The Department of Computer Science is struggling to adapt to a dramatic increase in student interest. The number of computer science majors has jumped from seven in the Class of 2012 to 25 in the Class of 2015, and this trend is expected to continue for the Class of 2016.
The department currently has a high student-to-faculty ratio: there are four professors for the 179 students in the eight classes offered this semester—a ratio of 45:1. The average Bowdoin professor teaches 36 students per semester.
Caroline Pierce ’16, who has completed Computer Science 101 and is currently taking Data Structures, was not surprised by the low faculty-to-student ratio.
“[Comp. Sci 1101] was one of the biggest classes I’ve taken and it’s a small department,” said Pierce.
Computer science major Ellis Ratner ’14 commented on the need for new computer science professors to meet student demand.
“It’s very apparent being in the class, I think [that] it’s something the administration needs to respond to,” said Ratner. “[Computer science] classes have grown in size considerably and I think there are not enough professors.”
A departmental review last year recommended that the department hire two more tenure-track faculty members; however, no tenure-track faculty members were added.
Mohammad Irfan was hired last year as a visiting assistant professor, but Assistant Professor Daniela Oliveira’s sabbatical made it so the number of professors has remained the same.
“Right now the College is not in what it would term an expansionist phase, so, except for unusual circumstances, the College typically doesn’t allow new hires,” said Professor Eric Chown, chair of the department of computer science. “From our perspective, with the enrollments we’re seeing and with the ratio of students to faculty getting a little out of control, we plan on talking to the administration about our needs and the possibility of hiring at least one new person.”
Over-enrollment is a new issue for the department; it typically has only a handful of majors enrolling in upper-level classes and generally low participation from the student body.
“When you have fewer students you just get used to structuring your class so that there is more one-on-one work and closer contact than the larger lecture-like classes,” said Ratner. “They’re used to being a smaller, more intimate department.”
Chown agreed, citing the difficulty of doubling course sizes.
“The nature of discussions are different, it’s a different management process,” he said.
The traditionally tight-knit nature of the department is exemplified by the professors’ flexibility in terms of class limits to accommodate everyone. Chown, who chairs the department, allowed six additional students into his data structures class.
“I didn’t want to shut people out,” said Chown, “but teaching that class with 28 students has real problems. Twenty eight students don’t fit in the lab so some of the students are in another classroom and I shuttle between the two.”
Traditionally, only one introductory level class is taught a semester; however, another section was opened up this fall to ease the pressure on the waiting list.
The ratio puts stress on both the faculty and students.
“There’s more to grade, we’ve had to hire more teaching assistants, and we don’t have the budget to hire more teaching assistants,” said Chown.
Pierce believes adding more professors to the department could alleviate the heavy student dependence on Teaching Assistants (TAs).
“The TAs cannot possibly help us all,” said Pierce. “I’ve gone to TA office hours and because they have to meet with everyone individually, there have been times when I’ve been there for two hours and not gotten any help.”
Ratner said that he has seen an increase in both computer science majors and general interest from students with mathematics or economics backgrounds who have been advised to take computer science.
Ivette Pala ’16 took Introduction to Computer Science last semester.
“My teacher in high school recommended computer science as a good major because of the computer-filled world that we live in,” said Pala. “People want to make themselves more competitive in the job market.”
The increase in students is occuring at the same time as the Digital and Computational Studies Initiative is developing, a program to teach computer science along with other fields such as art history or sociology.
“As a department, we want to show how computer science connects with to really everything going on campus these days,” said Chown. He said that if the department were to hire someone new, it would be someone who worked to serve not just the majors, but interested students across campus.
“It seems as though [the administration] is creating this new initiative relying heavily on computer science department but not allowing the department to hire more professors,” said Ratner.
Chown is unsure of how the initiative will affect the department in the long run.
“It’s difficult to predict the pressure on the department [from the initiative],” said Chown. “Having been there when the ratio was the other way around, this is a good problem to have.”
Correction, Saturday, November 2, 11:50 a.m.: The article has been updated to show that there tends to be a 36:1 ratio of students to faculty overall (rather than for each individual class). This number comes from multiplying the average student-to-faculty ratio (9:1) times the average number of classes students take per semester (four). The article has been adjusted to reflect that that computer science department is not alone in its high student-to-faculty ratio, rather it is adjusting to a new spike in interest.