Dartmouth cancels IMPS program
Dartmouth's Integrated Math and Physical Sciences program, initially envisioned by reviewers from the National Science Foundation as a potential paradigm for interdisciplinary studies throughout the nation, was not offered to this year's freshmen class and has now been officially discontinued. Although professors and students alike praised the unique program -- which consisted of courses integrating freshman math and science team-taught by professors of several departments -- budgetary constraints forced the involved academic departments to cut back their commitment to the program. Professors Mary Hudson and Miles Blencowe from the physics department explained that limited resources motivated the department's decision to no longer offer the physics component of IMPS. Because the physics department offered four introductory sequences of physics, including IMPS, it was difficult to maintain the program with only 16 faculty members, explained Blencowe. Also, the balance between students beginning the IMPS sequence in the fall and those beginning the Physics 13/14 sequence in the winter was highly uneven, Hudson said.