It’s Not Just a Physics Problem

Colleges and Universities cannot continue to operate as if it were the good ol’ days.

I know, this is a silly statement that most would immediately shoot down because of the use of “good ol’ days,” but I stand by it. The decades after World War II saw the astounding growth of America’s colleges and universities; the US population grew, students from around the world started attending, and the government, federal and state consistently funded higher education. Colleges and universities all around the country were able to expand and start departments because of the needs of their localities and funding, although not plentiful, was there.

Fast forward to 2013; things have changed. The government, federal and state have limited resources to spread around and need to fund other things such as defense, primary and secondary education, IRS, veterans affairs, homeland security, justice, health-care, and the like before higher education takes precedence. Besides the intense scrutiny of for-profit education, all of higher education is being questioned, rightly and wrongly because of tight purse strings. This leads us to an article at Inside Higher Ed about how the University of Southern Maine is looking to eliminate their physics department.

Rewind to August 2012 and my article about classical music training in Arizona. In this article I predicted that classical music training at Arizona’s three large public institutions will drastically change by 2025. To summarize; Arizona State University will continue to have a robust school of music because of its location while the University of Arizona and Northern Arizona University will slowly be bled dry, both being reduced to marching band departments (not a bad thing). To conclude the article I stated, “My prediction is not limited to Arizona. This prediction can be applied to countless content areas and replicated in every state in the union where higher education budgets are at the whim of lawmakers and the rise and fall of the economy. This is not just a music problem; this is the new higher education reality.”

Back to 2013 and the University of Southern Maine’s physics department. Because of low student enrollment the University of Southern Maine is looking to cut its physics department. If this goes into effect, the university will continue to offer electives in physics but if a student wants major in physics they will have to pack their bags and go to the University of Maine (as stated in the article). This would cause some hardship for students who were not intending on going to the University of Maine but if a school like University of Southern Maine has to cut physics then the University of Maine’s will only grow and the quality offered at that school will improve. At the end of the day students of Maine will still be able to study physics, Maine will most likely have a larger more renowned physics program at the University of Maine, and the needs of the people of Maine will be met.

As I stated in my article about classical music training, this scenario will be duplicated countless times in many different content areas where enrollment is small or shrinking. I greatly empathize with faculty members and staff that will be affected by department reductions and closures over the next ten years but there is no way to avoid this reality. The good news is that higher education is not going to suffer and America’s colleges and universities will continue to be the best in the world; individual colleges and universities and the state systems that support them have to adjust.

When it comes to which content areas will be affected, this will be decided by administrators, faculty, higher education boards, and politicians. Unfortunately I have to include politicians because as with everything, there is always a political element to higher education when it comes to money and the allocation of scarce resources. In my next article on this subject I will go over a scenario in which a state system tries to decide which content areas to reduce, which ones to consolidate, and which ones are cut.