The Department is fortunate to have recruited one new faculty with a Ph.D. in Computer Science for the '98-99 year. Searching for another faculty member is ongoing. Faculty represent diverse ethnicity. A student survey is currently under development. Many younger students come with lower SAT scores than expected for a degree with substantial mathematical, computational, and writing components.
Many older students come with discipline and well defined goals, but lack prerequisites.
They want the degree and will take any course in any order to obtain the credits. Since there are fewer course offerings in the evening, it is difficult for them to have a timely and consistent program. Students transferring from community colleges generally have good preparation but are missing some core areas of Computer Science. In particular, writing skills important for documentation and design of programs are weak. Because of job and time restraints, some students have the false conception that learning takes place solely in the classroom.