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Until last week, Texas had 25 universities that offered undergraduate physics degree programs. On October 27, the Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board (THECB) voted unanimously to phase out 6 of them, namely,
University of Texas at Brownsville
The reason? They did not graduate an average of five physics majors per year over the last five years. THECB denies criticisms that these cuts in physics will undermine STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Mathematics) fields. The reasons stated are that dollars will be saved and the universities can focus their efforts on programs that graduate more students.
In early October, members of the American Physical Society (APS) met with THECB representatives and pleaded to retain these programs. On Monday, three days before the THECB vote, the APS sent out an “URGENT ALERT TO THE APS TEXAS MEMBERSHIP” requesting every member to write THECB and tell them how devastating this will be for Texas. The dozens, if not hundreds of pleas, were denied.
Texas Southern University is a historically black institution. Prairie View A&M University is a historically black institution. Brownsville is about as far south as you can go without entering Mexico. Midwestern State University, where I serve as a regent, sits in the oil country of north Texas. Ann Work, reporter for the Wichita Falls Times Record News wrote an article as to the impact to Midwestern.
I appreciate what THECB desires to do; they want to lower the cost of education. But at what price? And what is really saved? I strongly disagree with the THECB decision and argue that it hurts most the poor, the first-generation college students, and the underprivileged. I attach here the email that I sent to THECB that explains my position.
My disappointment is too great to say more at this time. I welcome your comments.
(For details of US physics undergraduate degrees look here. For details of US physics graduate degrees look here.)
Commissioner Parades,
You and I met several months ago when you visited Midwestern State University and spoke to our Board meeting. As a member of the Board, I appreciated very much your concern and interest in MSU. Your work with THECB is commendable.
I do understand the difficult choices that THECB must make. However, the proposed closure of several physics programs, especially the one at MSU concerns me greatly. I beseech you to reconsider.
Today, every technology we touch is derived from physics. The global positioning systems, the cell phones, the computers, the iPads, the handheld devices, all these are the product of investments in physics education. While it is true that, today, engineers build those systems, the principles behind them are discovered and made known by physicists. Engineers will make improvements, but without physicists, we stand no chance of competing with world technology.
I understand that one argument might be that “physics courses can still be offered, but just not a degree in physics” at those affected universities. This does not accomplish what you think it might and is counter to STEM advancement in Texas, as I will explain.
The persons most affected by closure of physics at MSU will be the first-generation-students, Hispanics, minorities, and the poor. The rich will send their physics students elsewhere, to Austin, to College Station, to Stanford, to Chicago. The poor and the uneducated will have no choice.
Let me tell you my own story. I was born in Electra, 30 miles from MSU. My father worked in the oil field, and his father before him. I was a first-generation college student. I majored in physics and graduated from MSU. I went on get a Ph.D. in physics at UT Austin, went on to become General Manager of a medical company, Vice-president of the first company in the entire world to launch a commercial imaging satellite, and a Chief Technology Officer of Raytheon, the nation’s fifth largest defense contractor. None of this would have been possible without a physics major at MSU. None of it. At least, not for me.
Your argument might be that students can get loans and go elsewhere. I could not have gotten a loan because my family would never have thought we could pay it back. We would not have believed the payback was there because we would not have known. Plus, there is the uncertainty of not finishing. You might argue that I could have gotten a scholarship. But, such words are spoken by those who know, by those who are educated, already. Unless you have been there, you cannot appreciate how difficult it is to know how even to apply when you have no idea what is out there or how to go about it and do not even know to ask for help. These things are known by the educated, not by the uneducated. Even if I had gotten a scholarship, my family could not have afforded the “extras” that are not covered.
And now, here I am. Back at MSU trying to help others in the same situation as I, the first-generation-students, Hispanics, minorities, and the poor. We need a physics major at MSU. I ask you and the THECB to reconsider the situation for MSU and to put it on “probation” rather than “closure” so that we might have more time to invest (we do have people willing to invest) and create a larger program (we do have some creative ideas).
Unquestionably, Physics is difficult. For a physics major, calculus is the beginning math course. It goes on to Legendre polynomials, Bessel functions, and Fourier transforms – subjects most people stumble over just in pronunciation. Physics courses include classical mechanics, electromagnetic fields, quantum mechanics, and relativity. These course are not taught at the same level, nor in the same way to engineers. If we abandon a physics program, it takes years and years to get back up to speed, to get qualified professors to come to MSU, and attract students at the level to even begin.
So, I ask that THECB reconsider the situation at MSU and think about the people who will be most affected by “closure.” I ask that you move to a decision of “probation” so that we might have time to put corrective efforts in place.
Thank you for your consideration,
Lynwood Givens, Ph.D. (physics)