I sincerely feel all this rudeness should be targeted towards Gov. Scott! He is the one who has been making these cuts. If not CISE, some other department suffers, and to me there is no area of science/engineering or education in general that we can afford to neglect - not at one of the largest public universities in the country. UF has the distinction of being a public university which has both - a stellar athletics program and a brilliant education program. Lets please join the fight against 'budget cuts' and Gov. Scott, so we can make sure that education doesn't suffer. But please let us not be rude and so short-sighted as to blame the Dean of petty politics. As a result of all these protests, I hope the department finds money from a donation/grant etc to survive and Rick Scott gets the importance of CISE in his head.
I am an engineering student at UF and I think I understand fairly well the courses offered and the research work by CISE. I feel that most of the media reports are very biased, all of them voicing students concern or Save CISE website. I have a few points (and questions), please indulge me :
1. Does anyone seriously think that the Dean decided to cut a major engineering department, one that brings much revenue and jobs, without any reasoning? She can't be that dumb!
2. Almost all undergrad students and a majority of graduate students at CISE do not take part in any research work. Yet these are the people who are getting jobs in all those big companies. Is the Dean, then wrong in focusing on teaching efforts?
3. Most of the startup ventures at Innovation Hub have been started by students who were not at all a part of the 'research effort'. How does focusing on teaching make any difference to it? As long as the same courses are being taught, albeit now with more effort from professors, aren't we increasing the quality of education?
4. The TA budget, which is making the news has already been cut at CISE last year. CISE continues to be the only department in COE that guarantees TA for 10 semesters to all its TAs. This funding used to be for much longer, but it was changed last year due to cuts and students not graduating fast enough. Most of the other departments do not have this budget to be cut - the professors are already doing there work/grading in classes or have 1 TA (2 in rare cases) to help them out. I have not seen their teaching or research take a toll.
5. I can tell you first hand that most of the other Engineering departments in the school, do not spend so lavishly on TAs. When are almost 3-4 TAs per TA in other departments. Before you start thinking that this improves the quality of education, think twice. There is little that is done to improve the diction, pronunciation and teaching methodologies of these TAs, most of whom are international students. Having heard it from my friends, I can say that they aren't upset about losing TAs who are difficult to understand in class.
6. The Athletic Program budget - This one is being blamed for no good reason. UF sports isn't a sink of money. The athletic program, in fact, raises money separately and is very much profitable just like CISE. If by this campaign CISE raises money would they be willing to give it to some other program in the school? I don't think so.
7. MindTree setting up office in Gainesville - Again, do we think that the Dean would have gone ahead and made a decision without taking this into consideration, costing revenue to the local community? I am not sure, but as an employer wouldn't MindTree be most concerned about what courses/skills the students are being taught? Whether you do those courses under the name of 'CISE' or 'ECE' how does it matter as long as the content is the same?
8. I see an unclear plan of action by the Dean as the worst thing here. Why isn't the faculty or the students asking her to make that clear? What faculties are going to be kept in teaching CISE or moved to one of the ECE, IS, BioSciences etc?
9. With the alternate proposal that the CISE students are going to present on, what is there plan? Even if they distribute the costs across all COE departments, the TA budget will definitely be affected, mostly leading to 1/2 year reduction in funding. Or do the TAs in CISE think that unlike last year, the faculty will take a cut in there pay checks?
10. Since everyone is making a hue and cry about 'research', I want to understand how does moving the faculty to a different department adversely affect it? According to them they are already used to doing interdisciplinary research. Why is moving a professor from CS, who knows much about CS and uses it in his applied research in BioTech, to BioTech a bad idea? Why is no one looking at the positive sides of this, it might position these researchers to learn some things from applied sciences that they currently do not have?
Just as these, there are several other issues I have with the way things are being dealt with. A researcher who draws conclusions without asking for facts and real data should not be called a researcher. I sincerely feel that the plan of action is the first thing CISE should request from the Dean. Why 50% faculty, what is the number, what is the basis of appraisal etc?
"ohhh but there are classrooms in it.." righttttttt.
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