California school considers cutting engineering program

EE Times ^ | April 06, 2004 (1:44 PM EDT) | Brian Fuller

[glorgau]

SAN FRANCISCO — A university 45 minutes north of the heart of the Silicon Valley is considering cutting its entire engineering program to save money as it struggles to deal with budget cuts.

San Francisco State University, trying to close a projected $14 million budget gap, has notified engineering-school officials that it could close the 45-year-old program, according to a report in Tuesday's (April 6) San Francisco Chronicle. The successful school — which offers undergraduate degrees in electrical, mechanical, civil and computer engineering and a master's of science in engineering — has 700 students and another 600 enrolled for next year's classes, officials said.

Eliminating the program would save the campus $2.5 million a year.

An S.F. State spokeswoman said President Robert Corrigan doesn't want to make across-the-board cuts to close the budget gap. The School of Engineering was the first the administration warned about possible shutdown.

The S.F. State program serves many students living in and around the city who either can't commute to San Jose State for similar curricula or can't afford to attend the University of California at Berkeley or Stanford University.

The proposed shutdown comes amid the increasingly clamorous worries over offshoring of engineering to countries such as India and China.

[glorgau]

Budgeting is all about priorities. I wonder if they have a Womens Studies Program?

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[MCRD]

You beat me to it, great minds think alike.

[breakem]

We can always hire engineers from India while our folks get a Masters in Cultural Diversity.

[Fierce Allegiance]

Engineers are more expensive to educate, so the liberal arts types always want to kill engineering programs.


My school did a quick study and found out that every new building built in the last 50 years had an engineering graduates name on it and over 70% of the alumni donations ($$ and other) came from engineers, who made up less than 20% of the graduates.

[JeeperFreeper]

Dear G: My thoughts exactly. Engineering,a subject of some intellectual rigor and practical use, has no place on a San Francisco campus. Only race and gender polemics are worthy of study in that wasteland of sanctimony.

[bondjamesbond]

I wonder if they have a Womens Studies Program?

Gasp! Of course not!

They do, however, have a Womyn's Studies Program...

[Fierce Allegiance]

If we keep getting all of our engineers from india, noone will ever understand them not only from technospeak, but the Never-weakening accent.

[So Cal Rocket]

Yes... they have the following programs:

Woman's Studies
Urban Studies
Raza Studies
La Raza Studies
Human Sexuality Studies
Holistic Health
Global Peace Studies
Ethnic Studies
Critical Social Thought
Center for Humanistic Studies
Black Studies
American Indian Studies

but. NOOOOOOOOOOOOO... let's cut Engineering.

[Seruzawa]

I know this is way overused but these people are clinically insane.

[IronJack]

Oh yeah. Cut engineering. There's a discipline that's never proven any worth to its culture. But let's make sure we keep that doctorate program in Black Cross-Disciplinary Studies. You know, the one that has so enriched everyone's lives ...

[Redcloak]

I wonder if they have a Womens Studies Program?

No, that would be sexist. They have a Womyn's Studies Program.

[Amerigomag]

The S.F. State program serves many students living in and around the city who either can't commute to San Jose State for similar curricula or can't afford to attend the University of California at Berkeley or Stanford University

What is Brian Fuller smoking.

He's either a far left liberal who can't bring himself to admit that universities have admission standards or has no concept of the post secondary education system in California.

"Gee wiz, I guess I'll just waltz over to UCB, or better yet, Stanford and check into their Electrical Engineering Department. My background as a student at a second tier state college should make entrance a snap."

In either case he shouldn't be reporting on educational matters.

[uncitizen]

I wonder if they have a Womens Studies Program?Exactly!

[uncitizen]

Surely they won't be cancelling "Gay and Lesbian and Transgendered Studies" anytime soon.

[uncitizen]

This is nothing more than a red herring intended to scare California tax payers into believing colleges aren't getting enough tax funding.

If they cancelled the Engineering Program they'd be out millions of dollars in grant money from high tech companies in the area.