Univ. of Florida Eliminates Computer Science Department, Increases Athletic Budget

[killshot]

http://www.forbes.com/sites/stevensa...c-budgets-hmm/

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.
Let’s 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?

[Weaselheadx]

It's Floriduh... I mean nuff said.

[madtams]

To be fair, if Florida is set up anything like Texas, the Athletic budget is completely separate from the Academic budget.

UT's athletic program (especially football) brings in mega-bucks, but that money, by law, cannot be spent on academic programs (except by giving athletes scholarships). Same with the parking department (money made there stays there, but likewise money spent must come from within).

I was, for a time, the treasurer of the largest residence hall on campus. I also worked on a large conference held at the school. Money-flow at UT was very tight and *everything* had to be documented. Divisions were kept separate and, I think in UT's case, were actually separate within individual academic units (so a reduction in Computer Science could not be allocated to the English department, e.g., since those were in different colleges).

I looked at the actual proposal...the dean was facing a difficult decision (cutting ~$4M from the budget) and decided that having separate software and hardware Computing-based departments was inefficient. The headline is a bit misleading. They aren't "cutting" the CS dept, they're combining it with the CE dept.

Also, I'll be honest, college-based research in programming isn't really a huge market. They aren't cutting the hardware research area, just software. Some faculty might stay in the CS dept, but are primarily going to be teaching and advising.

-Michael

[killshot]

So all that aside, why is the state of Florida cutting funding for UF and at the same time creating Florida Polytechnic University? Why create new universities if there is no funding for the current ones?

[Ryan_-]

It is quite possible they are getting federal funds to open a new university, even while funding for their other campuses is being cut. Also, it depends on when the money was set aside in the budget since money proposed to be used in the future must be used for that purpose when it comes to government. Things like that are why governments and large corporations tend to be inflexible and use nuclear options when funding is cut, they have a mindset and policies that stop them from doing what is smart.

[MaryJane]

I know some schools were cutting budgets to try to lower student tuition. Think it has anything to do with it or no?

[Weaselheadx]

Costs keep going up on everything. The government doesn't seem to have college funding as a major priority right now.

[MaryJane]

No it's not, I agree. My tuition went up from last semester because we lost a ton of government funding.