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UF Students In A Tizzy After School Cuts Computer Science Department and Increases Athletic Budget

Forbes - 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? Math and computer science are hard. Why bother? Students at UF have already organized protests, and have created a website dedicated to saving the CS department. Several distinguished computer scientists have written to the president of UF to express their concerns, in very blunt terms. Prof. Zvi Galil, Dean of Computing at Georgia Tech, is “amazed, shocked, and angered.” Prof. S.N. Maheshwari, former Dean of Engineering at IIT Delhi, calls this move “outrageously wrong.” Computer scientist Carl de Boor, a member of the National Academy of Sciences and winner of the 2003 National Medal of Science, asked the UF president “What were you thinking?” Meanwhile, the athletic budget for the current year is $99 million, an increase of more than $2 million from last year. The increase alone would more than offset the savings supposedly gained by cutting computer science.

I’m not sure I’ve ever seen a bigger power move from a University than UF right here. Just flat out dismantling the computer science department and blatantly putting the funds straight into football without even blinking. Literally locking the doors to the computer lab right in these nerd’s faces. At this point I’m not even sure they didn’t have some linebackers waiting to stuff the computer geeks in lockers 2 seconds after they tried to get into class to break whatever was left of their spirit. So hardo.

And just so we’re clear I don’t agree with this move at all. Yes sports are the most important thing at school and generate the most money and people who whine about that are idiots but computer science is not what you want to cut out. Computer geeks rule the world. I respect the hell out computer geeks. Basically if you can hack my shit and distribute my bank funds and pin numbers to the world you got my full respect. What you need to do is just do what everybody is thinking and get rid of women’s sports all together. Boom problem solved. If that’s not enough just go ahead and scratch out the Philosophy department while you’re at it. Literally the most useless field of study ever. Makes English major look like engineer. Just seems like a protesting group of angry chicks and philosophers will be a lot easier to deal with than angry nerds who will crash your servers and infrastructure and set you back to the stone age in my opinion. You’re welcome UF.

By kmarko posted April 24th, 2012 at 4:40 PM

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by gbr18 on April 24, 2012 at 4:46 pm
haha surprised they did this in this day and age. that's Florida for you.
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by mannyspooptowel on April 24, 2012 at 5:07 pm
So UF has basically just given up all together on graduating anyone who will be a productive member of society. Good stuff.
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by slapfool on April 24, 2012 at 5:30 pm
IF they remove all the hard classes and departments, the student/athletes will have nothing to choose from but remedial math and 090 reading courses. If all you they can choose from is easy classes, there are no longer worries about falling below NCAA academic standards - you just need a pulse to pass those courses. Further, this should increase the number of student/athlete graduates from that crystal-meth-riddled-redneck-puke-stain of a state. So, on paper they look like the easiest place for 5-Star football recruits to hangout for a couple of years and not have to worry about anything but smacking the fuck out of the rest of SEC. Absolute brilliance. And ya'll thought John Callipari had it figured out.
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by michael7 on April 25, 2012 at 7:11 am
For what it's worth, the Forbes article is actually pretty misleading. The athletics at UF are run as a business by an entity separate from the school, UAA. As UF athletics makes over $100 million in revenue each year, they make a profit and have given over $60 million to the school since 1990.The University of Florida's budget is being reduced by state legislature each year. Due to these cuts, they are cutting 1 of 3 computer science departments, the research department. However, this saved money is not going to athletics but rather the educational side of the school.
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