Michael Rosenthal

(7/2020) I have written before about my experiences as a college chemistry professor at small colleges of the liberal arts and science. A recent article in Chemical and Engineering News (c and en), a publication of the American Chemical Society, stimulated me to revisit my 50+ years of college teaching experience.

The article speaks of first-year college chemistry, often called Freshman Chemistry, as the make-or-break experience for college freshmen in their potential science careers. My first position after my graduate school doctorate was completed was at Bard College, a small and excellent college of the liberal arts and sciences in the Hudson Valley of New York. In our two-person chemistry faculty (Bard only had 550 students at that time!); I was solely responsible for teaching the entry level chemistry course, largely structured for prospective medical professionals and chemistry career scientists. By the time I left Bard College and moved to a full-time academic administration position, I had taught this course 19 times!

In the Chemical and Engineering news article, written by Celia Arnaud about the University of Washington, the argument is made that this course is the make-or-break experience for beginning students aspiring to careers in medicine or science, and especially so for underrepresented students who are African-American or female, and in my Bard College experience for Hispanic students as well.

Students from minority cultures, largely African-American and Hispanic, often came to Bard from school systems that did not excel in science education (of course, there are exceptions). In the commitment from New York State and from Bard College in my particular experience, developmental programs for these students offered in the summer before first-year college enrollment often helped these students become better prepared. I taught in Bard’s summer science program for many years, and then I often had as students in First-Year Chemistry those same students.

First-year chemistry, often called Freshman Chemistry, was and still is a "sorting-out" course for students aspiring to medical professions and careers in science. It is still amazing to me that students survive the model in large universities, even at the prestige universities. Though there is an Honors Program in many colleges and universities, the typical pattern is that a professor lectures to a large group of 100 students or more, with little or no opportunity for student questions or for discussion. Then the students attend a small class of 20-25, led by a teaching assistant, a graduate student who usually only has a four-year undergraduate degree and little or no teaching preparation or experience. I participated in this process as a graduate student at The University of Illinois. In these large lecture sessions, it was almost impossible to ask a question, and to find students sleeping through the lecture class in their assigned seat was not at all unusual!

The survivors of this year went on to more advanced chemistry courses, including organic chemistry and physical chemistry. At Bard my typical physical chemistry classes had 5 or 6 students.

I found the large university model an unacceptable pattern of instruction for beginning college students, especially in a complex field of study such as chemistry. When I finished my PhD degree I chose to teach in a small college of the liberal arts and sciences where beginning chemistry classes were 25-30 students, and where I was the teacher, not a graduate student. Though not every student was a success and went on to upper level courses and to careers in science and medicine, many more students were able to succeed and with more confidence and accomplishment than in the university lecture model. My colleague and I used to joke about giving our less successful students cards with directions to the social sciences building. Kidding aside, we always, in my 19 years at Bard, worked with our science colleagues to maximize the opportunity of our students for science success, and for subsequent scientific or medical careers. Many succeeded!

Students come to college with a wide range of preparation. There are those who can handle the large impersonal lecture, and there are those who can’t. If, however, we want to give every student, regardless of race or gender, the best chance to succeed, I believe we need to build a course program that encourages confidence and success wherever possible. Not everyone is a talented science student, and there will always be those who are not successful, but I believe that the maximum opportunity should be offered students, especially those from situations for which the best educational preparation for college was not made available to them.

The model discussed above was not the only difference between the small liberal arts and sciences colleges and the large universities. In many colleges and universities the better students were often given the chance to do student research in their senior year. This was a less intense version of graduate research, but sought accurate answers to scientific questions, often with the prospect of participating with the supervising faculty member in a scientific publication. At Bard College, all students were required to do a two semester senior project to graduate. For the scientists this was usually a laboratory research project, and it often ended up as a part of a publication in a scientific journal. Students in all fields at Bard College were required to do a Senior Project!

Not surprisingly, many of my students ended up as career scientists after they earned their graduate degrees, including some at prestigious colleges and universities.

Though a science major was sometimes not a requirement, most applicants to medical, dental, or veterinary schools were biology or chemistry majors. In my years at Bard, 1965-1984, there was excessive discrimination against women applying to health profession schools. Many stories were brought back to me about the students’ application experiences, but one story sticks in my mind. A very talented female student was asked in her medical school interview to guarantee that she would not "get married and have babies, and stop practicing medicine" and thus waste the medical school experience. She was, however, accepted and became a successful physician. Also in those days it was very hard for women to get acceptance into veterinary schools. I don’t believe I was successful in getting any of my women science students into vet school. Many women students, and men as well, were forced to attend vet school in the Caribbean. That situation has changed, as you pet owners know, as veterinary science has become woman dominated.

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