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University of Florida Eliminates Computer Science Department
DustyShadow writes "The University of Florida announced this past week that it was dropping its computer science department, which will allow it to save about $1.7 million. The school is eliminating all funding for teaching assistants in computer science, cutting the graduate and research programs entirely, and moving the tattered remnants into other departments. Students at UF have already organized protests, and have created a website dedicated to saving the CS department. Several distinguished computer scientists have written to the president of UF to express their concerns, in very blunt terms. Prof. Zvi Galil, Dean of Computing at Georgia Tech, is 'amazed, shocked, and angered.' Prof. S.N. Maheshwari, former Dean of Engineering at IIT Delhi, calls this move 'outrageously wrong.' Computer scientist Carl de Boor, a member of the National Academy of Sciences and winner of the 2003 National Medal of Science, asked the UF president 'What were you thinking?'"
Can we study the same things in other departments without having a dedicated Computer Science niche to go with Computer Engineering, Software Engineering, etc.?
"What were you thinking?"
Well, probably something along the lines of "That department did not publish well enough and the students did not bring in enough money".
by dropping all the departments!
Sent as ripples into the electromagnetic field. No single photon has been harmed in the process.
they probably need the money to help the team. Everyone knows SEC football titles is WAY more important then actual classes.
You are mistaken... football is a profit center,not a cost center for universities. You can sell tickets to football games; you can't sell tickets to CS.
and this is where i have to ask what is the core competency of a university? to make money? to entertain fans? to educate students?
Just be cause you can make money at something doesn't mean you should focus resources on it, unless it's one of your core competency.
If it really is a "profit center" and something they can make money from, great but they need to contract control of it out on set terms and use the money generated by it to increase the educational offerings and make it easier for them to achieve in their reason for being, educating students.
'...if only "Jumping to a Conclusion" was an event in the Olympics.'
That depends on the quality of your CS department. Football is not a profit center because of ticket sales, it is a profit center because rich alumni come back to remember the good ol' days of getting drunk and cheering for their fellow students receiving concussions, and then give large donations. If computer science departments inspire that sort of money-giving, they could become profitable also (and they might; if a rich alumnus owes his wealth to the education he received, he is likely to make a donation).
There is also the matter of research. Universities get a nice chunk of the money that researchers pull in from grants, and even more if those researchers hire graduate students (whose tuition is typically covered by the grant). A computer science department that has decent enoguh research could bring in lots of money for a university, as well as free advertising.
You know what does not help a university? Stories like this one -- stories about how they castrate their CS department to save a few pennies. I am curious about the rest University of Florida's budget -- how much do they spend on administrative salaries, resodding grass, and so forth. Chance are they could have saved the money elsewhere, if keeping the computer science department had been a priority.
Palm trees and 8
There should be no jobs for anyone writing DRM. Only pain.
Too bad their sponsor is one of the worst things that has ever happened to this country. The family involved is worse than the KKK in it's anti american John Birch attitudes. They don't believe in global warming and the environment. FS should tell them to take their money and stuff it where the sun don't shine.
I work for an engineering college at a big university and we have some departments that really need cutting. I'm talking departments that, literally, have less than 10 students. Well when you have low enrollment numbers like that you don't really bring in the money to support a department head, a few professors, support staff, and so on. They are a drain on resources and need to be cut.
One way or another, a department needs to bring in enough money to support itself. Now that could be directly bringing in money through research grants, but can also be through tuition. Departments that do a lot of teaching but little to no research can be plenty valuable because if students are coming for those classes, they are bringing in tuition dollars.
If they can't bring in money to support themselves, meaning pay the salaries, capital and operations costs, all that kind of thing, then they need to be cut in size or eliminated entirely. It is neither fair nor smart to say "Let's grab money from a successful department and use it to prop up an unsuccessful one."
Just to clarify: The other 50% of faculty will move to better Universities. All of the good ones anyway.
My University is already treating this as a huge hiring opportunity.
That isn't a degree, it's a certificate.
Learning HOW to think is more important than learning WHAT to think.
Tuition is supposed to pay for the cost of schooling. Please explain why my taxes should pay for your schooling.
And, a better explanation is that the administration staff is overpaid. The president of UF makes $750,000 a year. That is more than the president of the country.
There is no "-1 offended" or "-1 you don't agree with me" mod options for a reason.
What you expected a message body?
Slashdot's rate-of-post filter: Preventing you from posting too many great ideas at once.
As a pirate who has probably downloaded your closed-source, for-profit software with the DRM already stripped out, I am amused that you think DRM actually protects your IP.