To the Editor:

Re: “Operating on the Bio Major,” Opinion, Nov. 12

I would like to point out an omission in this editorial, and also make a comment.

The editorial reports the decision has been made to “... scrap the two traditional introductory courses ...” from the biology major, but two other courses that met the requirements of the biology major will also be eliminated: The summer session introductory biology courses BIO 1107 and 1108. BIO 1107-1108 will be offered in the summer of 2010, so they will be the last introductory biology courses taught at Cornell before the shift to the new system takes effect in the fall of 2010.

As visiting lecturer, I have had the pleasure and privilege of working with a group of about 30 students each summer in BIO 1107-1108. The labs have been taught by some of the most talented and enthusiastic graduate student teaching assistants and post-docs I have known, all with experience teaching introductory biology labs. With three lab sections we often had 10 students per teaching assistant in our labs.

The desire for small class sizes is said to be one of the motivations for the change in the biology major. It is ironic then that this shift to the new biology major will eliminate the introductory biology courses that were small in size and did offer intensive teacher/student interaction.

On a personal note: I have offered to develop new summer session courses, based on some of the new core courses for the biology major, so that students will have scheduling flexibility. But after over a month of attempting to contact a member of the Biology Curriculum Transition Committee, I was told by them that their committee has no role in deciding such matters. After approaching others I have found no interest in my proposal, which means for me that after I teach BIO 1107-1108 next summer I will be unemployed. Let me say that it has been a true joy to work with Cornell’s intro bio students over the past 10 years — some of the finest students in the world and truly deserving of every effort in support of their learning.

Dr. Scott T. Meissner, visiting lecturer