesday. I have not read all the details yet, but the gist of the report is that over the past 30 years the supply of STEM graduates has remained about the same rather than shrinking as most people believe. One of the points of concern raised in the article is that, since the late 90's the best students in the pipeline are opting out of the STEM fields in greater numbers. The authors suggest that the most talented STEM graduates are being lured away from STEM careers by better pay and benefits in other fields. The suggestion is that we need less, rather than more, STEM graduates to drive up the wages of STEM professionals so that youngsters will be attracted to STEM fields and will then save America from its decline as a leader in the world.

In my original post, I put forward my concern that we chemistry faculty must prepare for a sharp decline in majors in the near future as the guidance counselors of the nation come to the realization that ten years of pushing students into pharmacy has filled the pipeline. I wrote this realizing that even as our numbers of majors have doubled over the last decade, about half the chemistry and biochemistry majors in my department list pharmacy as their career goal. Suggesting that we need less STEM graduates will only make matters worse for chemistry departments if the guidance counselors read the report summary and opt to chase students from STEM careers.

There is much in the study to comment on, but I will focus on two things that immediately concern me. As others have noted, this study covers all of STEM and such a broad brush does not really paint the kind of nuance that would provide a clear picture of the future. Also, the economic theory behind the study makes no sense to me. It appears to me that the researchers are using an outdated economic model where countries are isolated and labor and services from other countries have little or no effect on wages and demand for trained professionals in this country. Outsourcing and Insourcing have contributed greatly to the pay and job prospects of graduates in this country. Producing less graduates will not raise wages. It will raise outsourcing and insourcing, in my opinion.

What should we PUI and MCU academics do? More on that later, as I just got a long awaited good lab result and I can't type while doing my happy dance.

T.S. Hall