Off The Reservation

The football team could use the extra dough, amirite guys?

I think their CS dept was always weak (as is ours, afaik). But, that seems like the kind of thing you'd want to fix, not drop. Isn't Software Engineering* pretty consistently rated as one of the best professions? I never even graduated and I make a 6 figure income.** Plus, you never know, you might graduate the next Google founder - who would hopefully throw some cash at the university as a thank you. Okay, that's not likely, but it is more likely that if you graduate more people who make more money, then your donor amounts should go up as well. If I hadn't gone into CS, I doubt I'd have ever made enough to be a Golden Chief booster.

Recent grads pretty consistently tell me they wish they'd have gotten into programming - yet CS graduation rates keep going down. I'm not sure why that is, but it's always surprised me.

*http://money.cnn.com/magazines/moneymag/best-jobs/2011/fast-growing-jobs/1.html
*http://www.careercast.com/jobs-rated/10-best-jobs-2011
**http://blog.jayfields.com/2008/08/be-your-start-up.html

FU fans are apt to point out that the two budgets are separate and athletics is independently funded. However, this is very short sighted. It shows that fans have given almost solely to athletics to increase their budget while neglecting academia....a redneck mentality and certainly not something one would see at the "Harvard of the South".

Other universities in the state received sharper budget cuts and are not considering such an idiotic maneuver.