My friend Roger (MS organic chemistry, USF, 1972) tells me the newest state university in Florida offers a bachelor's degree in Chemical Plant Management, but offers no degree program or courses in Chemistry.

When I went to school, we were expected to pick up "Data Science" on our own, in industry, or to take a few courses from the Systems Engineering Department. In those days, programming was considered an engineering discipline, or a useful skill for scientists, not part of the business curriculum.

Who wants to study science, anyway? Its hard, and its certainly not kewl. And of course, lending money to students to pay for today's inflated tuitions has become a booming cottage industry these days, and subsidized by government loan guarantees. Have you seen how they advertise the new brand of private diploma mills these days on TV? Its all about "getting that job". And the kids in the ads always seem to be black or Hispanic.

There's a special place in hell for the "educators" behind this obscenity. It all started back when the State Board of Regents was abolished a few years ago, and the professional educators and academics that composed it were replaced by "community business leaders and entrepreneurs". A friend of mine went to the public ceremony when the new body was invested. One of the speakers, in his address, said "The purpose of the University is not to teach students how to think, but what they need to know." Presumably, that means "get a marketable job skill business has a shortage of right now".

From the Wikipedia entry...

"In 2012, the Florida State Legislature created the school, the state's 12th public university, while dissolving the University of South Florida Polytechnic campus. Florida Poly was created with an entrepreneurial focus, concentrating on the applied, not theoretical, side of the core STEM disciplines.[6]

In a letter that accompanied the signed legislation (SB 1994[7]) creating Florida Poly, Governor Rick Scott noted that Florida Poly, with its strong focus on STEM programs, will be a key component of the State University System of Florida meeting the goals outlined in its 2012-2015 Strategic Plan. The strategic plan requires the State University System to increase STEM degree production from 9,605 to 22,500 per year by 2025.[8]"

"Stem degree production", indeed. Its become a fucking process, like digestion.

The buzzword is "entrepreneurial", you can sell anything these days as long as "entrepreneurial" is in the advertising copy. That's Latin for "If you can't hack the math, get a STEM degree".

The State university systems used to be how we educated the children of the working and middle classes. They are rapidly becoming bootcamp for corporate drones, turning out "STEM techs" who can barely do long division or multiply two fractions, and a means for tapping into the billions of guaranteed loan dollars. Not to worry, if we need real chemists, we can always sub out the work overseas.

Man, I'm so glad I never had children.