“It’s very tough to be a one-man program, and that’s what Dr. Zeller has been,” said Samuel Webster, associate professor of mathematics and head of the math department.
With the retirement of Rein Zeller, associate professor of computation and computer science, at the end of this year, Hillsdale will no longer have a computer science program. Zeller is to be replaced by an additional math professor rather than a computer scientist. The department will drop “computer science” from its name. The situations of students pursuing the minor or interested in the subject will be addressed on a case-by-case basis. Whether the program will be resurrected in the future is undecided.
According to the minutes of the March 5 faculty meeting during which the decision was discussed, the current computational mathematics program will be renamed “applied mathematics” to reflect changes in course offerings and requirements. No computer science minor will henceforth be offered.
“Dr. Arnn, in consultation with the dean of the science division, the provost, and the math department, approved the recommendation (from all three) that the vacant position be filled with an additional professor of mathematics,” Provost David Whalen said in an email. “This was made in part to allow the department to serve the new core curriculum more effectively.”
Webster said the number of students minoring in computer science was historically low, fewer than 10 in the last decade, and that to create a robust computer science program would take far more than replacing Zeller.
“We took a look at what it would take to improve the computer science department, what it would take to create a thriving computer science program, and I think to do it correctly you would need several computer scientists,” he said. “The resources aren’t there for several computer scientists, so we felt because of the limited numbers and resources, that line, that position, would be best served being a math line, to continue to strengthen the math department. So that was really the main reason for not replacing Dr. Zeller with a computer scientist.”
The future of computer science at Hillsdale remains uncertain.
“There are no plans at present to seek a new computer science program, but one should never rule it out,” Whalen said.
Webster said he and the registrar will help students already working in computational mathematics or computer science to finish their program.
“There is going to be some flexibility,” he said. “They’re not going to be able to complete the minor or computational math major or minor as it’s laid out in the handbook; we’re going ot have to create or design for each of those students an alternate way of satisfying those requirements. So they may be taking computer science courses elsewhere, they may replace some of those computer science courses with math courses, so I’m working with the students individually and the registrar to really design a program for each of those students, and there’s only a handful of them.”
Freshman Joe Pappalardo is majoring in marketing management but was minoring in computer science. He said he was told at the end of last semester that the program was being dropped and so is taking three computer science classes with Zeller this semester. Despite that, he will have to take at least two classes outside of Hillsdale to complete his program.
“I’ll try to find something online,” he said, pointing to University of Cincinnati as a possibility. “I just think that it’s something that we need at this college in this day and age.”
Webster said that periodic computer classes may still be offered.
“It’s possible one of us in the department could offer a programming course down the road,” Webster said. “Nothing has been discussed concretely, but that is an option.”
