I really hope that they're simply consolidating Electrical and Computer Engineering (ECE) and CISE (Computer & Information Science Engineering) into a single department and keeping existing faculty.
As a 2010 graduate (CISE - I wanted a mix of engineering and liberal arts), this is quite troubling to me. I remember when they announced that they would be laying off a number of faculty members (mostly lecturers) -- some of whom were the best instructors in the entire department. Now they're getting rid of research in the name of teaching? What a farce.
Step 2: make faculty ask to be in other departments (with the dean's approval of course)
Step 3: make all faculty who can't get other departments to take them have a 100% teaching appointment and set TA budget of the department to $0. Effectively convincing all those cranky guys you wanted to get rid of to leave the university.
Step 4: ???
Step 5: Success!
Then add the Ph.D. program back in and wait 25 years for it to rebuild.
A part of me faded away when Apple updated iTunes in 2006 and effectively blocked MyTunes/OurTunes [1]. What a great facilitator it was for introducing you to cool people with a variety of musical tastes.
My experience has been completely different. I'm a CS student from a low income household, yet it was the brand-name (and well-known startup) internship opportunities that were not only incredibly educational and provided with me with invaluable experience, but also paid pretty darn well. I made more than half of our annual household income in a single summer.
I know this is just a single anecdote, but I don't think my story is that unusual for people in the tech/engineering/finance industry.
