
Texas holds firm on physics closures - ukdm
http://www.nature.com/news/2011/110924/full/news.2011.559.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+news%2Frss%2Fmost_recent+%28NatureNews+-+Most+recent+articles%29&utm_content=Google+Feedfetcher
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kapitalx
This plan runs the risk of lowering the standard for graduation in order to
increase the number of graduates instead of its intended purpose which is to
increase the quality of the instruction/instructors.

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yuliyp
I doubt the issue is difficulty. It's probably an issue of
enrollment/retaining students in the major.

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kapitalx
You might be right, but this quote is what leave me to believe they are
talking about quality of instruction, rather than enrollment issues:

"Until now, most faculty members thought their role was to do research and
teach courses they were assigned. Now, researchers at institutions in Texas
are going to have to take responsibility for students graduating
successfully,"

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yummyfajitas
It sounds like Texas is doing the taxpayers a favor.

 _...Mario Díaz, a physicist at the University of Texas at Brownsville...says
his department was able to raise more than US$5 million for research on
gravitational wave astronomy from the US National Science Foundation, in part
because reviewers were encouraged by the prospect of enticing minority
students into science._

Now that Brownsville's physics program is kaput, maybe the NSF will be forced
to send money to someone who is actually good at gravity wave astronomy?

(I'm assuming, based on the statement quoted above, that Diaz would not have
gotten the grant on pure scientific merit. If this is incorrect, his claim is
pointless.)

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alnayyir
Are you familiar with his research? As much as I dislike affirmative action, I
find it difficult to accept that as justification for writing off his work.

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yummyfajitas
Did you read my parenthetical statement?

I don't know much about his work, and I fully realize it is possible that he
might have gotten the grant even without minorities (in contradiction of the
statement he made).

In that case, his statement is entirely pointless, since he would have gotten
the grant with or without a physics undergrad program.

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alnayyir
I can't believe I'm saying this but, is it constructive to be so critical in
the absence of any apposite information?

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borism
if anything, google search for "gravitational wave astronomy" returns UTB CGWA
as the 2nd result.

Besides, even OP states that affirmative action was only "in part" responsible
for funding success.

