Merger may add new minor

By Jaclyn Youngblood     1/29/09 6:00pm

Rice University's acquisition of Baylor College of Medicine could not only bring Rice a medical school, but also a new minor. Sid Richardson College freshman Nazima Zakhidova and Wiess College junior Tommy Sprague have spearheaded a team to discuss adding a neuroscience minor to the short list of minors offered at Rice.

Zakhidova, a biochemistry and cell biology major, came to Rice wanting to major in neuroscience but instead found a cognitive psychology major with a limited neuroscience track. The neuroscience courses currently available are graduate-level courses offered by Baylor faculty, rather than Rice faculty. However, since these courses are available to graduate students, Rice argues that it offers studies in neuroscience, Sprague said.

Sprague said he was frustrated with how difficult it was for an undergraduate to sign up for and excel in neuroscience courses at Baylor.

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"I was told specifically that because I was an undergraduate, I would not get an A," Sprague said.

Sprague and Zakhidova agree that student interest in a neuroscience minor is present and growing. Speaking with the Student Admissions Council, Sprague found that the second most often asked question during 2008 Owl Days was whether or not Rice had a neuroscience option. Zakhidova created a Facebook group to further discern the level of student interest. The group's Web page features a neuroscience interest survey that has been taken by over 200 students, and its membership currently totals 85 students.

Computational and Applied Mathematics Professor Steven Cox also found the student interest promising.

"There really was sufficient inertia to start meeting," he said.

Zakhidova found Sprague when she sent an e-mail to all the residential colleges trying to determine the level of student interest in a neuroscience minor. Since then, Sprague and Zakhidova have met biweekly with the team to discuss the development of the minor.

Neuroscience is the study of the nervous system. Neuroscience, like cognitive psychology, endeavors to explain psychology at the physical level and memory, thought and emotion at the biochemical level.

"It's not quite down to that point yet, but it's that idea of explaining what it is to be human," Sprague said.

Zakhidova said, at this point, the proposition for the minor is contingent on the merger between Rice and Baylor.

"Right now, there's no neuroscience faculty at Rice," she said. "Depending on what happens, we could just use their [Baylor's] faculty."

The proposal for the minor cannot be submitted until a decision has been made about the merger.

The minor fits the call for a mind-brain institute, a component of President David Leebron's Vision for the Second Century, Cox said.

"I think this dovetails really well," Cox said.

A minor at Rice must include six to eight courses. The curricula for the neuroscience minor would include two introductory level classes plus four to five electives from Baylor's course selection and the Rice Psychology, Biochemistry, and Computational and Applied Mathematics departments.

The two introductory courses are proposed as Behavior Neuroscience, a course created by David Eagleman (Jones '93), and Cellular and Molecular Neuroscience. Cox said the Biochemistry Department will offer the latter course in the fall regardless of whether or not the merger goes through.

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