Press Coverage

-[ Updated June 8, 2012 ]-

Stay tuned for news updates from local and national media outlets about the future of CISE and the University of Florida.

New articles from The Washington Post and GeekMom

NATIONAL PRESS COVERAGE:

The Washington Post: Athletics 1, academics 0: A guest post (May 10)

GeekMom: Computer Science Department’s Uncertain Future at University of Florida: Student Reactions (May 4)

ComputerWorld: Fla. university writing new computer science plan, cites ‘overwhelming’ backlash (April 27)

MORE NATIONAL PRESS ARTICLES AVAILABLE HERE

New articles from G’ville Sun, Orlando Sentinel, and Hernando Today

LOCAL PRESS COVERAGE:

The Gainesville Sun: Plan merging UF engineering departments hits snag (May 2)

The Gainesville Sun: New UF CISE proposal not all that new (April 28)

Hernando Today: Residing in an alternate STEM universe (April 27)

Orlando Sentinel: UF drops idea of breaking up computer science department (April 26)

MORE LOCAL PRESS ARTICLES AVAILABLE HERE

Computer World, Miami Herald, CNET, G’ville Sun

Computerworld (top story): Florida university plan to ‘decimate’ computer science draws protest

Miami Herald: What is the University of Florida thinking?

CNET News: University cutting computer science dept.? An insider’s view

The Gainesville Sun: Reaction to Proposed CISE cuts explodes across cyberspace

Forbes and NY Times articles

Here is an article on today’s (April 22) Forbes Magazine website’s FRONT PAGE:

FORBES: University of Florida [proposes to] Eliminate[s] Computer Science Department, Increases Athletic Budgets. Hmm.

This is the comment made by Steven Salzberg on his blog in response to some of the criticism: link.

Discussion on Fark.com, also on slashdot.org

UPDATE: Another Forbes article about the sabotage of Florida’s universities.

The New York Times blog: Losing the Future: Gutting Science Training

Chronicle of Higher Education: Florida Dean proposes to save money by revising faculty assignments from research to teaching

The Gainesville Sun Apr. 23: I thought I was two hours away from Disney World, but now I’m not so sure.

An article in the chronicle of higher education

U. of Florida Dean Proposes to Save Money by Revising Faculty Jobs to Focus on Teaching, Not Research (April 19)

Full text available for subscribers. For a few excerpts, please

Joint Letter From CISE Faculty

The following is a letter to President Machen jointly written and unanimously approved by 25 CISE Faculty members on Friday 13, 2012 in response to Dean Abernathy’s proposed budget-cutting plan for the College of Engineering. You can find a pdf copy here.

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April 13, 2012

Dear President Machen,

Thursday’s Faculty Senate Resolution (see Appendix) reaffirms the faculty’s and the administration’s responsibility to engage in a shared governance process concerning budget cuts and restructuring (required steps listed below, citing the UF Constitution Article VI(1)(E), Senate Bylaws 22, Dec 2009 Resolution).

This was further emphasized

Appearance on Gainesville Television Network

Gainesville Television Network aired a report about the struggle going on in our department today.

Go here for the video.

How important is the CISE Department to Gainesville?

So why is the CISE department so important? Two important reasons are highlighted in the articles below.

At the University of Florida – perhaps best known for its championship Gators football teams – innovation isn’t the first thing on people’s minds. But that football team famously invented what you now know as Gatorade. And now they’re building Innovation Square, which they hope spearheads their town of Gainesville into becoming the “Silicon Valley of the Southeast.”

Read the rest here.

Many professors of computer science say college graduates in every major should understand software fundamentals. They don’t argue that everyone needs to be a skilled programmer. Rather, they seek to teach “computational thinking” — the general concepts programming languages employ.

Read the rest here.

Graduate engineering students protest proposed budget cuts

The following is an excerpt from an article published by the Alligator.

Hundreds of graduate students moved as one Thursday to protest proposed cuts to an engineering department.

They gathered on the Reitz Union Colonnade with posters, flooded the Rion Ballroom for a discussion and lined the auditorium walls at the McKnight Brain Institute for a Faculty Senate meeting…

Read the rest here.