I plant 4 tomato plants every spring. In a few weeks I pull up 2 of them, even if they are thriving. There is only so much soil, water and sunlight to go around.
The department may have problems, but shutting down research throws the baby out with the bathwater. Degree consolidation would go a long way to improving student enrollment.
They will also be stopping all departmental TA support.
The proposal is here: https://docs.google.com/file/d/0BwzZsds2XcGnMWFpcnFiNEhvQkk/...
Also, just a department update: the our department accepted its last PhD class for the foreseeable future this year because of money and declining faculty. Denslow is retiring after this semester.
There was no "Computer Science" major available; the traditional CS curriculum was known as "Computer and Information Sciences", which, due to the acronym, can be confused with a MIS-equivalent degree (I once had a manager who insisted that I show him the course catalog for my major to prove I studied the relevant CS topics). The MIS/IT curriculum was offered as "Decision and Information Systems".
And despite the CISE department being a part of the College of Engineering, the CS curriculum was offered as an independent major only by the liberal arts and business colleges. I opted for the business college, so my actual degree is "Bachelor of Science in Business Administration with a major in Computer and Information Sciences", wording which is rather poor at conveying that this is indeed a CS degree.
I don't think they got around to renaming the degrees until 2004-2005.
The two Computer Engineering Degrees (software and hardware) are to be combined into one that has N (not yet decided) tracks that will be supported by "certificate programs."
So, now you reduce by one clearly defined separation and increse by n-1 less well defined certificate programs.
* Computer Science (College of Liberal Arts and Sciences; CISE Department)
* Computer Engineering with Software Emphasis (College of Engineering; CISE Department)
* Computer Engineering with Hardware Emphasis (College of Engineering; ECE Department)
* Electrical Engineering (College of Engineering; ECE Department)
* Computer Information Sciences (College of Business; CISE Department).
So basically, the CISE department was answerable to three different colleges, and some of those colleges offered very-closely-related degrees that weren't in the CISE department.
As for myself, I started out in Computer Engineering with Software Emphasis. I later switched to Computer Science. The reason for this change was that I wanted to double in Mathematics, which belongs to the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences. Having a double major is a lot easier when both majors are in the same college, because you then don't have to worry about satisfying conflicting and redundant gen. ed. requirements.
So, as a CISE alumnus, I have a vested interest in maintaining the reputation of that department, and this reorganization sounds likely to damage it. However, the status quo (as of 2007) is a mess, and this change might overall be for the better.