Microsoft, Amazon, Google, Facebook Press WA For $40M For New UW CS Building

theodp (442580) writes "Nice computer industry you got there. Hate to see something bad happen to it." That's the gist of a letter sent by Microsoft, Amazon, Facebook, Google, Code.org, and other tech giants earlier this week asking the WA State Legislature to approve $40M in capital spending to help fund a new $110M University of Washington computer science building ($70M will be raised privately). "As representatives of companies and businesses that rely on a ready supply of high quality computer science graduates," wrote the letter's 23 signatories, "we believe it is critical for the State to invest in this sector in a way that ensures its vibrancy and growth. Our vision is for Washington to continue to lead the way in technology and computer science, but we must keep pace with the vast demand." The UW Dept. of Computer Science & Engineering profusely thanked tech leaders for pressing for a new building, which UW explained "will accommodate a doubling of our enrollment." Coincidentally, the corporate full-press came not long after the ACM Education Council Diversity Taskforce laid out plans "to get companies to press universities to use more resources to create more seats in CS classes" to address what it called "the desperate gap between the rising demand for CS education and the too-few seats available.

Comments

Should come with its own football team

[Anonymous Coward]

This is the worst kind of corporate welfare: public costs for private benefits.

Re:Should come with its own football team

[ShanghaiBill]

This is the worst kind of corporate welfare: public costs for private benefits.

Yes, it is pretty silly for them to expect the government to educate people. It is not like an educated population is some kind of public good.

Re:Should come with its own football team

[im_thatoneguy]

Dear Microsoft,

Sorry, but according to your tax filings you are headquartered in Nevada so investing in a Washington University for a Nevada corporation makes no sense.

- Washington

Re:Should come with its own football team

[Chess_the_cat]

And how should the government do that? With the tax income that these companies managed to avoid paying? Cool story bro.

Re:Should come with its own football team

[Anonymous Coward]

my question is why are they asking the government to teach people coding when they refuse to hire american coders because they wont hire you because they can't pay you the shitty wages of a fry cook at mcdonalds.

Re:Should come with its own football team

[bill_mcgonigle]

And how should the government do that? With the tax income that these companies managed to avoid paying? Cool story bro.

The government should take money from the poor and funnel it into the coffers of these corporations. Did you miss the part where government is for the privatization of gains and the socialization of losses?

Re:Should come with its own football team

[bill_mcgonigle]

It is not like an educated population is some kind of public good.

It's not, if you're speaking about the economic term. A 'public good', to an economist, is something that cannot be provided by the private market (a "market failure") and therefore must fall to a government to provide. Education is one where the private market excels in comparison to the public provision, which would be a counter-example.

Re:Should come with its own football team

[dgatwood]

Yes, it is pretty silly for them to expect the government to educate people. It is not like an educated population is some kind of public good.

Well, it is a benefit to the public as a whole to a large degree, but there is a dark side, too. The main reason that companies want to increase enrollment in CS is to get a larger pool of people to draw from so that they won't have to pay employees as much.

Re:Should come with its own football team

[plopez]

If they paid more taxes I would pay less

Re:Should come with its own football team

[bloodhawk]

how the hell did you get marked insightful, even on here. This is EXACTLY the sort of welfare programs that government should be investing in, investments that lead to jobs for members of the public, investment that leads to higher income and the ability for the state to attract other corporations and investment.

Re:Should come with its own football team

[someone1234]

Right, the US citizenry shouldn't be educated. Keep watching TV :D

Re: Should come with its own football team

[RobinEggs]

There *is* no lack of qualified graduates. Haven't you been reading the other stories the last five years on slashdot about companies literally attending seminars about how to legally *avoid* American candidates by doing the legal bare minimum to hire an American before hiring an H1-B? An H1-B they were specifically targeting from the very beginning, regardless what American candidate might through sheer luck or connections actually find the job they were trying to hide?

What about the stories in which at least one of the same companies who signed this letter got caught colluding to suppress wages and reduce employee mobility in Silicon Valley, by refusing to hire employees away from other top companies?

Pumping more and more and more money into education is flooding the market, not meeting a need. It's just another step in the quest to manipulate their labor supply until they can get top dollar talent for bargain basement prices.

I appreciate the sentiment..

[Rinikusu]

But dang, MS, you could write a check and it'd be a fucking rounding error on your earnings last year...

Re:I appreciate the sentiment..

[Shadow of Eternity]

MS could give a full free ride including rent, food, and gas to a good number of students every single year and it would be the rounding error on their earnings.

Re:I appreciate the sentiment..

[93 Escort Wagon]

But dang, MS, you could write a check and it'd be a fucking rounding error on your earnings last year...

UW's current CS building is the Paul Allen Center - guess where they got the money for it?

Incidentally, the Paul Allen Center has NO CLASSROOMS. This proposed new building likely won't have them either. When they speak of "accommodate a doubling of our enrollment", what they really mean is it will give them enough office and lab space so they can double the size of their faculty - the classes will still have to be held elsewhere on campus, and the supporting funding will also have to come from somewhere else.

Re:I appreciate the sentiment..

[93 Escort Wagon]

And if you don't believe me, here is this quarter's CSE time schedule. Classes are held all over campus because they didn't put any classrooms into the Paul Allen Center.

So that photo at the top of the GeekWire story - the one with the packed CS class? I'm fairly sure that's in Kane Hall! The new building will do nothing to ameliorate that.

back in the day...

[david_bonn]

Back when I was an undergrad in that program they limited themselves to 100 undergrads. EE was a separate program.

And the CS department was in a very dumpy building right across from the Student Union building that was a notorious firetrap.` That was a couple of buildings ago. If I remember they remodeled their current building (the old EE building) in 2003.

Re:back in the day...

[ZipK]

And the CS department was in a very dumpy building right across from the Student Union building that was a notorious firetrap.` That was a couple of buildings ago. If I remember they remodeled their current building (the old EE building) in 2003.

The department has already outgrown the Paul G. Allen Center for Computer Science & Engineering, which was dedicated in 2003. The department's previous home was the decrepit (but homey) Sieg Hall.

Call me cynical

[Anonymous Coward]

Translation:

"As representatives of companies and businesses that rely on recent graduates that are ignorant of their own value, we believe it is critical for the State to invest in our bottom line in a way that ensures continued profit delivered to our shareholders. Our vision is for Washington to continue to lead the way in producing an abundance of CS graduates, so that the few that actually negotiate their salary can't get what they want because the market is flooded."

Does it matter?

[DoofusOfDeath]

I mean, holy crap, what facilities do you need to teach CS? A climate-controlled room with whiteboards, markers, chairs, some electrical outlets, and wifi. Bonus points for a projector.

Most CS happens in your own head, on your laptop, or by talking with other people. You don't need to be on the Starship Enterprise.

Re:Does it matter?

[invictusvoyd]

I'd say instead of facilities a CS course requires really good faculty . That is certainly a plus point .

And don'tforget the tax dodging

[Required Snark]

Remember all these companies pay shockingly small amounts of taxes, both at the state and federal level.

I have a counter suggestion: make the bastards pay reasonable taxes, and then the state will be able to afford to put up a nice shiny new building. Instead of having to say, beg $70 million in the first place.

Re: And don'tforget the tax dodging

[kenh]

These companies follow the tax code as written/enforced. If you don't like the revenues the current tax code generates, rewrite the tax code - but don't be surprised if they seek out a new location with lower taxes.

Apple has $178,000M.

[BlueKitties]

Apple literally has $178,000M in cash on hand, and the state had better ensure that $40M go to educating their future workforce.

Seriously. The good press Apple would have received to fund that project would be mind numbing, and probably pay for itself in terms of the PR and 'free' advertising that would result.

Sure, just as soon as...

[kenh]

You drop your H-1B visa requests.

why not apprenticeships?

[rogoshen1]

Would it perhaps be better to take sharp kids straight out of HS who have the interest and the aptitude, and give them 2-3 year internships where they learn 'on the job'?

(I'm a web guy, so I'm not sure if that style of training would carry over to things like embedded systems.)

Same Crew Anteed Up Money to Defeat WA Income Tax

[theodp]

Public Disclosure Commission records show that five of those who signed the letter calling for increased WA State spending - Microsoft General Counsel and Code.org Director Brad Smith, Code.org CEO Hadi Partovi, Madrona VC and Amazon.com Director Tom Alberg, Ignition Partners VC Brad Silverberg, Trilogy VC John Stanton - contributed money in 2010 to defeat I-1098, an initiative for a WA state income tax. Other contributors to Defeat 1098 included Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos, Amazon exec and Code.org Director Jeff Wilke, Microsoft Corporation, and other Microsoft execs, including then-CEO Steve Ballmer. After I-1098 went down in flames, Ballmer announced plans to sell $2B of Microsoft stock that might have been subject to as much as $180 million in state taxes under the quashed proposal.

Fair exchange is no robbery

[SimonInOz]

You know, if these companies were good corporate citizens, and paid their fair share of taxes, then I'd certainly feel they have a right to comment on the disposition of said taxes.

But they don't do they?

Memo to WA State Government

[Jawnn]

Please give free money to help us compete in the glorious free market.

Regards,

The tech industries of Washinton State

P.S. - Remember, it's not socialism when you give welfare to corporations.