SDSU Cuts
On May 13, 14 professors of chemistry at San Diego State University were given termination notices. The chemistry department faculty will be reduced from 23 current professors to nine. A faculty of nine professors will be able to provide only a cursory level of chemistry education. All postgraduate programs will be eliminated, and the bachelor degree in chemistry will be a thing of the past. Other science programs that require chemistry classes (biology, microbiology, geology, engineering, public health, etc.) will also be hurt due to the reduced availability of classes.
While our nation continues to slip further behind other countries in science and technology, we do nothing but hasten the slide. Eliminating an essential science such as chemistry from a university is a travesty. What programs will be next? Physics? Engineering? Mathematics?
If we are content to become a nation of lackeys, then we are surely on the right course. I urge all people concerned to voice their opinions by writing to their state representatives as well as sending a letter to:
Thomas B. Day
President, SDSU
5300 Campanile Drive
San Diego, CA 92182-0663
JOHN B. KETTELLE
La Mesa
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