An explanation for U. Florida’s CISE actions: A move towards Liberal Arts
April 24, 2012 at 9:42 am 1 comment
Maybe this is just rationalization, but it’s particularly interesting from a “computer science as a liberal art” perspective. The Dean of Engineering at U. Florida is described below as saying that these changes would encourage more liberal arts students to study computer science which is what local employers want. Most of the explanations I’ve read for the change were more about strengthening computer engineering and tying CS and EE together more strongly.
Abernathy said she expects the changes actually would boost the computer science program’s enrollment. She said she has talked with MindTree about its employment needs and said the changes would help achieve its goal of hiring liberal arts students also studying computer science.
via Engineering College chairman blasts cuts as wrong time, wrong place | Gainesville.com.
Entry filed under: Uncategorized. Tags: computing for everyone, liberal arts, perception of university, research university.
Computing Ed Research - Guzdial's Take 
1.
Andrew Bernat | April 24, 2012 at 10:47 am
Academics have always made the claim that research activity leads to higher quality teaching, including at the undergraduate level. If we believe that, then this move is clearly wrongheaded. Or perhaps that’s just a rationalization (but I don’t think so). The next step for undergraduates in computer science at UFlorida is likely to be large online courses. Save even more money.