Hard Times for Physics Departments Everywhere

In the APS News ,December 2011 (Volume 20, Number 11) the Back PageThe Economics of Education: Closing Undergraduate Physics Programs, by Theodore Hodapp describes a pretty dismal state of affairs for physics Departments in this country. The heart of the matter is given in this paragraph:

These recent decisions in a number of states indicate that the era, if it ever existed, of a program existing because it is unthinkable not to offer physics is over. Dominating the current academic landscape are huge numbers of business, psychology, communications, and life-sciences majors. Physics undergraduate degrees accounted for 0.88%² of all majors in 1966. Now they account for 0.32%. Figure 1 shows how physics has fared compared to the aggregate STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics) fields. The total number of physics graduates is roughly the same as it was in the late 60’s at around 6,000, but as a fraction of the undergraduate degrees it has fallen by almost a factor of three from its former standing. Further, if you normalize the data to the US population, which increases at roughly 1% per year, the data indicate that other majors have successfully lured away students who previously would have majored in physics. As a colleague recently said to me, “Who is better equipped to deal with the challenging problems that currently face our society–physics or psychology majors?” Psychology graduates increased from roughly 17,000 to 100,000 in those same four and half decades.

All pretty sobering stuff. Have a look at the full article for all the details.

Shanil Virani, Planetarium & Recruiting Director

The Department of Physics and Astronomy is delighted to announce that Shanil Virani will begin his duties full-time as Director of the John C. Wells Planetarium in January 2012. He brings planetarium experience both from Yale University as well as JMU. He is an enthusiastic and capable educator and is already working to move the planetarium program forward.

With our annual planetarium attendance near 10,000, there is already a vibrant program in place. Shanil already has many ideas for extending the reach of our programs both on- and off-campus. If you would like to discuss ideas for how the planetarium as a full-dome video facility, a star projection facility or as a unique auditorium can fit with your educational plans, please contact Shanil at viranisn@jmu.edu.

The Wells Planetarium is an amazing venue with capabilities unique among planetariums of its size. Come join Shanil in exploring the universe with the greater JMU community.


In addition to Shanil's duties in the planetarium, he is also charged with student recruiting. As many know, Dr. Jon Staib continues to orchestrate our winter recruiting/scholarship efforts that have done so much to grow our department into a nationally recognized program. However, since he retired several years ago, we've been living on borrowed time, hiring him part-time to continue with his successful approach.


This spring, Jon and Shanil will work together on the recruiting to pass the baton on to Shanil for the future. This combination of outreach and recruiting put Shanil in a central position to take our department to the next level in our quest to be the biggest, best and most amazing undergraduate physics department in the nation.


Join us in welcoming Shanil to his new position.

A Banner Recruiting Season

As of the last update from Dr. Staib on Saturday afternoon, we have set a new record of 48 students scheduled to visit to sit for the scholarship exam. This exceeds our previous record by five, give or take.

Although there is another week of visits, it seems that our big day was Saturday (2/26) when 10 prospective students and their parents attended.

If you are one of those who wants to come and have not yet scheduled your visit, time's a'wastin'! It is much to early to know if the record turnout will lead to any increase in the freshman class of 2011. However, it is clear that we will have another strong class with many excellent students.

Recruiting season begins

This week begins the annual freshman recruiting season for PandA. Those of you that have been through the process will remember it well: the phone calls from Dr. Staib (still doing our recruiting after all these years!), the visit, the scholarship exam, lunch with faculty and the department tour.

Between now and the first week of March we will host perhaps 40 prospective students and their parents. Not all will choose to attend JMU. Our job is try to convince that they should be here. The range of research options and opportunities for getting involved in the freshman year is central to our pitch. We are the place to be in Virginia.

The university is continuing the Madison Achievement Awards (MAS) and the Second Century Scholarships and the department continues the Presidential and Gordon Scholarships. Altogether we have about 14 scholarships total to award! Given the size of our typical freshman class, this means that nearly 1/2 of the freshman class will be on scholarship. This is an amazing ratio.

We're looking for the best and brightest for in-state and out-of-state (the MAS are targeted to out-of-state students). The number and quality of applicants in recent years have make a clear impact on our program. These scholarships are having a clear effect. This year we will continue on this path of growth and improvement.

In the histogram at the right is distribution of the number of graduates from undergraduate only physics departments in the US for the 2009-2009 school year. This data is the most recent was collected by the American Institute of Physics. The largest department graduated 30. In 2010, we graduated 21. This growth and the steady improvement in the quality of students (both due, in part, to the number and quality of scholarships we have to award) mean we are slowly but surely on track to be one of the very larges undergraduate physics departments in the country.

Open House

Today from 9-12, the admissions office sponsored another open house. There was a larger total turnout for this event than the one in September by about 40%. This attendance was, more or less, reflected in our workload. The numbers in the formal presentations were about the same order of magnitude as before, but there seemed to be somewhat more activity in the hallways and lab tours.

If we are seeing about 15 or so each time, we're on track to another solid recruiting year. Perhaps not a stellar one with the economy in the tank, but a very respectable one, nonetheless.

Open House

Today we had the first of two open house days for us folks in the STEM fields. These events, created by the good folks in admissions offer the opportunity for prospective students and their parents to visit JMU and see what we are all about. We open the labs and give tours. There's a time to hear a set presentation about the department. All around, it is good time to meet and greet.

While there was over 1000 students plus their parents here, as usual, few were interested physics. Best estimate is that fewer than 20 students and their parents visited our department, probably closer to 15. While this sounds like small numbers, it isn't so bad. Consider: our freshmen class runs about 25-30. If 15 come now and again on December 4 for the next open house, that's a pretty good turn out.

It is always the case that our best tool for recruiting is one-on-one contact. Having a chance to talk with these 15 or so students today is a good way to increase the likelihood of getting them to come to JMU. If today we encouraged a few more to apply for admission, then we have another chance to get them on campus during the scholarship exam season. Another chance to communicate one-on-one.

We continue to build a strong program and today's effort is part of this process. A politician once noted that 99% of everything that is done during a campaign is a waste. Think of the money we could save if we only did the right 1%. The problem is that no one knows what that right 1% happens to be. The same is true of recruiting.