Today has been a day full of meetings (with another to come tonight!) and now I’m tired. One of the meetings gave me mixed feelings: a division meeting of all the science faculty to give our final approval of a decision to get rid of our geology discipline.
OK, that’s overly dramatic. We’re not actually getting rid of any of the geology classes, or any of the geology faculty, we just won’t be giving out geology degrees, and the existing structure of the discipline is getting folded into our Environmental Science program. Nothing will be lost, it’s more of an administrative shift, and apparently this is a common kind of change at many universities, but I still feel like it’s a historical break. Before there was a biology, there was geology, and geology was one of the core research fields in natural history. It’s being absorbed into a broader academic discipline, which is OK, I guess, but as an old guy I feel like something is being lost.
I wonder what will happen to biology in a few decades…what grander concept will expand to encompass my little domain?
Don’t tell me physics.
With Trump’s monstrous “drill, baby drill” sloganeering and its practical economic benefits, I’m surprised they’re stopping geology – would’ve thought that subject would be something in high demand with people being pushed towards it.
Thought it was the “soft” sciences not one as realtively hard as geology that would be under most attack…
Then again, there is the whole Christianist rejection of the reality of the age of earth – actual versus counting the biblical begats so there’s that.
But this isn’t political or cultural just administrative so, huh. Still surprises me.
Geomorphology with its focus on risks and impact of earthquakes, floods, volcanoes etc.. still being taught?
dianetics
engineering
or finance
I can’t help but think that this is a very bad idea. Geology is really about the history of the earth written in rock, and it has little intersection with other parts of the environmental sciences.
This is a grave mistake. It will lead to there being less geology experts who are really specialists on rocks.
We have provisions for students who want to specialize in pure geology.