The department is working more and more closely with people from fields such as business, biology and medicine. It is hiring new faculty members, multiplying the number of courses is offers, and planning for a 40 percent surge in growth in the next five years. Despite a consuming passion for technology, Pazzani isn't paving the way for a virtual university. Computers may replace large introductory classes, but they will be more of a supplement than a replacement for the classroom. UC President Emeritus Clark Kerr, one of the 20th century's most distinguished educators, also views computers as ways of augmenting, not replacing, traditional learning methods.
People have to talk.
As the role of computer science broadens and becomes more of an issue in every department, new questions about the role and implications of communications technology and scholarship will be raised. One of UCI's leaders in technology is William Parker, associate executive vice chancellor and director of academic computing. In the next couple of years, every member of the university community will be connected to the Internet, he says. Students will still go to class. But there won't be as much paper.