As a computer science major in the College of Engineering, I find Dean Cammy Abernathy’s plan to restructure the computer and information service engineering department both disturbing and illogical.
In her proposal, she claims that applying any portion of the budget cuts to the other departments in the college would drive them toward mediocrity, but what she fails to realize is that the drastic cuts she is proposing for CISE would leave it in shambles.
In her budget plan, she proposes the following: moving all computer engineering (CEN) majors (and most of the advising staff) to the electrical and computer engineering (ECE) department; moving approximately half of the CISE faculty to unrelated departments (including ECE, Biomedical Engineering [BME], and Industrial Systems Engineering [ISE]); eliminating staff positions that support research and graduate programs; and eliminating teaching assistant positions.
This proposal, if approved, would effectively end all research in CISE, phase out the Ph.D. program and leave the department struggling to support its undergraduate students.
I do not believe Dean Abernathy is guided by malicious intent, but I do believe her rationale is flawed and she is either ignorant of or unable to recognize the importance of the work conducted in the CISE department.
Her main arguments for this proposal seem to be that CISE has a higher number of TAs compared to the rest of the engineering departments and there is a substantial amount of overlap between CISE and ECE in regard to the administration of computer engineering majors. Quite frankly, these are weak arguments that do not justify the dissolution of the CISE department.
Part of the reason CISE has so many TAs is that the department conducts a substantial amount of research responsible not only for bringing in grant money, but also for attracting graduate students and professors from around the world to our university. The money brought in by this research is used to hire TAs and support them in their pursuit of Ph.Ds. This research is responsible both for producing the advanced technologies of tomorrow and for driving Ph.D students to become experts in their field.
Dean Abernathy’s plan to pull the plug on CISE research would severely compromise the department. The potential to bring in grant money will be gone, graduate students would not have the opportunity to pursue Ph.Ds within the department and there wouldn’t be any TAs remaining to assist professors in administering undergraduate-level classes, which would reduce the quality of said classes.
The overlap between CISE and ECE is not so significant that it would be wise to lump the two departments together.
Although computer engineering majors take a handful of the same courses as electrical engineering (EE) majors, these should not be considered so alike that they should be administered by the same department. There are many courses very specific to each major, and these courses cannot be taught by any professor who is picked arbitrarily from either department.
However, it seems that Dean Abernathy thinks the programs and the faculties of CISE and ECE are interchangeable.
In regard to the programs, it is more accurate to say the CEN majors with hardware specializations are similar to the EE majors while the CEN majors with software specializations are similar to the computer science majors offered by both CISE and the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences. If Dean Abernathy is so intent on merging CISE and ECE to eliminate overlap, perhaps she should just divide the CEN major into two distinct majors: computer hardware engineering (offered by ECE) and computer software engineering (offered by CISE).
The last thing I would like to point out in regard to these proposed cuts is that they have a serious potential for encouraging some of the best CISE professors to leave and for deterring prospective students from pursuing degrees in CISE. Some of the best CISE professors are highly involved in research, and by eliminating support for the research programs, there would be little incentive for those professors to stay with UF much longer.
Dean Abernathy has stated she would do everything possible to keep these professors at UF, but realistically speaking, the professors who conduct research will likely seek employment elsewhere if another university offers them research opportunities that are not available at UF.
Without these professors, the department will likely see decreased enrollment and fewer students will graduate with the highly sought skills possessed by CISE majors.
Personally, I’m strongly reconsidering my desire to pursue a master’s degree in computer engineering here. I love UF, but there is no reason for me to stay here for a CISE graduate program when it looks as though the department may be torn apart by someone who does not recognize its potential.
David Moore is a computer science junior at UF.
