My Role as Graduate Representative for the University of Waterloo CS Curriculum Committee

Currently, I am the graduate representative on Waterloo's CS Curriculum Committee. Although my role is not well-defined, I believe that I am responsible for expressing student views and opinions on curriculum changes.

In actuality, the position is just a token position, devoid of any real power. I am extremely limited in my ability to bring up new business, to suggest changes, or to do anything of value at all. My general role is to sit quietly on a CS Curriculum e-mail list and pretend that I represent student opinion. In reality, I have no idea what student opinion really is, so it's probably better that I don't say anything.

Anyways, despite my pessimistic attitude, I am still interested in students' opinions on CS courses (be they grad courses, major courses, non-major courses, or whatever). If you have any opinion at all about anything, please e-mail me, and I'll do my best to express these opinions during appropriate situations. Please click on the CS Curriculum Committee link below if you want to find out more about some of the issues that have recently come up at this committee.

*I* consider that my primary role is NOT to be a representative of student opinion. I feel that my primary role is to ensure that all students are aware of the decisions and directions of the CS curriculum so as to make the process as transparent as possible. Students shouldn't be subject to the whims and experiments of the faculty. I feel that the most useful thing I can do in my position as representative on the CS Curriclum Committee is NOT to give students a voice, but to ensure that those students who are interested in knowing where their education is headed will have the information available to them. I won't even try to pretend that the faculty is the least bit interested in student opinion, but I can at least let students know what the faculty is going to do to them before it happens. It's a humble goal, but it's better than what was there before, and I feel I can do a reasonably good job at it.

Feel free to e-mail me with your own opinions (feel free to just dash them off too--receiving some opinion is better than receiving none).

Links

CS Curriculum Committee Web Page
My (old) E-mail: my2iu@undergrad.math. ...