From: johnson@whitewater.chem.wisc.edu (Art Johnson)
Subject: Re: Minorities in Science
Organization: Physical Sciences Lab, UW-Madison
Date: Thu, 31 Dec 92 22:18:06 GMT

In article <1992Dec29.183421.62339@cc.usu.edu> slzm9@cc.usu.edu writes:
>    I would like to call attention to a recent issue of the journal  
Science.
> On November 13th, 1992 Science published a special feature on  
"Minorities
> in Science." 

     [...synopsis of Science article deleted...]
 
>    If you are truly interested in recruitment of minorities into
> science, engineering and technology this is an essential source.

     I agree! This is an _excellent_ source.
 
 
> Let me report a few of the findings published here to stimulate
> discussion on the topic:

     [...some stuff deleted...]
 
> My question for readers is: How can we pare down the number of students
> that enter a scientific field without  racial or sexual bias? We must
> reduce the number because while 8,000 freshmen may enter college to
> major in biochemistry only 800 jobs in biochemistry and related fields
> will open the year they graduate. Also at a particular university 1200
> undergraduates may enter in a particular degree program while the 
> university only has enough resources to accomodate 120 seniors. Even if 
> you, the reader, argue that more resources must be made available
> it can be reasonably argued that society does not need 8,000 biochemists
> a year. So answer the question even if you must put in the caveat that
> we need more resources to be made available.

     I take issue with your premise, i.e. that the purpose of college  
science education is to "pare down the number of students that enter a  
scientific field". It is this premise that is partly responsible for the  
dearth of black scientists and engineers in this country. A chemistry  
professor's job is to teach the students *chemistry*, not to maximize the  
number of students who *fail* chemistry. Many students who are  
inadequately prepared for freshman science courses would catch up if the  
approach to teaching science in college was different. Indeed, the reason  
that Xavier College in Louisiana is so successful at producing black  
science graduates, even though virtually all of them enter with an  
inadequate preparation in math and science, is that the professors there  
consider it to be their job to teach their students the subject they were  
hired to teach, and to use *every* possible means to ensure that this is  
the case. My advice to math and science professors is the same as that  
Col. Shaw gave to his adjutant in the movie "Glory": "Teach these men  
*properly*, Major."

     As to the problem of oversupply of scientists, your focus is too  
narrow. Assuming that 8,000 freshman enter college as biochemistry majors,  
many of them have no plans to be biochemists per se; rather, they want to  
be, say, doctors, or nurses, or businesspeople, or lawyers, or  
bioengineers, or civil servants. There are all kinds of things that one  
can do with a biochemistry (or any hard science) degree besides being a  
high-powered research professor at Cal Tech. In addition, strengthening  
the technical proficiency of black Americans *as a group* can do only  
good, both for black Americans and for the country as a whole.

     [...some stuff deleted...]
  
 
>    This means that, on average, if you take a white kid and a black
> kid whose parents make the same amount of money and who finished
> with the same high school rank the white kid is MORE likely to
> get an undergraduate degree in science than a black kid at the
> same university, regardless of what grades these kids made in high  
school.

     One excellent solution to this problem was described in the article:  
the Meyerhoff Scholars Program, at the University of Maryland. For those  
unfamiliar with it, it was started four years ago by a philanthropist  
(Meyerhoff), who donated one million dollars to the university  
specifically for the program. Thus far it has done extremely well at  
helping black science majors succeed in an environment that, even when not  
intentionally or maliciously hostile, is often very lonely for blacks. I  
think that this program should be duplicated at the main campus of every  
state university. That's a initial investment of between 50 and 60 million  
dollars (adjusting for inflation and for California). Given the enormous  
wealth of some black entertainers and businesspeople, as well as a number  
of wealthy whites of good will, this sum could easily be raised privately,  
IMO, and would be of incalculable benefit to the black community. If  
necessary, the money could also be raised through a lot of small donations  
from people of more modest means. The main point is that I think there's  
real potential here to solve a real problem, and it should be strongly  
encouraged.

     [...stuff deleted...]
  
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> 
> Peace, but not without justice,
> 
> Zip
> 
>

Increase the peace.

Arthur Johnson
johnson@whitewater.chem.wisc.edu