Tennessee university discontinues physics degree program

Tennessean : Tennessee State University in Nashville has started pruning its lowest-producing degree programs—including undergraduate physics, writes Jennifer Brooks for the Tennessean. Because the university has graduated only 23 physics majors over the past decade, the administration decided to wrap the physics program into an umbrella math-and-science hybrid degree within the College of Engineering. “Mathematics and physics majors take 80% of the same courses,” said professor Sandra Scheick, head of the current mathematics and physics department. Instead of two or three physics majors and 10 or so math majors, and maybe one astronomy major every other year or so, Scheick said, there will be two dozen mathematical science majors. The Tennessee Higher Education Commission keeps a running tally of the graduates produced by every degree program at every public institution in the state. To avoid being classified as “low producing,” several schools have been forced to terminate programs.