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Computing's Lost Allure, NYT, 22 May
From: Dave Farber <dave () farber net>
Date: Fri, 23 May 2003 06:15:11 -0400
------ Forwarded Message From: Tim Finin <finin () cs umbc edu> Organization: UMBC http://umbc.edu/ Date: Thu, 22 May 2003 10:52:34 -0400 To: dave () farber net Subject: Computing's Lost Allure, NYT, 22 May There is a long article in today's NYT on declining CS enrollments that has quotes from many in our community. Tim -- Computing's Lost Allure By Katie Hafner, NYT, May 22, 2003 http://www.nytimes.com/2003/05/22/technology/circuits/22comp.html BERKELEY, Calif. -- ON a sunny May afternoon, Brian Harvey's introductory computer science class at the University of California convened for the last time before the final exam. By the time Dr. Harvey was full tilt into his lecture, reviewing recursive functions and binary search trees, the cavernous hall was lightly peppered with about 100 students, backpacks at their sides, a few legs slung over the backs of empty seats. Sparse attendance is, of course, an end-of-semester inevitability. Many students viewed the lecture by Webcast, if at all. But more significantly, just 350 students signed up for the course this spring, in striking contrast to enrollment in the fall of 2000, when the same lecture hall was engorged at the start of the semester with 700 students sitting and standing in every available pocket of space. So full was the room the first few sessions that a fire marshal showed up to size up the situation as a potential hazard. "Even the corridors were jammed," recalled Dr. Harvey, who has taught the introductory course for 16 years. The following semester was little different, with 600 students hoping to enroll in the class. Today, empty classroom seats, like the vacant offices once occupied by high-flying start-ups, are among the unmistakable repercussions of the dot-com bust. At the height of the Internet boom in the late 90's, computer science talent was in such demand that recruiters offered signing bonuses to students who agreed to drop out of school. Now, spooked by layoffs and disabused of visions of overnight riches, many undergraduates are turning away from computer science as if it were somehow cursed. "They overreacted to the boom, so why shouldn't they overreact to the bust?" said Anne Hunter, an administrator at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology who tracks application and enrollment figures. ... http://www.nytimes.com/2003/05/22/technology/circuits/22comp.html ------ End of Forwarded Message ------------------------------------- You are subscribed as interesting-people () lists elistx com To manage your subscription, go to http://v2.listbox.com/member/?listname=ip Archives at: http://www.interesting-people.org/archives/interesting-people/
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- Computing's Lost Allure, NYT, 22 May Dave Farber (May 23)