Slashdot Mirror
Univ. of Florida Announces Plan To Save CS Department
New submitter WIGFIELD7458 writes "This appears to be a major change in plans that will save the Computer Science Department. Thanks to everyone in the Gator Nation and beyond for speaking out! The battle isn't over yet, but this is very encouraging news. I would urge the students, faculty, and alumni of UF to continue to express your support for the essential academic mission of your university."
If you are the Park Service, and your budget gets cut, one ploy is to close the Statue of Liberty and the Washington Monument, not some campground in South Dakota, hoping to get a reaction and thus get the money back.
Sounds like the University of Florida did the same thing.
Why would you even consider getting a CS degree here now?
The Plan:
1) Triple the tuition for traditional students (i.e. nerdy males).
2) Give full scholarships to nontraditional students (i.e. attractive females).
3) Allow nontraditional students to earn extra credit by pretending to be interested in traditional students.
4) Profit!
Univ. of Florida Announces Plan To Save CS Department
Please tell me that a complex plot is involved, possibly involving George Clooney in disguise.
What political party do you join when you don't like Bible-thumpers *or* hippies?
Science fiction writers (fundamentally artists) rarely write about a poem or some business major (businessman maybe but not an MBA) who changes the world. It is most often some cool technology. If you look back into history there are undoubtedly influential works of art, like it or not writings like the bible have had a profound effect. But the reality is that inventions like electricity, medicines, etc have changed the world for the better over and over. Right now the technology is computers and their related technologies like robots that are setting the world on fire.
The primary focus of any healthy society should be to churn out the most skilled STEM students possible. We still need barbers and bankers but keep in mind that Taiwan churns out something like 55,000 Electrical Engineers a year. I have no idea if they are glorified electricians or the next Tesla but it certainly shows that they know where to focus their efforts.
Plus look at what happened to the world economy when it had too many MBAs around?
The mere thought of cutting the CS department shows the thinking of a group of weak minds. These are the sort of people who don't save any grain for the next spring's planting.
Nobody really went there for one before...
No. I speak as someone with a MS in CS, so I may be a little biased, but saying CS should just be Math & Engineering is much like saying Physics is just applied math, or chemistry is applied physics. While one is built on the other, there are basic tenets taught in CompSci that would never come directly out of Engineering or Math. While there is a lot of overlap, subjects such as Data Structures or Autonoma Theory (off the top of my head) are VERY different than anything that would be thought of as engineering or math. Core concepts such as these affect the very way that CS majors view the world. It is a different level than just applied math & engineering.
This signature is a waste of 42 characters
Computer science isn't about computers. It's about computing. Computer science is not computer or software engineering.
Many computer science departments teach some elements of software and computer engineering, and I've heard many in the US are actually software engineering departments, but that's not what CS actually is.
Yes, computer science itself is very mathematical, but so is physics.
Might have been a Boston high school or something, but it's kind of irrelevant to WHERE.
The principal/school board were faced with big budget cuts, and so instead of cutting arts and sciences or liberal arts, they cut all the sports programs. They did this because they knew that parents would complain more loudly about the sports being cut than educational programs.
Sad state of affairs, though our public education system is pretty dismal nowadays, at least in the US.
The price is always right if someone else is paying.
A good programmer is a bit of a polymath. He (or she) needs a broad scope of knowledge, not just to do a specific task, but to analyze and discover ways to get that task done using a specific set of tools. The best comp sci schools don't just teach pure computer science, but also teach how to improvise, how to improve, how to manage, and how to think. Comp sci folks need to know not only how to fix a problem given a set of instructions under a specific scenario, but how to recognize the nature of the problem in the first place and tackle it in the right direction. That is why computer science is considered a four or six year degree program, instead of a vocation like a PC technician is.
Occasionally living proof of the Ballmer peak.
Perhaps they should had closed the CS department if their faculty is trolling Slashdot all the time. Why aren't you trying to get grants, or teaching undergrads?
If you don't get 30 FPs in the first seven years, no tenure.
Sheesh, evil *and* a jerk. -- Jade
but it seems like once a month that some redneck son-of-the-soil in the deep south decides they want to axe public funding for science or healthcare. The united states is starved for competence in the technology field; its a grande accomplishment for most people to add facebook and gmail to a cellphone. its shamefully ignorant to think you can axe the computer science department of any university and somehow improve budget conditions long-term in your state. Florida saved a few million dollars here, but in 20 years when programming and computer science hasnt dissipated as a form of economic prosperity and tax revenue for states, they can look back and salute the inbred geezers that stood by and watched this happen, and the hilbilly who pandered for a few more votes as his state swirled round the bowl. I liken this prof as a gandolf at the pass. lets hope he succeeds.
/dev/dsp. The occasional clicks they hear will serve to placate the elderly voter, as it succors a distant memory of when they used to elect george bush and approve things like axing public healthcare.
on the bright side, states with academic technology programs like computer science can help to provide useful transparent voting machines for states like florida that simply pipe the voters choices to
Good people go to bed earlier.
But they don't then combine all the degrees and ditch "pure" CS, which was the point.
Media attention seems to have saved the CS department whereas their researching and teaching did not.
Space game using normal deck of cards: http://BattleCards.org
There's a reason most of the top engineering schools have merged the Electrical Engineering, Computer Engineering, and Computer Science departments.
It's called "compromising for budgetary reasons". That doesn't mean it's the ideal approach.