Reply to UMD Cuts Computer Science Class by 50%

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]I don’t get it, don’t we need more CS majors, not fewer? Why would a state not be trying to graduate as many competent cs majors as possible? I get not admitting people who can’t hack it, but shouldn’t anyone with the grades and test scores who wants to try be given a chance? This seems incredibly short-sighted for the economy of the state. [/quote]

They don’t have the professors.  None of the schools do.  There was just a big article about Pomona basically cutting its CS major because it can’t staff the department in California.  Not enough people got CS degrees decades ago and I think most universities want phds which aren’t that common for CS folks.  I think the immigration debacle of the last few years is also playing into this, but not sure—-from what people tell me, the CS majors from other countries aren’t that great as far as the higher skillsets.  [/quote]

They don't need PHD CS to teach the entry level courses. A BS/MS and industry experience would be just fine.  However, if you can make $200-300K working in industry easily, why would you want to be paid $80K to teach.  So until universities are willing to pay more for CS teachers, they won't find enough.  [/quote]

I'm chair of a department (R1 public), and most CS professors in T1 schools are hired in the six-figure range. However, you are correct that it is difficult to compete with industry jobs that pay $200-300k when we are offering $150k. Many times this leads to a failed search and possible loss of a tenure line. People with MS degrees can be hired as non-tenure track faculty, but again, it's not easy convincing someone to take the job at $85K. And the university is not going to significantly increase the department budget to pay the market rate. Also, it's not fair to students to over-enroll classes just to meet demand--there is a tipping point in which the class size is too large and the drop/withdrawal/fail rate increases significantly. [/quote]

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