U of Florida cuts Computer Science Dept by $1.7M

and then adds $2M to athletics. I love sports but that just seems plain stupid.

University of Florida Eliminates Computer Science Department, Increases Athletic Budgets. Hmm. - Forbes

 

This is the Florida athletic departments simplified balance sheet:

Revenue or money earned

Money from ticket sales: $21,122,966
Money athletics gets from student fees: $2,578,306
Money from playing in away games: $283,376
Contributions and donations to athletics: $42,630,821
Money or benefits from a third party including speaker fees, shoe contracts, country club memberships, etc: $577,000
Money the university uses to subsidize the athletic department: $0
Money from the NCAA and conferences: $13,138,751
Money from TV, radio and Internet rights: $3,907,635
Money from licensed products, advertisements and sponsorships: $10,184,021

Athletic department total operating revenue

Operating revenue: $106,607,895

Expenses or money spent

Money spent on student athletes' tuition and fees: $6,482,515
Money paid to visiting teams: $2,803,232
Salaries benefits and bonuses for coaches (paid by the university): $13,574,263
Salaries benefits and bonuses for coaches (paid by a third party): $577,000
Money spent on recruiting: $1,468,044
Team travel expenses: $6,162,438
Game day expenses: $4,801,014
Money spent on fund raising, marking, and promotion: $5,941,289
Medical and insurance expenses: $1,932,323

Athletic department total operating expenses

Operating expenses: $98,775,583

That looks like a profitable portion of the college to me. How much money does the CS program bring in? It would be interesting to know how many students are in the CS department and how much tuition they pay (versus scholarships and grants). And what research and other projects that the CS department participates in.

I think it is pretty crappy to cut the CS deapartment. But it would be even more crappy to cut the athletic budget since it is actually profitable for the college. Here are some academic programs that need to be cut instead of the CS program:

Dance, Bachelor of Arts
College of Fine Arts
Film and Media Studies (IDS)
College of Liberal Arts and Sciences
Jewish Studies
College of Liberal Arts and Sciences
Music, Bachelor of Arts
College of Fine Arts
Music, Bachelor of Music
College of Fine Arts
Religion
College of Liberal Arts and Sciences
Women's Studies
College of Liberal Arts and Sciences

There's probably other departments that should be cut as well, but at least these are a start. I cannot stand college football but to keep comparing it to what goes on in the school academically is just childish. Until we look at the entire overall university, all we are doing is shifting blame and covering up the real problems.

Do we need more STEM majors or more women's studies majors? The sports comparisons just seems like a straw man to me.

 

Nice research. I guess I found myself thinking that the primary mission of a public university was to educate people, not to play football and not to make a profit. Also, I had this funny idea that if you needed to make budget cuts you wouldn't choose your computer science department since we're right in the middle of a huge technological revolution. But maybe that's just one small reason why I'll never be a university president. Sorry that I don't have lots of research to back up my opinion, just common sense.

 

i'd love to know the whole story rather than just the artilcle. i'm guesing that there was more thought going into the process that we don't know.

 

There is a lot of profit to be made by running a nonprofit like a university. So money is still important to the school's survival and its ability to pay salaries.
USF in Tampa got a huge, awesome gym complex back in the 1990s when it increased its commitment to football.
Check out UF's high salaries. Lots of guys making over 500K as department chairs.

University of Florida Public Salaries - Public Salaries Database - CollegiateTimes.com

 

I agree with your sentiment Kizmet. Here's what the bottom line likely is:

"How many people are signing up for CS as opposed to liberal arts?"

If the student enrollment is low and the budget is there just to hold on to professors then I'd have to agree to cut CS. Maybe people in Florida aren't into CS or there are better places to go than UF.

 

i won't pretend to understand what happened with the computer science department at at the school. it could be a number of things that i do not know about. Maybe they royally screwed up?

being angry at the football program just seems like a dumb idea though. Football can make or break a university. Football enables schools to go further and higher moreso that most of the programs on campus. Like it or not, football can bring more money and school recognition which helps academics in a huge way.

 

I did state in my post that cutting the CS program is a bad thing. I just logically showed why the school may have chosen one thing over the other. Brilliant analysis that schools are supposed to educate people, cutting edge thinking right there.

I'm no sports fanatic as I do not watch any college sports at all. I enjoy March Madness, but enjoy watching my own kids play games more so than adults or student athletes (yuk-yuk). The sports programs can go the way of the Dodo for all I care, but I am smart enough to figure $$ out $$$ why they $$$ do exist $$$.

And it has nothing to do with "educating" people.

 

If my memory is correct, the UF athletic dept budget is completely separate from the gen fund. Seems like I read that somewhere, but anyone can feel free to correct me if you have the facts.

The unmentioned story here is that the State of Florida university system currently has 11 distinct institutions. The governor just signed off on a plan to create a 12th, Florida Poly which would specialize entirely in STEM. My understanding is that there is more of an emphasis in Fl towards specialization, esp considering the expanding online options in Fl uni's. It doesn't really make sense to have every single institution offer the exact same menu of programs in an age.

This appears to be a story that seems to be way more controversial than it really should be. U of Fla is an elite public university which just happens to have a sports program which has gained a great deal of prominence in recent years.

 

Yeah, that's real bright.

 

Karma backlash!

Yeah, well, remember that plan to destroy the Florida CS department? Well, ummm, maybe not.

Instapundit » Blog Archive » BACKLASH: University of Florida Backpedaling from Plans to Abolish Computer Science Department. “Fo…

 

My company affords me 1 to 2 FTE positions at a time. I can hire in someone at a high level or at a low level. It doesn't matter. So there is no incentive to hire in low level recent college grad when I only get 1 position. I'll hire the best and brightest I can, which happens to be someone with a masters degree and 10-15 years of experience. I think this is part of the problem. Fixed costs per employee are so high with healthcare and other costs that it is not cost effective to hire recent college grads in many cases. So that plus the push to outsource has created a real problem for recent BS CS students who cannot compete with Indian salaries and battle hardened veterans. I have never posted a req for a job that would accept anything less than 5 years of professional paid experience.

 

Football is king in the south.

I wonder if UF will pull the plug on their new online web design and online communications program.

Web Design and Online Communication - Distance Learning

 

And what competitive advantage would the proposed Florida Poly have over the already existing Florida Tech?