Texas physics departments threatened by budget cuts

New York Times : Budget cuts in Texas could jeopardize physics programs across the state. The Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board has implemented a more stringent annual review system that eliminates programs with low enrollment—a chronic problem in physics. Programs that fail to graduate an average of five students per year over five years face being cut, which translates to nearly 60% of Texas’s undergraduate physics programs. According to the American Physical Society, if the same standard were applied nationally, 526 of about 760 programs would be phased out. Critics say that diminishing enrollments at the university level are indicative of a more fundamental problem in the US educational system and more must be done at the secondary school level to promote physics as an academic discipline. Besides, cutting university programs may not result in any meaningful savings anyway: Qualified teachers will still be needed because physics is a prerequisite for many majors, and physicists bring in substantial research monies to the universities where they work.