The BS-An
Obsolete Degree?
The chemical education establishment is currently uncertain about its approach to the two extremes of the curriculum. At the most advanced levcl, educators rcalize that there is now (and probably will bc for the next few years) an oversupply of doctoratcs and post-doctorates, and are planning ways to reduce the flow of stltdents into (and out of?) doctoral programs. At the introductory level, chemical cducators are concerned that their present way of treating virtually all their clients as potential chemists is not satisfactory. The way we teach introductory chemistry largely ignores the social and economic aspects of chemistry which should form a substantial portion of the introductory curriculum for chemists and non-chemists, scientists and nonscientists alike. As a provocative solution to many of these difficulties, I would like to suggest the total abandonment of the BS degree, and its replacement by the RlS degree as the first professionally accredited degree in chemistry. In place of our present BS/BA dichotomy, the BA degree would be the sole baccalaureate degree offeredin chemistry, and would be reshaped to give it its proper emphasis as a liberal arts degree with a concentration in chemistry. The new BA degree would be designed to afford room for one or two minors in virtually any subjects of the student's choosing: Why not chemistry, art, and philosophy; or chemistry, physical educat,ion, and Chinese? The student interested in the professional practice of chemistry, for instance in industry, or as a teacher at the Community College levcl or above, would initially take his BA and would then proceed to the new AIS degree in chemistry. This new Master's degree is the one which would become recognized as the main professional qualification for chemists. Only those students who excelled at .the MS level would be allowed to transfer to doctoral level programs. What curricular changes would this new degree sequence involve? As a d d i t i n s to our existing curriculum, the new BA needs a lower division general ecologically oriented course, jointly developed by faculty in physical sciences, biological sciences and engineering, and bascd on freshman level courses in these areas. The impact of science and technology on society, together with aspects of the history and philosophy of scicnce, would appropriately be treated in the upper division, and could give credit in both a science and in social scicncc and humanities. And what gets displaced to make room for all these attractive sounding new courses? We must simply cut out large portions of the traditional curriculum. We can surely rationalize and condense our laboratory offerings. And me might, for example, totally omit 470
/
Journal o f Chemical Education
opinion electrochemistry; or quantum mechanics; or organic molecular rearrangements; or ligand-field theory; or all of these. The area of choice is wide. Remember, we are not training professional chemists at this BA level. We are offering a liberal education, with an emphasis in chemistry, to students who may choose to become car salesmen, or short-order cooks, or doctors, or stockbrokers, or sculptors. Those interested in the professional practice of chemistry will be required to go on to the Master's level. The students we graduate with the new BA will, with their broader training, be better qualified to act as informed citizens on public issues with a technological or scientific content than our present narrowly trained BS students. The RlS degree course will naturally include much of what we have thrown out a t the bachelor's level. It will be a degree without excessive specialization, for we are training a professional chemist whom we claim to be a master of the el hole subject. I n addition to some of the current bachelor's level course work, this RIS degree vill contain advanced "core" courses in all areas of chemistry and will require, as its laboratory portion, a research investigation carried out in collaboration with a faculty supervisor in an area of chemistry of the student's choosing. Why research? Because this is the student's chance to do chemistry as it really is done by chemists, and to find out if he excels in this area. It will also give the student the opportunity to go somewhat more deeply into a chemical area that attracts his interest. And the discipline of carrying out a brief original investigation, writing up its results, and defending his findings before a group of professionals, will be an enriching- experience for the . MS candidate. The MS with this broad professional chemical training, and with the cultural background we have mandated at thc BA level. mould be readv to enter industrv as a useful contrihiting chemist, "well-versed in ail areas of the subject, but not over-qualified (a common industrial complaint about many present PhD's). His chemical background and breadth of training would he sufficient to enable him to teach chemistry a t a range of levels from elementary through the community college. (We can leave discussion of the other qualifications such a graduate would need to begin teaching to a subsequent Provocative Opinion article.) This, then, would he the end of their college career for the great majority of our chemistry majors. Only the exceptional few who did outstandingly well a t the MS level would be encouraged, or even allowed, to proceed to the PhD. Since the needs of industry for chemists will be almost totally satisfied by our new MS graduates, the PhD will now primarily he regarded as an entree into college or university teaching. The
anticipated demand for PhD's in this area is not expected to grow too rapidly in the near future. With increasing numbers of students interested in some form of higher education, but with colleges and universities unable to find the funds to continue to support higher education in the manner to which we have become habituated, there will he increasing pressure to transfer more and more of the higher education load to the community colleges, or to courses taught via mass media such as film and television. We should not encourage our students to think that the PhD will soon again find himself in the sellers' market of the early '60's. To those who may object that the program I have outlined here substantially increases the length of time it takes the student to reach the first professional qualification in chemistry (probably by 1 1 / r 2 years over the present BS degree) let me riposte, "What's the hurry?" Setting aside even the obvious counters that the new program educates a student more effectively, or that other subject areas like engineering have long realized that four years is too short a time to master a modern science or technology, let us consider both a short term and a long term argument. I n the short term we are currently plagued by unemployment in chemistry, and no dramatic swing in the economy is expected to reverse this situation rapidly.
By increasing the length of the educational experience of all professional chemists by 20-25% we will effectively be cutting down on the supply of new chemists a t just the time when we have greatest need for new employment opportunities for older, experienced chemists. Looking ahead to the longer term and extrapolating from present moves towards a shorter working week, and earlier retirement, it seems clear that we can expect a much shorter working lifetime for chemists, and indeed for all workers, towards the end of the century. So in fact we may expect to have the time for the more leisurely and broader training of chemists that I am suggesting. I believe the time is ripe for considering radical alternatives to our present stereotyped curricular patterns. If the present proposal provokes discussion, debate, and dissent, it will serve a useful purpose. And perhaps it will provoke the A.C.S. Committee on Professional Training to consider whether, in accrediting baccalaureate programs as adequately training professional chemists, it is serving the best interests of chemistry.
H. Goldwhite California State College 10s Angeles, 90032
Volume
49, Number 7, luly 1972
/
471
