Simpsons supplant science

After completing my first semester as an organic chemistry instructor at Iowa State University, I searched desperately through dozens of course evaluations looking for any positive student response until finally, I found one.\nIt read, "He speaks English. YEE HAW!"\nWell, I never thought my ability to speak English was anything to "Yee Haw" about, but I'm glad somebody noticed.\nAt the ISU chemistry department, we had a diverse group of graduate students with representation from South Korea, Nigeria, China, Russia, Venezuela and Germany. With all the diversity, one might say we looked like America. All we seemed to be missing were Americans.\nWith so few American graduate students in our department, some foreign students possessing very limited English skills were forced into teaching assistant positions they really had no business holding. Undergraduate students grew understandably frustrated to the point where having an instructor fluent in English was cause for celebration, or at least for a "Yee Haw." \nThe situation at ISU is not uncommon in science departments and represents a trend that has quietly permeated throughout the country within the past few decades. American students have become dramatically less interested in science graduate studies and science careers.\nAccording to the American Institute of Physics Web site, www.aip.org, the number of first-year U.S. physics graduate students has dropped more than 50 percent since 1970 and about 33 percent since the mid-1980s. \nPresident of the American Chemical Society and Professor Charles Casey wrote in an article published earlier this month in Chemical and Engineering News, "The number of U.S.-born students choosing careers in chemistry is distressingly low. We cannot continually rely on attracting international students to fill the need for chemists in the U.S."\nAnd it's not just the low number of American students that is distressing, but the lack of quality. IU physics professor Mike Snow said his department and physics departments nationwide observed a decline in quality until the mid-late 90s, although quality has rebounded in the last few years, possibly because of a struggling economy.\nWith the best American students taking other paths, it appears some schools may have severely lower standards for American students. At ISU and the University of Wisconsin, where I was a chemistry graduate student, foreign students were far superior, on average, in knowledge, dedication and, of course, proficiency in speaking a second language.\nThe problem could be that most Americans are simply no longer willing to put forth the effort needed for graduate science programs. When given the potential of having to work at least 60 hours a week, I have heard prospective American students scoff, while foreign students laugh.\nFor many Americans like me, "graduate study" in the sciences seems like a euphemism for cheap labor because students often work long hours in toxic conditions for a stipend that amounts to sub-minimum wage. With no enormous paycheck likely waiting after graduation, many of us have had to ask ourselves, "What the hell am I doing here?"\nBut the problem runs far deeper than the realities of graduate school. According to an article at pbs.org, American students are losing interest in science as early as middle school. Perhaps, as the article suggests, the best and brightest students in America are now more interested in writing for "The Simpsons" than becoming scientists.\nToday foreign students fulfill the scientists' role Americans have been unwilling or unqualified to take, but there is no guarantee how long that international pipeline is going to last. Perhaps foreign students will be barred from working here for security reasons, or perhaps they, too, will prefer to write scripts for cartoons. Then while we are looking for solutions to important problems like global warming, bioterrorism and depleted energy sources, all we are going to find are better episodes of "The Simpsons"