I would like to bring a piece of news to the attention of Chancellor Dynes: Not all UCSD students are science majors. The way the school is being run indicates that no one has told the chancellor.

At UCSD, being a liberal arts major is equivalent to being a second-class citizen. The academics at UCSD are weighted toward the sciences, which causes the whole university to sponsor the sciences more than the liberal arts. Countless programs, scholarships and jobs are offered only to science majors.

I’m not stupid — I’m well aware that UCSD developed out of the research-oriented Scripps Institution of Oceanography. But that was 40 years ago, and it seems as if the liberal arts are still scratching the surface of funding resources, while the science departments are knee-deep in cash.

How does Dynes think this unfair dispersal of funds affects students? Academia is supposed to be the one arena where equality is stressed, where knowledge is cherished, no matter from what discipline. Yet the academic environment at UCSD encourages liberal arts majors (I dare not say nonscience majors) to develop an inferiority complex. I believe this same complex stifles their intellectual growth here at our great research university, helping to form a vicious cycle in which liberal arts majors look upon their major with apathy. It is hard to find a reason to expand academic departments when the students of those majors are not ambitious. But, after all this explanation as to why they are, who could blame them?

I think my strong feelings revolving around this issue arise from my Revelle college student status. I am greatly in the minority here at MCAT — I mean premed, er uh — Revelle college. I vividly remember how the first week of school freshman year, there was already a premed forum. How do you think that makes a scared, undeclared freshman feel? And let me assure you, there was no law school forum to complement the premed forum.

Ahh, Revelle — the renaissance college. There is nothing renaissance about it. The general education requirements consist of a bunch of social science classes, a foreign language requirement, the humanities sequence and premed courses. The one bright light in Revelle is the humanities. I am grateful for the opportunity to break the seal of this sacred canon of books summarizing the events of western civilization.

But even in humanities, there is a lot left to be desired. The professors have been wonderful, the books great, the TAs satisfactory. The students, awful! And they say that the only people at UCSD who can write are Revellians! The quality of writing in humanities is not high. Humanities is Revelle’s half-assed attempt to distance itself from the research-minded aspect of the rest of UCSD, when in fact Revelle’s own GEs require practically every liberal arts major to fulfill the prebio requirements.

Let me ask those in charge at Revelle college: How does one acquire renaissance status when one simply adds some social science requirements to the prebio GEs? It’s not as if these social science requirements are taken seriously. Any informed Revelle student knows he can satisfy any of them either at a community college or at summer school. On the other hand, the science courses cannot be satisfied at a community college. A double standard, maybe? Renaissance, my ass!

Let me pose a question: Why are there science classes for liberal arts majors, but no liberal arts classes for science majors? Are the liberal arts so easy at UCSD that they require no screening at all?

The whole division of science classes seems like a ploy to recruit more science majors to the university. It’s equivalent to separating the elite from the masses. Who would right-mindedly choose the masses? I spent my whole first year at Revelle being a science major, when in reality I was undeclared. But I wanted to take all the science courses “”just in case”” I happened to join the elite and become a science major. The same situation I lived through would not exist for potential liberal arts majors.

Personally, I have taken one nonscience class here at UCSD: physics 11A. The academic environment was apathetic. The standards were set so low for this class that it caused riots of laughter among the students. The ease of this class made me smile and puke simultaneously. It was disturbing that I could flunk the quizzes, and with the curve, still get an A. The student apathy for this class was so strong that the professor had no choice but to set the curve extremely low so that nobody would flunk. Why would such a situation occur here at our prestigious university?

The simple fact of how liberal arts majors are addressed at UCSD is disturbing. We are not liberal arts majors, are we? What are we most commonly referred to as? Nonscience majors? So, by contrast, are science majors ever non-liberal arts majors? Is the shift of priorities at UCSD so great that in order for people to understand what you are, you have to say what you’re not?

I’ve been having doubts lately. Maybe my humanities professor is right. Maybe UCSD is ITT Tech. Maybe Revelle is one big premed workshop. With the overt priorities of funding to the sciences, UCSD can do nothing else but create an unhealthy environment, laced with inferiority for liberal arts majors. This situation creates a sense of apathy that will take serious measures to counteract.

Do me a favor as you walk around school today: Count the number of science buildings and liberal arts buildings. Count the number of fliers advertising science activities as opposed to those for the liberal arts. Then tell me I can’t feel like a second-class citizen at my own university.