Resistance to a Proposal to Move Computer Science to the College of Engineering
[aka: The Realignment Proposal]
Aditya Mathur
March 3, 2011
Below is a summary of the resistance that Purdue is facing from faculty and administrators to the realignment proposal. Notice that none of the faculty against the proposal have expressed any concern regarding the students or the waste of resources that is taking place due to no formal coordination across Computer Science and Computer Engineering. All individuals are referred to as Professor Px. All the attributions below are based on statements made either to me or during a faculty meeting in which the realignment proposal was discussed.
| Professor | Comment |
| P1 | Why did you not discuss the issue with the faculty during the faculty retreat? Engineering is a dying field, why should we move to the College of Engineering? |
| P2 | I am in favor of CS moving to Engineering but am not supporting the idea because Professor P is in favor. |
| P3 | If CS moves to Engineering I will not be able to call myself a scientist. Faculty was not consulted. |
| P4 | Why should we move when we are happy here? |
| P5 | Indeed we are living in luxury, but then why should we let this go? |
| P6 | I do not believe that our departmental ranking will improve just by moving to Engineering. |
| P7 | I am a scientist; I do not wish to be in Engineering. |
| P8 | I am not in favor of moving to Engineering, but prefer a College of Computing.However, I do not have the time to write a proposal for Purdue to form a College of Computing. |
| P9 | We are concerned about faculty morale. |
| P10 | Some ECE faculty members wish to move to CS, then why should we move to Engineering? |
| P11 | Your department is “dysfunctional”. Until the climate is improved, there will be no decision on the realignment. |
| P12 | Moving CS to Engineering will take away students from Computer Engineering; it will lead to lowered ranking of the School of Electrical and Computer Engineering. |
| P13 | Computer Science grants tenure to low quality faculty. |
| P14 | How will I suddenly become “prettier” if I move to Engineering? |
| P15 | ECE faculty members do not get adequate TA support and hence their research suffers. CS will get reduced faculty support. |
| P16 | In engineering it is very difficult to make any change in course textbooks or weekly lecture plan. |
| P17 | Computer Science courses are harder than similar courses offered to the students of Computer Engineering. |