Computer science upgraded

Deirdre Newman

The wait is over.

The dream of the university’s Department of Information and

Computer Science to become a full-fledged school was realized Monday

when the Board of Regents approved the change.

UC Irvine officials reserved comment until they could work out

some final details of the arrangement.

Debra Richardson, chair of the school, did say the move will

elevate the new school’s visibility and enhance its recruitment

efforts.

“It really says something about the commitment of this campus to

this field and says something about the interdisciplinary nature and

breadth of our program that we’re able to function as a school,”

Richardson said. “A lot of that is attractive to faculty who might be

looking for a new, cutting-edge, on-the-frontier kind of unit to

join.”

UCI established the department in 1968, three years after the

university opened.

Since its inception, it has functioned as an independent unit,

offering bachelor’s, master’s and doctoral degrees. It is the

university’s second largest undergraduate major, fourth largest

master’s program and fifth largest doctoral program.

Department faculty first floated the idea of becoming a school

about 10 years ago, Richardson said. Richardson became chair in July

2000 and made it her primary goal.

The staff felt the department deserved to be a school because of

its large size, its popularity as a major and its need to keep up

with development in the field.

The department submitted a proposal to campus officials in March,

and the Academic Senate approved it in May.

The transformation from a department to a school follows a trend

at universities around the country. More than 40 computer science

schools have been established nationwide. UCI’s will be the first in

the University of California system.

* DEIRDRE NEWMAN covers education. She may be reached at (949)

574-4221 or by e-mail at deirdre.newman@latimes.com.