Students are challenging the merits of the University’s anticipated merger between the departments of Computer Science, under the College of Science, and Electrical and Computer Engineering, under the College of Engineering.
The proposed merger, announced in September, would consolidate Computer Science and Electrical and Computer Engineering into one not-yet-named program under the College of Engineering.
The University chapter of the Association of Computing Machinery surveyed more than 45 students in the Computer Science Department about the merger. Thirty-four of those students said they were against realigning the programs, and 11 students said they were in favor of consolidating. That means 75 percent of students voted against consolidating and 25 percent of students voted for it.
The results of the survey state the main reason most students voted against the merger is because while there is overlap between the departments, they are two distinct subject areas.
“There’s overlap between library science and computer science, math and computer science — that’s not a reason to [merge the programs],” said McKendon Lafleur, computer science senior.
Computer science students are also worried about the Department of Computer Science losing its ranking as one of the country’s top 30 programs if it’s merged with another program, the survey said.
Andre Wiggins, computer science junior and vice president of the Association of Computing Machinery, said a merged department could turn away prospective students who do not recognize the prestige of the program, especially because the University of Louisiana at Lafayette also has a top computer science program only one hour away.
“In all these merger talks, there really hasn’t been much student voice,” Wiggins said.
Executive Vice Chancellor and Provost Jack Hamilton said the purpose of the merger is to bring stability to these two departments, but Wiggins and Lafleur said the merger will miss the mark.
“If this merger were formed, there’d probably be a lot of disgruntled faculty, which doesn’t provide stability,” Wiggins said.
Lafleur said he disagrees with the merger being pushed on faculty and students from the top-down, instead of it being student- or faculty-driven.
“I worry that because this was forced upon them, we’ll lose faculty,” he said.
Wiggins and Lafleur also said they do not want overlapping classes in separate departments to be combined into one.
“Just because they talk about the same topic isn’t a reason to smash them together,” Wiggins said.
Group members sent their findings to the chancellor, the provost, the department heads and the deans of both colleges. Chancellor Michael Martin responded to the findings by giving examples of successful joint departments at universities throughout the country, like the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Yale University and the University of California at Berkeley, among others.
These merged departments have prominent computer science programs, Martin wrote, which means students should not think their ranking will be “adversely affected” by the merger.
“A strong computer science program will be well ranked no matter the name or configuration of the unit in which it resides,” Martin wrote. “Sometimes, however, we must make change as part of our University-wide commitment to excellence despite the objections or concerns of a single