Tulane cuts engineering and computer science

[babomb]

Last week Tulane University announced they're cutting Civil Engineering, Environmental Engineering, Mechanical Engineering, Electrical Engineering, Computer Engineering, and Computer Science, ostensibly because of financial trouble caused by Hurricane Katrina. A group of faculty, students, and alumni gathered at the website http://www.savetulaneengineering.org to try to raise money and find another way to help Tulane's finances. However, when we asked how much money we need to raise, the president of the university said that cutting the programs was both a strategic and financial decision, and that it was final, no matter how much we raised.

What angers me more than the programs being cut is the complete lack of transparency or input. He has yet to give any specific figures other than the amount of damage caused by the hurricane. We don't know, for example, how much money cutting these programs is supposed to save.

Fortunately, I'll be able to complete my degree before the programs are phased out completely. The freshmen, sophomores, and some graduate students will have to transfer to another school.

Still, New Orleans needs engineers now more than ever.

 

[Jdvn1]

Wow, that's insane. Do they not have enough students?

 

[Shemeska]

*blink*

Why the heck would they cut those particular programs rather than some of the weaker departments that, well, lets face it, don't exactly provide society with such benefit outside of shrill ideologues? Some of the more obscure 'X studies' and perhaps some of the more flimsy social sciences, but for cripes sake, engineering is something the region frankly needs.

 

[danbuter]

Is there a low engineer student population there? Because, otherwise, this makes no sense.

 

[drothgery]

Is there a low engineer student population there? Because, otherwise, this makes no sense.

Eh. I'm always against cutting engineering and CS programs, but if they're trying to slash costs (and not thinking about the implications of the programs they slash), Engineering and CS probably look pretty attractive. They need expensive lab facilities, and because the opportunities in industry are much better than in most other disciplines, the professors have to be paid more. Of course, they probably should kill the I-A football team too.

 

[Umbran]

What angers me more than the programs being cut is the complete lack of transparency or input. He has yet to give any specific figures other than the amount of damage caused by the hurricane. We don't know, for example, how much money cutting these programs is supposed to save.

Don't bother getting mad. It isn't like the place was a democracy, where you have rights to such information. While giving such information would be nice, there's no requirement to do so.

Why not give out that information? Simple - giving information invites argument. Lots of it. Months and months of it. If the University is in real financial trouble, it doesn't have the time to argue over it. The people probably don't have the energy, either. I doubt anyone there's had an easy time of things - student, faculty, or staff.

Why the heck would they cut those particular programs rather than some of the weaker departments that, well, lets face it, don't exactly provide society with such benefit outside of shrill ideologues?

Um, simple - modern engineering teaching facilities are expensive. You can teach humanities with books and paper, but these days engineering requires the support of labs and equipment and computers with real muscle.

 

[babomb]

Is there a low engineer student population there? Because, otherwise, this makes no sense.

There are about 700 undergrad engineering students, out of about 8000. There are about 200 graduate engineering students out of 2000-3000. Engineering is more expensive than other programs on a per-student basis. The way that Tulane's really trying to get ahead is that they're keeping Biomedical and Chemical Engineering so that they can technically keep most of the endowments earmarked specifically for engineering. However, a major university like Tulane without a computer science department seems unreal to me.