University of Florida Eliminates Computer Science Department

Forbes ^ | April 22, 2012 | Steven Salzberg

[C19fan]

Wow, no one saw this coming. 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 $1.4 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.

[gov_bean_ counter]

Times are tough all over...
http://www.miamiherald.com/2012/04/24/2765289/um-medical-school-cutbacks-coming.html

[mkjessup]

[tomkat]

Good to see that you keep that tinfoil helmet readily accessible !

;-)

[snowsislander]

There's a petition at http://www.change.org/petitions/dean-abernathy-college-of-engineering-university-of-florida-do-not-destroy-the-cise-department that one can sign about this absurd travesty.

There's also a page at http://saveufcise.wordpress.com/write-letters/ for those who want to write to the university and to the Florida government about this.

[gov_bean_ counter]

Reminds me...

A couple of weeks ago at my daughters wedding I saw my younger sister for the first time in a couple of months.

I said...
Hair looks nice. Is it yours???

[PapaBear3625]

UF could of not saved the same amount by cutting these useless majors and administrators instead choose one of the few fields where students can actually get a decent job.

There's one thing you need to understand: not that many women and minorities major in CS. By eliminating CS, you can better meet UF's diversity goals.

[Perdogg]

they can play with my harddrive.

[andyk]

The chair of the CS department at BSU is from UCF. Plus another one of the associate professors...

[9YearLurker]

Useless but profitable majors.

[dfwgator]

Damn, I miss my Alma Mater.

[Mr. K]

Good move- I think computers are a passing fad...

Might as well edumacate youself in ‘Green Studies’ - that’s where all the money be at

[PapaBear3625]

Relating to what I just posted, in the top 50 Psychology programs nationwide, 3.1% of faculty are black, and women make up 34% of white faculty and 54% of black faculty.

In the Top 50 Computer Science depts, blacks make up 0.7% of faculty, with women making up just 13.6% of the white total and 27% of the black column.

[Gumdrop]

Sounds about as silly as St. Cloud State U. (MN) cutting it’s aviation program because it costs too much per student. Yet, all the graduates get high paying jobs as pilots, while many of the other graduates are sitting on their hands and feet unemployed with degrees in social science, psychology, women’s studies, black studies, etc..

[mkjessup]

Damn, I miss my Alma Mater

I was in Gainesville during the Steve Spurrier years, and I recall the never ending rivalry between the Gators and the Seminoles, I still find it amazing that Bowden coached 33 seasons, having only retired in '09.

[The_Reader_David]

I have no problem with abolishing a CS Department. In fact, I think CS Departments should all be absorbed by their institution’s Mathematics Department if the local CS Department is software oriented, or their institution’s Computer Engineering or Electrical Engineering Department if they are hardware oriented. The troubling thing is not the abolition of the department, but the abolition of the graduate program in CS as evidence by cutting all funding for teaching assistantships and scattering the faculty to other departments (plural).

What the hell is the UF (or should that be FU?) administration thinking?

[InterceptPoint]

It sounds like the main thing they are doing is firing a bunch of “teaching assistants”. Good idea. Make the profs earn their living by actually teaching their courses themselves.

[samtheman]

I think you’re right. I know a physics TA who is a slave. I also know a professor who is a master and brags about having slaves do all his work.

[Cyber Liberty]

Don’t know the facts, but that verbiage feels like someone’s pissing on my leg and telling me it’s raining.

[USS Alaska]

The real question is why? I think that you will see more and more science and engineering cut to keep costs low and the football program funded.

I don't follow Florida football but I do know that most big time football programs are both self funding and also supply additional funds to the university for Title IX programs.

I don't think that changing a Computer course that saves less than $2 M a year will have any effect on the football program.

[St_Thomas_Aquinas]

——I don’t follow Florida football but I do know that most big time football programs are both self funding and also supply additional funds to the university for Title IX programs.-—

This reminds me of a pet peeve.

College football is profitable because colleges don’t pay the workers, the players, who are essentially cannon fodder —worthless degrees in hotel management notwithstanding.