Non-Science Majors Take Lead at UCSD

For the first time, more undergraduate students now have declared majors in the fields of social sciences, humanities and arts at UC San Diego than in science and engineering areas, despite UCSD’s worldwide reputation for scientific prowess.

While science and engineering remain strong disciplines at the La Jolla campus, the growth of non-science majors during the past 10 years--especially in the social sciences--shows the maturation of the university, with strong departments in all academic fields, top UCSD officials say.

Only two years ago, UCSD observed its 25th anniversary; the campus was established in the early 1960s with a heavy emphasis in the natural sciences.

Enrollment figures for UCSD’s 1991 spring quarter, the latest available, show the following breakdown of majors for the campus’s 13,875 undergraduates:

* 32.7% in social sciences, which include the departments of anthropology, cognitive science, communication, economics, linguistics, political science, psychology, sociology and urban studies. Economics, with 8.5% of total majors, is followed by psychology and political science, each with about 7%.

* 24.1% in the sciences, which include the departments of biology, chemistry, math and physics. With 16% of total majors, biology remains the single largest departmental major at UCSD, in large part because it is a prerequisite for students wishing to enter medical fields.

* 18.5% in engineering, which includes the three departments of applied mechanics and engineering science, computer science and electrical and computer science. About 9.7% of all undergraduates major in mechanical engineering.

* 7.4% in humanities, which encompass the history, literature and philosophy departments.

* 3.9% in arts, which include the visual arts, music and theatre departments.

* 13.4% undeclared.

The spurt in social sciences has been most pronounced during the past decade, with the total number of majors increasing from 24.6% to 32.7%. Humanities and arts have shown a slow but incremental growth, from about 6.5% to more than 11% this past spring. Science majors have declined, from about 27.5% to 24%, and engineering majors have dropped from a high-water mark of 26.5% to 18.5%.

The departments in the social sciences were among the last to be created and nurtured, according to political science professor Tracy Strong, who is acting dean of the social sciences division this fall.

“In 1980, for example, there were only eight political scientists on the entire campus,” Strong said. “That means there were not enough professors to give enough courses to draw enough students to (political science) majors.”

Majorie Caserio, UCSD vice chancellor for academic affairs, said new departments necessarily start out without a full spectrum of sub-disciplines represented, such as in anthropology, which began with a psychological emphasis and only recently has added specialists in physical and social anthropology.

“As the campus gradually builds up, you gain both greater breadth and depth,” Caserio said. “Today there are numerous departments (in the social sciences) with national reputations.”

Added Strong: “Only as you develop a wider range of courses do you attract more students, because you’re not going to have a lot of students interested in just one small part of an academic field.”

Another campus official explained that social sciences began slowly because the university’s base was the Scripps Institution of Oceanography and because of the belief of late oceanographer Roger Revelle, UCSD’s founder, that recruitment of stellar scientists was the quickest way to gain stature and recognition.

“These scientists were otherwise interested in culture--literature and music and art for a well-rounded person, the ‘decoration on the scientific cake,’ if you will,” said the official, who asked not to be identified.

“Social sciences occupies an intermediate position, not being hard sciences and not being cultural sustenance. Also, it’s easier to be sure of excellence in the natural sciences when you are recruiting someone, compared to the social sciences.”

Caserio, a chemist who came to UCSD from UC Irvine two years ago, said the pace of the non-sciences growth is remarkable given the continued academic strength of the science faculty.

“In part it reflects the bent of young people today toward more interest in social issues,” Caserio said. “There is more concern for environmental and social issues.”

The science legacy of UCSD has influenced the development of the social sciences departments, Caserio said. “Many do emphasize a ‘science approach’ to them,” she said, noting that economics is heavily quantitative as opposed to business-oriented, and psychology is more experimental and less behavioral in its philosophic approach.

Strong said many of the departments pursue “a kind of explanatory approach to finding out why certain social phenomena take place,” as contrasted with a more strictly ideological approach.

“I am struck by the catholicity in the approaches taken by many of the disciplines,” he said.

Strong said the university’s college system, under which students take general education courses according to the particular emphasis of each of the five colleges, has strengthened the social sciences.

“Students come into contact with professors and academic subjects that they might otherwise never have,” Strong said, and some of them subsequently choose to take further classes in the topics or to major in them.

For example, students who select the university’s Fifth College for their general education requirements must take a two-year course called “The Making of the Modern World.” Professors from anthropology, political science, history and numerous other departments teach portions of the course.

Strong said at least 15% of the 120 students in his present course on classical Greek political theory first encountered him in “The Making of the Modern World.”

“That’s why the social sciences departments strongly encourage their faculty to teach in the general education courses,” Strong said.

Also, creating organized research units in specialized areas of history and establishing graduate schools in international relations and architecture have spawned a variety of interdisciplinary courses.

The changes have also helped UCSD solve its problem of retaining students from one year to the next. In 1979-80, only 77% of students stayed at UCSD, the lowest of the eight general UC campuses, because of the paucity of majors and a lack of program and course diversity outside of the sciences, Caserio said.

Last year, the rate was 90%, the system’s fourth-highest, “and our problem has largely disappeared,” she said.

Academic Majors of Undergraduates at UC San Diego 1990-91 Social Sciences: 32.7% Sciences: 24.1% Engineering: 18.5% Undeclared: 13.4% Humanities: 7.4% Arts: 3.9%

Growth in Social Sciences Enrollment 1970-71: 15.5% 1980-81: 24.6% 1990-91: 32.7% Source: UC San Diego