[Dialogue] Evolution Major Vanishes From Approved Federal List

[Harry Wainwright]

Published on Friday, August 25, 2006 by the New York
<http://www.nytimes.com>  Times 

Evolution Major Vanishes From Approved Federal List 

by Cornelia Dean 

 

Evolutionary biology has vanished from the list of acceptable fields of
study for recipients of a federal education grant for low-income college
students. 

The omission is inadvertent, said Katherine McLane, a spokeswoman for the
Department of Education, which administers the grants. "There is no
explanation for it being left off the list," Ms. McLane said. "It has always
been an eligible major." 

Another spokeswoman, Samara Yudof, said evolutionary biology would be
restored to the list, but as of last night it was still missing. 

If a major is not on the list, students in that major cannot get grants
unless they declare another major, said Barmak Nassirian, associate
executive director of the American Association of Collegiate Registrars and
Admissions Officers. Mr. Nassirian said students seeking the grants went
first to their college registrar, who determined whether they were full-time
students majoring in an eligible field.

"If a field is missing, that student would not even get into the process,"
he said. 

That the omission occurred at all is worrying scientists concerned about
threats to the teaching of evolution. 

One of them, Lawrence M. Krauss, a physicist at Case Western Reserve
University, said he learned about it from someone at the Department of
Education, who got in touch with him after his
<http://www.nytimes.com/2006/08/15/science/sciencespecial2/15essa.html>
essay on the necessity of teaching evolution appeared in The New York Times
on Aug. 15. Dr. Krauss would not name his source, who he said was concerned
about being publicly identified as having drawn attention to the matter.

An article about the issue was posted Tuesday on the Web site of The
Chronicle of Higher Education.

Dr. Krauss said the omission would be "of great concern" if evolutionary
biology had been singled out for removal, or if the change had been made
without consulting with experts on biology. The grants are awarded under the
National Smart Grant program, established this year by Congress. (Smart
stands for Science and Mathematics Access to Retain Talent.) 

The program provides $4,000 grants to third- or fourth-year, low-income
students majoring in physical, life or computer sciences; mathematics;
technology; engineering; or foreign languages deemed "critical" to national
security.

The list of eligible majors (which is online at
ifap.ed.gov/dpcletters/attachments/GEN0606A.pdf) is drawn from the Education
Department's "Classification of Instructional Programs," or CIP (pronounced
"sip"), a voluminous and detailed classification of courses of study,
arranged in a numbered system of sections and subsections.

Part 26, biological and biomedical sciences, has a number of sections, each
of which has one or more subsections. Subsection 13 is ecology, evolution,
systematics and population biology. This subsection itself has 10
sub-subsections. One of them is 26.1303 - evolutionary biology, "the
scientific study of the genetic, developmental, functional, and
morphological patterns and processes, and theoretical principles; and the
emergence and mutation of organisms over time."

Though references to evolution appear in listings of other fields of
biological study, the evolutionary biology sub-subsection is missing from a
list of "fields of study" on the National Smart Grant list - there is an
empty space between line 26.1302 (marine biology and biological
oceanography) and line 26.1304 (aquatic biology/limnology). 

Students cannot simply list something else on an application form, said Mr.
Nassirian of the registrars' association. "Your declared major maps to a CIP
code," he said. 

Mr. Nassirian said people at the Education Department had described the
omission as "a clerical mistake." But it is "odd," he said, because applying
the subject codes "is a fairly mechanical task. It is not supposed to be the
subject of any kind of deliberation."

"I am not at all certain that the omission of this particular major is
unintentional," he added. "But I have to take them at their word." 

Scientists who knew about the omission also said they found the clerical
explanation unconvincing, given the furor over challenges by the religious
right to the teaching of evolution in public schools. "It's just awfully
coincidental," said Steven W. Rissing, an evolutionary biologist at Ohio
State University. 

Jeremy Gunn, who directs the Program on Freedom of Religion and Belief at
the American Civil Liberties Union, said that if the change was not
immediately reversed "we will certainly pursue this."

Dr. Rissing said removing evolutionary biology from the list of acceptable
majors would discourage students who needed the grants from pursuing the
field, at a time when studies of how genes act and evolve are producing
valuable insights into human health.

"This is not just some kind of nicety," he said. "We are doing a terrible
disservice to our students if this is yet another example of making sure
science doesn't offend anyone."

Dr. Krauss of Case Western said he did not know what practical issues would
arise from the omission of evolutionary biology from the list, given that
students would still be eligible for grants if they declared a major in
something else - biology, say.

"I am sure an enterprising student or program director could find a way to
put themselves in another slot," he said. "But why should they have to do
that?"

Mr. Nassirian said he was not so sure. "Candidly, I don't think most
administrators know enough about this program" to help students overcome the
apparent objection to evolutionary biology, he said. Undergraduates would be
even less knowledgeable about the issue, he added. 

Dr. Krauss said: "Removing that one major is not going to make the nation
stupid, but if this really was removed, specifically removed, then I see it
as part of a pattern to put ideology over knowledge. And, especially in the
Department of Education, that should be abhorred."

Copyright 2006 The New York Times Company

###

 

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