5 ms·

Help UCincinnati keep its CS dept

18 points by meaydinli 16y ago

Hi HN, This is a very recent event, and I'd appreciate it if you can share your thoughts on this matter. http://twitter.com/#!/csisimportant http://csisimportant.blogspot.com/

meaydinli 16y ago
Their twitter: http://twitter.com/#!/csisimportant http://twitter.com/#!/csisimportant I'd appreciate it if you can share your thoughts on this matter.
mathgladiator 16y ago
Some more background would be nice. Seems like they are trying to consolidate Computer Science, Computer Engineering into something new that may be more cheaper. It would also be a way to re-staff by picking and choosing. Does this affect tenure?
- csisimportant 16y ago
  We believe this is all political... as financially there is no proof shown. When one of your organs is hurting and not performing well, you go and consult a physician. A GOOD physician after careful examination and taking the vital readings will suggest some treatment. Follow up appointments will be scheduled to track the treatment’s progress. The last thing that will be considered by our GOOD physician is a surgical RESECTION of the organ. Otherwise, most people will end up with amputations. Even assuming that the College of Engineering is not performing well, a couple of actions that should be taken by our GOOD dean: 1. Careful unbiased evaluation of the performance of each school before blaming the CS & IT School only. 2. Meeting with faculty and department’s head on regular basis to discuss policies, expectations and how to improve the performance and production as a team. According to the Dean, he met with 60% of faculty before making his "judgement call". Within UC we have many qualified smart researchers who can come with creative solutions to the budget problem i.e. UC has the potential for self-restoration. To be ranked as a prestigious College, CS is a must.
ggchappell 16y ago
(1) This really needs to be better explained. What is being proposed? Is it simply a matter of reorganization, with faculty and programs being moved to a different administrative unit? Or is it the elimination of programs and classes? Or is it the elimination of positions, and the firing of tenured faculty, etc.? The first is mostly an internal matter, of little interest to the outside world. But the other two are more serious, and some of us out here might want to take an interest. More information, please. (2) The grievances need work, too. The first (Accreditation) is unclear. Even the complete elimination of a C.S. program is not going to stop the university from being accredited. On the other hand, if this is about program accreditation, then what is the issue? The part about CS being an integral part of any good university does not make sense. Do the writers think all students take CS courses? Most of the rest of the grievances amount to "Will we have the support necessary for the completion of our degrees?", which is certainly a worthwhile question for the students to ask. On the other hand, it is not one with any long-term impact on the university. But a couple of the grievances have great significance: "Enrollment has increased in the department in the last 2 years. How can the Dean justify this type of cut?" An excellent question. Also: "What are the facts behind this decision? It is well known that the CS department has more enrollment than other departments. So why CS is being dissolved?" This is what needs to be emphasized, I think.
- rdtsc 16y ago
  I agree it is very confusing. The university will keep its accreditation and if the program is eliminated what does accreditation even mean then? CS will probably just end up being merged with Computer Engineering again into some Computer Engineering and Computer Science department. Just like 4-5 years ago before it was split up. The biggest problem the way I see it, is that students might be _forced_ to switch programs, and end up having different requirements for graduation. That's what I would fear -- you took classes that now count for nothing and you now have to take (and pay for!) classes you didn't plan on taking. Mind you they already did this once when they switched CS from the College of Arts and Science to College of Engineering. They gave students a choice so they could either finish the degree they enrolled in or they could switch colleges. It wasn't that bad really. > The part about CS being an integral part of any good university does not make sense. Agree. They don't mention the main problem -- professors that don't care and don't do much and just suck resources out like parasites. I wonder if eliminating a department will provide a legal loophole to dump some undesirable tenured professors and replace them with some who really care about research and teaching.
rdtsc 16y ago
They have reshuffled the program a couple of times in the last 15 years or so. At first CS was in the college of Arts and Sciences. There was also Computer Engineering (CE) in the College Of Engineering. Then CS dept. was moved to the College Of Engineering into a combined program of "Electrical Computer Engineering and Computer Science". Then they split it up again between Computer Engineering and Computer Science (but within the same College of Engineering). So now they have: School of Computing Sciences & Informatics : http://www.cs.uc.edu http://www.cs.uc.edu and School of Electronics & Computing Systems : http://secs.ceas.uc.edu http://secs.ceas.uc.edu Now they want to eliminate the SCSI or merge it with SECS again... WTF are they doing? If they spent as much effort on academics as they spent on administrative reshuffling maybe they would get somewhere. There are some good professors there but there quite a few just riding the tenure wave, not caring much about teaching or researching. Overall it was a decent school but nothing extraordinary. I learned a lot there, or should I say, I taught myself a lot there, while waiting to get a piece of paper at the end.
- csisimportant 16y ago
  We respectfully question some of the choices made by the current dean. WTF is a good start to express what we are thinking at this moment as well....
csisimportant 16y ago
If possible, please work with us and help us gain momentum through the csisimportant.blogspot.com, and twitter (@csisimportant and hashtag #CSISIMPORTANT)

18 points by meaydinli 16y ago

Hi HN, This is a very recent event, and I'd appreciate it if you can share your thoughts on this matter. http://twitter.com/#!/csisimportant http://csisimportant.blogspot.com/

meaydinli 16y ago

Their twitter: http://twitter.com/#!/csisimportant http://twitter.com/#!/csisimportant I'd appreciate it if you can share your thoughts on this matter.

mathgladiator 16y ago

Some more background would be nice. Seems like they are trying to consolidate Computer Science, Computer Engineering into something new that may be more cheaper. It would also be a way to re-staff by picking and choosing. Does this affect tenure?

csisimportant 16y ago
We believe this is all political... as financially there is no proof shown. When one of your organs is hurting and not performing well, you go and consult a physician. A GOOD physician after careful examination and taking the vital readings will suggest some treatment. Follow up appointments will be scheduled to track the treatment’s progress. The last thing that will be considered by our GOOD physician is a surgical RESECTION of the organ. Otherwise, most people will end up with amputations. Even assuming that the College of Engineering is not performing well, a couple of actions that should be taken by our GOOD dean: 1. Careful unbiased evaluation of the performance of each school before blaming the CS & IT School only. 2. Meeting with faculty and department’s head on regular basis to discuss policies, expectations and how to improve the performance and production as a team. According to the Dean, he met with 60% of faculty before making his "judgement call". Within UC we have many qualified smart researchers who can come with creative solutions to the budget problem i.e. UC has the potential for self-restoration. To be ranked as a prestigious College, CS is a must.

ggchappell 16y ago

(1) This really needs to be better explained. What is being proposed? Is it simply a matter of reorganization, with faculty and programs being moved to a different administrative unit? Or is it the elimination of programs and classes? Or is it the elimination of positions, and the firing of tenured faculty, etc.? The first is mostly an internal matter, of little interest to the outside world. But the other two are more serious, and some of us out here might want to take an interest. More information, please. (2) The grievances need work, too. The first (Accreditation) is unclear. Even the complete elimination of a C.S. program is not going to stop the university from being accredited. On the other hand, if this is about program accreditation, then what is the issue? The part about CS being an integral part of any good university does not make sense. Do the writers think all students take CS courses? Most of the rest of the grievances amount to "Will we have the support necessary for the completion of our degrees?", which is certainly a worthwhile question for the students to ask. On the other hand, it is not one with any long-term impact on the university. But a couple of the grievances have great significance: "Enrollment has increased in the department in the last 2 years. How can the Dean justify this type of cut?" An excellent question. Also: "What are the facts behind this decision? It is well known that the CS department has more enrollment than other departments. So why CS is being dissolved?" This is what needs to be emphasized, I think.

rdtsc 16y ago
I agree it is very confusing. The university will keep its accreditation and if the program is eliminated what does accreditation even mean then? CS will probably just end up being merged with Computer Engineering again into some Computer Engineering and Computer Science department. Just like 4-5 years ago before it was split up. The biggest problem the way I see it, is that students might be _forced_ to switch programs, and end up having different requirements for graduation. That's what I would fear -- you took classes that now count for nothing and you now have to take (and pay for!) classes you didn't plan on taking. Mind you they already did this once when they switched CS from the College of Arts and Science to College of Engineering. They gave students a choice so they could either finish the degree they enrolled in or they could switch colleges. It wasn't that bad really. > The part about CS being an integral part of any good university does not make sense. Agree. They don't mention the main problem -- professors that don't care and don't do much and just suck resources out like parasites. I wonder if eliminating a department will provide a legal loophole to dump some undesirable tenured professors and replace them with some who really care about research and teaching.

rdtsc 16y ago

They have reshuffled the program a couple of times in the last 15 years or so. At first CS was in the college of Arts and Sciences. There was also Computer Engineering (CE) in the College Of Engineering. Then CS dept. was moved to the College Of Engineering into a combined program of "Electrical Computer Engineering and Computer Science". Then they split it up again between Computer Engineering and Computer Science (but within the same College of Engineering). So now they have: School of Computing Sciences & Informatics : http://www.cs.uc.edu http://www.cs.uc.edu and School of Electronics & Computing Systems : http://secs.ceas.uc.edu http://secs.ceas.uc.edu Now they want to eliminate the SCSI or merge it with SECS again... WTF are they doing? If they spent as much effort on academics as they spent on administrative reshuffling maybe they would get somewhere. There are some good professors there but there quite a few just riding the tenure wave, not caring much about teaching or researching. Overall it was a decent school but nothing extraordinary. I learned a lot there, or should I say, I taught myself a lot there, while waiting to get a piece of paper at the end.

csisimportant 16y ago
We respectfully question some of the choices made by the current dean. WTF is a good start to express what we are thinking at this moment as well....

csisimportant 16y ago

If possible, please work with us and help us gain momentum through the csisimportant.blogspot.com, and twitter (@csisimportant and hashtag #CSISIMPORTANT)