University of Florida Guts CompSci department

MorphingDragon · Apr 23, 2012

I what? This is totally what University is for...

http://www.forbes.com/sites/stevens...ce-department-increases-athletic-budgets-hmm/

University of Florida Eliminates Computer Science Department, Increases Athletic Budgets. Hmm.

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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. 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.
Lets get this straight: in the midst of a technology revolution, with a shortage of engineers and computer scientists, UF decides to cut computer science completely?
Math and computer science are hard. Why bother?

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?
(Note to the students, if you need more quotes for your site: I think this move is shockingly short-sighted. The University of Florida is moving backwards while the rest of the world moves ahead.)
Meanwhile, the athletic budget for the current year is $99 million, an increase of more than $2 million from last year. The increase alone would more than offset the savings supposedly gained by cutting computer science.
Now, Im not saying that UF has chosen football over science. (Imagine the outcry, though, if UF cut a major sport instead of a major science department.) Actually, the real villains here are the Florida state legislators, who have cut the budget for their flagship university by 30% over the past 6 years.
Meanwhile, just two days ago, Florida governor Rick Scott approved the creation of a brand-new public university, Florida Polytechnic University, to be located near the city of Tampa. In an unintentionally ironic statement, Gov. Scott said

At a time when the number of graduates of Floridas universities in the STEM [science, technology, engineering, and mathematics] fields is not projected to meet workforce needs, the establishment of Florida Polytechnic University will help us move the needle in the right direction.

Heads up, Gov. Scott: no one is going to believe that youre supporting technical education when your flagship university is eliminating its Computer Science Department. Since cutting support for universities seems to be a major agenda item for you and the legislature, why stop at 30%? With just a bit more cutting, you could get rid of those annoying universities entirely. Let the rest of the country worry about higher education! Florida can focus on orange groves and golf courses. Oh, and football.

GoCubsGo · Apr 23, 2012

CompSci isn't filling bleachers. It is the saddest thing to see when a University forgets what it was designed for.

eawmp1 · Apr 23, 2012

But Rep. Governor Scott is the "education governor". He just signed a budget allocating $1 billion to education (after cutting $1.3 billion last year).

And the lotter was supposed to ADD funds for education (not allow funds to be replaced/used elsewhere).

The old people don't want to pay for education. And the far right doesn't want an educated electorate. What a state to raise a family.

LaWally · Apr 23, 2012

So those interested in CompSci degrees just have to go somewhere else. NBD.
Had to laugh that the GA Dean of Computing was "angered" at the decision. Does not take much to anger folks these days. Thought he would applaud the decision as he can now recruit all those students to come to GA instead.

GA > FL? I guess as far as CompSci is concerned.

Zombie Acorn · Apr 23, 2012

Computer Science courses don't keep athletes eligible for the games so they aren't important.

velocityg4 · Apr 23, 2012

Have they cut all the useless degrees already like art, philosophy and most business degrees (besides accounting, taxes and perhaps marketing)? If not they should cut those first as people can do all that right out of high school.

tfannon · Apr 23, 2012

the shortsightedness is outstanding

As a graduate of the Georgia Tech CS department and a senior software developer in the city of Tampa, FL where we are experiencing an unprecedented shortage of educated developers, I am floored to see this.

Unbelievable. I hope that USF, FSU, and UCF pick up the ball.

ucfgrad93 · Apr 23, 2012

LaWally said:
So those interested in CompSci degrees just have to go somewhere else. NBD.

Agreed. Its not like UF is the only place to get a CompSci degree.

steve2112 · Apr 23, 2012

I think this has been overblown. I was reading on another forum, and some UF students basically said there were three overlapping programs, and this just consolidated them together under the engineering school. Also, at most schools (UF included), athletics is mostly funded by a separate group with private funding. If you want to blame someone, blame the legislature that has cut funding to the university by 30% in 6 years, and alumni who would rather donate to athletics than to academics.

Edit: The UF Athletic Association has actually contributed $48 mil to the university since 1990 to support academic programs.

basesloaded190 · Apr 23, 2012

velocityg4 said:
Have they cut all the useless degrees already like art, philosophy and most business degrees (besides accounting, taxes and perhaps marketing)? If not they should cut those first as people can do all that right out of high school.

That's a bold statement. Can't imagine doing what I do now, or anyone I know with a business degree right out of high school. But you wouldn't know that because you have no idea.

benthewraith · Apr 23, 2012

At a time when the number of graduates of Floridas universities in the STEM [science, technology, engineering, and mathematics] fields is not projected to meet workforce needs, the establishment of Florida Polytechnic University will help us move the needle in the right direction.

The creation of Florida Polytechnic University caused the slashing of university budgets throughout the state. J.D. Alexander even tried to slash USF's budget by 67% because University President Genshaft stood up to him. A third of FIU's budget was completely slashed as the result of this travesty and they were cash strapped as it was. Now the state of Florida gets saddled with a third university on the I-4 corridor. One it didn't need. Also, SACS has said the university wouldn't even be accredited by July of this year.

In other words, J.D. Alexander just created a tax sink for himself and his cronies and screwed everyone else to do it.

ct2k7 · Apr 23, 2012

I'm whistling at FIT.

chrono1081 · Apr 23, 2012

Sounds just like my high school....

Put money towards a computer lab since our school had NO computers in the mid - late 90's or dump all that money into football...

...they went with football.

iJohnHenry · Apr 23, 2012

Football generates revenue, from multiple sources.

I guess they have crossed-over to a commercial enterprise?

chrono1081 · Apr 23, 2012

iJohnHenry said:
Football generates revenue, from multiple sources.

I guess they have crossed-over to a commercial enterprise?

This is why I laugh when people call something a "for profit school". They're all for profit. Football sadly brings profits.

MacNut · Apr 23, 2012

chrono1081 said:
This is why I laugh when people call something a "for profit school". They're all for profit. Football sadly brings profits.

Colleges are basically corporations now, just look at how much kids have to pay to learn. The schools double dip, getting tax money and tuition while making millons from sports.

eric/ · Apr 23, 2012

Meanwhile my university engineering department scored a $120,000,000 gift.

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chrono1081 said:
This is why I laugh when people call something a "for profit school". They're all for profit. Football sadly brings profits.

The difference is that profit generally goes back into the school in some manner.

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basesloaded190 said:
That's a bold statement. Can't imagine doing what I do now, or anyone I know with a business degree right out of high school. But you wouldn't know that because you have no idea.

It's just management theory. I had literally the exact same kind of training/classes in the military.

Maybe an MBA is different?

Algalli · Apr 23, 2012

University of Florida Guts CompSci department

I would bet that the football coach has a salary greater than $1.9 million. Down here in Florida we know what is important. Maybe the state contribution was cut but the University still made the decision to fund sports rather than something of great importance to the country. You can't make this stuff up. Given the same conditions every Florida university would make the same choice and I am sure they would do the same thing in Texas.

malman89 · Apr 23, 2012

steve2112 said:
I think this has been overblown. I was reading on another forum, and some UF students basically said there were three overlapping programs, and this just consolidated them together under the engineering school. Also, at most schools (UF included), athletics is mostly funded by a separate group with private funding. If you want to blame someone, blame the legislature that has cut funding to the university by 30% in 6 years, and alumni who would rather donate to athletics than to academics.

Edit: The UF Athletic Association has actually contributed $48 mil to the university since 1990 to support academic programs.

This. I'll admit I'm a big sports fan, but I do have my limits to the absurdity of some university policies and sometimes "student"-athlete or coach behavior, but UF is one of the few athletic departments in the country that is pretty much self sufficient, or as shown, actually benefitting the university as a whole. It is important to note, however, that most university athletic departments aren't so great financially.

blesscheese · Apr 24, 2012

Blahhhh

I guess I'm old-fashioned or something, but I have always believed that universities should be about *educating* students first, and athletics second. And (to top off my absurd ideas), the athletes should be student-athletes, not...hired guns or mercenaries who come in to use up their eligibility and then leave when they aren't any use to the school (without having graduated).

There is an interesting article at http://www.ajc.com/sports/georgia-tech/looking-at-georgia-tech-1210059.html that shows the graduation rates for the top sports in the ACC and the SEC...it turns out Florida football isn't that bad, with a (cough) 76% graduation rate. Note that this doesn't count such things as students who leave with eligibility remaining...I'm sure there are other fine print things that artificially inflate the graduation rate; maybe I'm just being cynical.

And...not to brag...but here is a link to the recent success of my alma mater http://espn.go.com/blog/notre-dame-football/post/_/id/1906/irish-top-ncaa-graduation-rate

I'm not bragging...I'm just sayin'! BTW, when I was at ND, a lineman down the hall was majoring in engineering! I never saw the guy, when he was done with practice, he just shut himself in his room and studied. He even used up his fifth year of eligibility by going to grad school!

MorphingDragon · Apr 24, 2012

chrono1081 said:
This is why I laugh when people call something a "for profit school". They're all for profit. Football sadly brings profits.

This is why I prefer the Commonwealth system of funding Universities. Government funding is directly related to quality of research, quality of graduates and bums on seats. If they want more money, they have to attract International Students which pay full rates and are 100% profit for the University.

Lets just say, I don't think the fact that Waikato has one of the best Rowing teams in the world attracts most of its International Students.

iJohnHenry · Apr 24, 2012

MorphingDragon said:
If they want more money, they have to attract International Students which pay full rates and are 100% profit for the University.

The University of Notre Dame seems to do quite well, and without sacrificing scholastic integrity.

You do not get the grades you don't play, no matter how talented you may be.

eric/ · Apr 24, 2012

MorphingDragon said:
This is why I prefer the Commonwealth system of funding Universities. Government funding is directly related to quality of research, quality of graduates and bums on seats. If they want more money, they have to attract International Students which pay full rates and are 100% profit for the University.

Lets just say, I don't think the fact that Waikato has one of the best Rowing teams in the world attracts most of its International Students.

Only problem with that, is that you will probably end up with the same scenario we have with public schools. Some REALLY ****** poor schools who don't get government funding because they're bad and can't attract students because they're already bad, and then the good schools just getting all the money already.

It's a catch 22.

Now I'm not necessarily against the government funding universities (in the context of this argument), but paying universities based on how well they perform in some criteria to me is just asking for trouble. It just compounds as some universities gain more and more money, and the others have no hope of catching up.

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iJohnHenry said:
The University of Notre Dame seems to do quite well, and without sacrificing scholastic integrity.

You do not get the grades you don't play, no matter how talented you may be.

That's how the Big Ten and Pac 12 are, in general. (I know ND isn't a Big Ten school). The Big Ten has all of it's members as part of the AAU, and I think that the Pac 12 has a large majority.

PinkyMacGodess · Apr 24, 2012

MacNut said:
Colleges are basically corporations now, just look at how much kids have to pay to learn. The schools double dip, getting tax money and tuition while making millons from sports.

And look at all of the 'made to order research' that so many universities are cranking out now too. They aren't even playing hard to get in many circumstances.

I was at a meeting where a state epidemiologist literally shredded a university department head for crappy research, and coincidentally accepting a ma$$ive 'grant' that funds not only him, but his department for years from the corporation his 'research' detailed. He might as well have just stood up and said that he was an industry whore and was dancing for those that paid him... It was disgusting... So much for 'higher education'.

iJohnHenry · Apr 24, 2012

PinkyMacGodess said:
He might as well have just stood up and said that he was an industry whore and was dancing for those that paid him... It was disgusting... So much for 'higher education'.

I thought we had all these "people" confined to politics and law?

Guess not.

University of Florida Guts CompSci department

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