by Roy Rodenstein
News Staff
Getting information about the undergraduate computer science (CS) curriculum used to be difficult, but the College of Computing (CoC), under the auspices of Student Services, is taking steps to expand and solidify undergraduate advisement, your source of information on what courses or areas of specialization might interest you.
The advisement program, until recently, rested mainly on the shoulders of John Goda (goda@cc), who in addition to advisement is in charge of matters such as registration holds and petitions. Recently, five members of the CoC faculty were added to the undergraduate advisement program.
This expansion is part of the continuing efforts of Kurt Eiselt, Rich Leblanc, Peter Wan and others to improve the undergraduate CS experience as well as foster a greater feeling of community among the student body. As the number of incoming students who choose computer science as their major continues to grow, advisement--less in terms of red tape and more in terms of friendly discussion and information--availability must keep pace. This more personal kind of advisement was usually there if you knew where to look, but now it is an official program and the information is out there.
Jim Greenlee, one of the new advisors, regularly has students visit him to discuss various issues, from "I enjoyed CS2360. Are there any other courses like it?" to "I keep hearing that the assembly class is a killer. What can you tell me about it?" to "I'm trying to decide on my areas of specialization and thought I'd ask if you have any information or suggestions."
Along with Ken Calvert and Jessica Hodgins, however, Greenlee says he has noticed little if any increase in the influx of students requesting advisement since the program was expanded several weeks ago. In the past, newsgroups were the first choice for publicizing a development such as this, but as response to posts has usually been low a new method is currently being used: light-green sheets posted all around the CoC. (The information also appears below.) Students have been sighted reading the sheets, so it seems the message is being sent out, but more students need to make it in to see the advisors.
If you require area-specific advisement they will play off each other and point you in the right direction. The new advisors' areas of expertise include Graphics, Visualization and Usability, operating systems, networking and software engineering.
While the new group of advisors will listen to your questions and experiences and, if requested, make suggestions on courses and related topics, official matters in the realm of paperwork and accreditation remain with John Goda. For example, if you would like to find out which courses can be substituted for a particular required course, you need to see John Goda for the official information.
The advisors, as well as Kurt Eiselt, will listen to student input to try to safely expand and modify the services that the new crop of advisors can provide, so if you have suggestions or comments on the program, make them known to one of the advisors below or to eiselt@cc.
The following faculty are ready and willing to help you with your course choices and career plans (hey, they actually volunteered for this, so feel free to visit any or all of them):
Please note that these advisors can't sign petitions, withdrawal forms, or similar paperwork, nor can they clear registration holds for students. In these cases, you should first see John Goda in CoC 131 (and if he's swamped, you might be redirected to Kurt Eiselt in CoC 164).