Committee reviewing possible outcomes

Written by KELLEY DRECHSLER Aggie News Writer Published on March 5, 2013 Filed under Campus News

Admissions to the exercise biology (EXB) major will be suspended for the 2013-14 school year, and the major will potentially be combined with the neurobiology, physiology and behavior (NPB) major.

In the spring of 2012, a committee formed within the department of NPB to reorganize the exercise biology program in the face of budget cuts, increasing enrollments and declines in the number of faculty members. The committee includes professors Dave Furlow, Mark Goldman, Tom Hahn, Samantha Harris, Gaby Nevitt and Marty Usrey.

The goal of the committee is to find a way to combine the increasingly popular exercise biology and NPB majors into a combined program.

The committee hopes that through the reorganization, the school will be able to use limited resources for the exercise biology major more efficiently, promote increased collaboration across departments and offer courses to students who are interested in research, graduate school or careers related to integrative biology.

Either it needs to be an impacted major or combined with another major, said David A. Hawkins, professor of neurobiology, physiology and behavior.

Currently, the NPB major has approximately 950 students and the EXB major has approximately 650 students. Approximately 60 percent of the students in biological sciences majors declare an emphasis in NPB.

I think the exercise biology major involves a lot of what is not offered outside of the other biology majors, said Megan Barrett, an exercise biology peer advisor.

The committee unanimously decided that combining the available resources for both majors into one program with the option of emphasizing in specialties within the combined program would be the most effective and efficient action.

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Exercise biology major could combine with NPB major