Drexel University has recently announced that the College of Computing and Informatics and the College of Engineering will merge to form the College of Computing and Engineering as part of their upcoming academic changes. According to an email from the university, these restructuring changes will “bolster curricula, research, and the student experience,” providing better opportunities and degree flexibility. However, as these changes are part of Drexel’s plan to recover financially from declining enrollment, there are growing concerns the “more streamlined organizational structure” and “greater integration of resources” are a cover for Drexel to fire staff and overwork remaining employees.
Between the 10 majors in CoE and the six majors in CCI, there is currently a lot of curriculum overlap. As a computer science major, many of my classes have prerequisites that can be satisfied by taking classes in the engineering college. Often there are entire courses that are essentially the exact same between the two schools, giving students the option for which version they’d like to take.
Combining the colleges would save a lot of redundancy, but it would still present challenges. Scheduling is already a difficult process within CCI due to the large number of students. Likely when the redundancies are resolved, more sections will not be added to accommodate the influx of students causing scheduling to become more difficult for computing and engineering students alike.
Unfortunately, with the removal of redundant classes almost certainly comes with the removal of faculty and staff. While these plans will take place after this academic year, there are still so many unknowns about what the future of even the student staff of these colleges will look like. Both colleges employ students as peer mentors, course assistants and other student leadership positions, but have different policies for doing so.
CoE does not allow undergraduate students to be course assistants, such a policy is not truly feasible for CCI due to the number of undergraduate students in comparison to the graduate student population. In this new college, would undergrads be barred from being course assistants? Or would they now be responsible for being course assistants to a much larger pool of students? What about peer mentors? CCI’s peer mentors are already overworked, and responsible for teaching a large number of students the ins and outs of the college.
With the new combined college, they will have to deal with more students and present a lot more information. How effective can a peer mentor be if they are also learning how the new college operates alongside the new freshman they are supposed to be mentoring? Combining the colleges will put strain on all faculty and staff from both entities, Drexel should not make it worse by reducing the staff as well.
Many universities already house computer science, software engineering and related majors in their engineering college. I am majoring in computer science but pursuing a minor in electrical engineering, and there is a lot of overlap between the required courses for each. But having CCI as a separate college reinforces a key aspect of computer science especially: CS is not engineering. CS is not all about programming, it is much more about math and theory. If CCI were to fully dissolve, the computer science major would fit much better in the College of Arts and Sciences alongside Math and Physics. With the uncertainty that lies ahead in the wake of these changes, it is critical that Drexel uphold their commitment and provide better opportunities, both in quantity and quality, for its students and staff alike.