In full disclosure, I should state that I am a professor at an American University. I just got this e-mail:
XX and XX have been talking to many of you about
changing the name of the department to the Department of Chemical
Sciences. The topic has also been discussed by the Strategic Planning
Committee.[...]
To be clear, I deleted much of email but it was mostly about process and internal crap that would put you, the reader, to sleep.
The first response was this:
*I believe that DuPont started this whole thing when it stopped using
the 'Better things for better living through chemistry' slogan.
If you want to hide our mission, you should avoid the 'C' word at all
costs. In this spirt, I have taken the liberty of reinventing myself
as shown below.
XX
Professor of Nature-derived, carbonaceous bioaugmentals
Department of Nanoelemental Sciences
*I have deleted personal and institutional information from this quote, I will do the same with all following quotes to respect the privacy of my colleagues who never suspected 'one of their own' is an active member of the blogosphere.
Full response from the powers that be:
*The point is not to hide anything, but to emphasize that we are doing
science.
My full response:
*Not to be a dick, but I'm going to be. I don't buy the whole "emphasize that we
are doing science" argument. Can you cite to us a single R1 chemistry department
that doesn't "do science"? Is the fact that we are a member of the College of
Science not apparent to anyone? Is the confusion over the fact that,
technically, we award doctoral degrees in "Philosophy"?
The mere fact that the Board of Trustees is in strong support of this is a
strong implication that our University doesn't recognize the Chemistry
Department as a science. I take great scientific and personal offense to this.
Give me the names of the Board, and if they really believe this, I will put my
foot so far up their asses they'll taste my toes, tenure be damned.
As a member of the faculty and as a member of the executive committee this
excuse of "doing science" is pure garbage. And offensive, not just to me but (I
imagine) my colleagues.
Personally, I took a very different path than almost all of my colleagues. Not
being admitted to graduate school right out of undergrad, I devised a plan...a
long one, that would set me on the path I wanted my life to take. xx gave me
that opportunity, and I find myself back at xx fulfilling that dream (so
far). The original love in my life was science. The interest that set me on the
path that I have chosen was science and I identified chemistry as the "school"
of science that best meshed with my personal interest and what the particular
field of chemistry could provide. In 1983, when I was 11 years old, I was able
to identify chemistry as a science.
I can understand that there are certain tactical advantages of renaming the
department and, as far as they are rationally based, I support them. What I
don't support is ad hoc rhetoric. We are scientists. Give us facts and reason
and we will, as a community, come to a logical conclusion.
Just don't give us crap.
I apologize if I offended anyone's sensibilities but, I seem to have none so
it's hard for me to gauge.
And, my first reply, from the Professor of Nature-derived, carbonaceous bioaugmentals:
*Bravo, chauncey. There IS hope for the future. At least there will be
3 negative votes! (xxxx). I will keep a running count. Perhaps
we can squash this before it gets out of hand.
What is your opinion? Is chemistry a science? Should we rename the "Department of Chemistry" to something else? In full disclosure, I am in favor of renaming the department to make it more 'sexy', but is Chemistry as it is currently stated, no longer 'Science'?
Thanks for your input.