CHICAGO A fter a decline in chemistry enrollments during the 1980s, new data suggest the trend may have reversed. Many chemistry departments across the country now report that enrollment is surging, creating a strain on financial, physical, and human resources at a time when the economic climate is stagnant. "There's an enormous squeeze going on," says Morton Z. Hoffman, professor of chemistry at
... [Show full abstract] Boston University. Hoffman and colleague Patricia L. Samuel organized a symposium for the Division of Chemical Education to examine the ramifications of recent enrollment trends and to explore ways that departments can cope with the pressure to do more with fewer resources. Data on enrollment trends were collected by Slayton A. Evans Jr. of the department of chemistry at the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, with the American Chemical Society's Committee on Professional ...