George Spagna answered the question for me about why physics is not
required for math majors. Since Bluffton University is a "liberal-arts"
institution we have limits on the number of hours required for the
major. Thus, physics is listed as a good elective for math majors, but
it is not a requirement.
Today, in general, students don't choose electives that could hurt their
GPAs, or at least they avoid courses that will take considerable effort
to assure the course does not hurt their GPAs. More specifically, since
many of the math majors are in the "rote memorization of procedure"
mode, they not only view physics as hard... they don't even view it as
fun or interesting.
The battle over major limits can get ugly. The mathematics faculty
really would like to require physics, but they are at the limit, so
adding a physics course or two to the math major would require that they
reduce the math courses required for the major by one or two. Which
course will they throw out? And if they can choose one, what will
happen to that course? It becomes an elective. But changing a course
from required to elective (in a small institution where elective courses
might not achieve the 7-student enrollment required for the courses to
be offered) can be the kiss of death for the course. That faculty
member is going to fight to keep his course on the required list.
It does make me angry that our chemistry and physics programs do indeed
require calculus, so a couple of our upper-level science courses have to
be electives. But the math major does not require any non-math courses.
Thus the math department does not have any reciprocity with any other
department. Lots of departments require math in their majors, but math
does not require other departmental courses for the math major (other
than the university-wide gen-ed requirement). This has been a thorn in
our sides for a long time.
Our physics major only requires calculus 1 and calculus 2. We should
require multivariable calculus, differential equations, linear algebra.
Each of those added would require dropping a physics course from the
requirements.
This is a curse of liberal-arts institutions. And, by the way, it
doesn't work. The intent is that students will have more electives to
*explore* the liberal arts and become well-rounded. But that's not what
they do. Rather, they put all those "electives" into the same
department because the low major requirements allow them to get a second
major without having to exceed the overall 122 semester-hour graduation
requirement. Thus, we graduate a lot of students with double majors. I
guess that is more rounded than a single major, but it is not the
widespread dabbling in literature, history, philosophy, arts that the
liberal-arts and humanities faculty hoped for by limiting the number of
hours in a major.
Michael D. Edmiston, Ph.D.
Professor of Chemistry and Physics
Bluffton University
Bluffton, OH 45817
(419)-358-3270
edmiston@bluffton.edu
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