If we are all online now, could we start to work on the invitation email?

[yan deng]

[Sushil Dhaundiyal]

Yes. That's a good idea.
Lets finalize the points and then we can start drafting the invitation.

On Thu, Apr 19, 2012 at 11:24 AM, yan deng <deng...@gmail.com> wrote:

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Sushil Dhaundiyal

[SomeWhere]

guys in the evening or later in afternoon we can sit together and
finalize the list of alumni to be contacted.


On Apr 19, 11:26 am, Sushil Dhaundiyal <sushil.dhaundi...@gmail.com>
wrote:

> Yes. That's a good idea.
> Lets finalize the points and then we can start drafting the invitation.
>

[yan deng]

I think Jason's letter is great .

 

 

Dear Valued CISE Alumni,

We write to you today to inform you of a proposal to dismantle the CISE department under the guise of budget cuts.  This proposal was put forth on April 11, 2012 by Dean Cammy Abernathy, the current Dean of the College of Engineering.  The most important points of the proposal are:

 

-          CISE is the only department singled out for budget cuts.

-          Nearly half of the budget cut targets solely CISE ($1.68M of $3.8M).

-          All CISE TA positions will be cut.  This accounts for $930K of the budget cut ($320K from the college-level budget and $610K from the department-level budget).

-          Roughly half the CISE faculty will be offered positions in ECE, BME, or ISE where they may continue research.

-          Faculty remaining in CISE will take over TA activities and focus on teaching and advising students only.

-          CISE will become a teaching-only department.  The Computer Engineering BS, MS, and PhD degree programs will be moved to ECE.

For a full copy of the proposal, please read the official announcement at http://saveufcise.wordpress.com.

 

We believe this proposal has the potential to cause grave, long-lasting harm to both the department you earned your degree from and the University of Florida as a whole.  The proposal will almost certainly result in the following:

 

-          Many faculty members will choose to leave UF rather than stay in teaching-only positions.  Teaching-only positions are academic suicide for researchers, and virtually all CISE faculty members are research faculty.  These are the same faculty that helped you earn the degree you hold now.

-          Many graduate students will not be able to afford to finish their educations.  TA positions currently support about 60% of CISE PhD students, and for many of them TA positions are their sole support.  Without a TA position, most of these students will be forced to leave the university with loans but no degree.  TAs provided you with one-on-one help in office hours, and many of you were once TAs yourselves.

 

Dean Cammy Abernathy is scheduled to attend The University of Florida College of Engineering Innovation Award Ceremony and UF Alumni Reception, Tuesday, April 24th, 5:30 p.m. at the Four Seasons Hotel, Palo Alto. If you are attending this event, please inform yourself of the proposal and raise any concerns you have with her.  We also urge you and your employers to contact the Dean (ca...@mse.ufl.edu), President Machen (jbma...@ufl.edu), and Provost Glover (jgl...@aa.ufl.edu).  We are currently in dire need of industry opposition to the plan.  The Dean claims industry supports her plan, and we believe this is because you in the industry are not fully informed of the details of her plan.

 

Finally, we would like to emphasize that this proposal is not a merger of the CISE and ECE departments as the Dean frequently misrepresents it.  A merger would create a single EECS department where research in both software and hardware could still continue.  The Dean's proposal instead removes research from CISE and leaves it a teaching-only department.  

 

For more information about the proposal and our progress fighting it, please visit http://saveufcise.wordpress.com.  We thank you for your time and hope you will take an active role in saving our department.

 

Sincerely,

Concerned CISE students

 

http://saveufcise.wordpress.com

[Sushil Dhaundiyal]

Its awesome , but a bit lengthy. Do you think we can cut down the details and provide detailed information in some attached document.

[yan deng]

Hi,

 

I modified a little bit of the beginning of the invitation:

 

Dear Valued CISE Alumni,

 

 

The CISE department, as you may have already heard, is in dire straits. Dean Abernathy's proposed budget cut plan, if approved, will eliminate all research from the CISE department, scatter half its faculty across other departments  in the College of Engineering, and eliminate all TAs, consequently destroying the quality and ranking of the department, as well as the value of your degree. We write to you today to inform you of the  proposal details; further, we encourage you to attend the meeting “The University of Florida College of Engineering Innovation Award Ceremony and UF Alumni Reception”, Tuesday, April 24th, 5:30 p.m. at the Four Seasons Hotel, Palo Alto, which the dean: Cammy Abernathy will attend.  We really need your support! If you would like to help us with coordinate between the students and alumni; please join in the silicon-valley-alumn​i...@googlegroups.com. You will receive invites to this group shortly.  Besides, if it is possible, please forward this email to the alumni that you know.

[Ramin Tadayon]

I corrected it for grammar:

Dear Valued CISE Alumnus, 

The CISE department, as you may have already heard, is in dire straits. Dean Abernathy's proposed budget cut plan, if approved, will eliminate all research from the CISE department, scatter half its faculty across other departments  in the College of Engineering, and eliminate all TAs, consequently destroying the quality and ranking of the department, as well as the value of your degree. We write to you today to inform you of the  proposal details; furthermore, we encourage you to attend the meeting “The University of Florida College of Engineering Innovation Award Ceremony and UF Alumni Reception”, Tuesday, April 24th, 5:30 p.m. at the Four Seasons Hotel, Palo Alto, which Dean Abernathy will attend.  We really need your support! If you would like to help us coordinate between the students and alumni, please join our Google Group: silicon-valley-alumn​i...@googlegroups.com. You will receive an invite to this group shortly.  If possible, please also forward this message to the alumni that you know.

Thank you for your Support!

CISE@UF

[Ramin Tadayon]

Fixed a few other things. Please look over this and see if it's ready.

Dear Valued CISE Alumnus, 

The CISE department, as you may have already heard, is in dire straits. The Dean of the College of Engineering has proposed a budget cut plan which, if approved, will eliminate all research from the CISE department, scatter half its faculty across other departments  in the College of Engineering, and eliminate all TAs, consequently destroying the quality and ranking of the department, as well as the value of your degree. We write to you today to inform you of the  proposal details; furthermore, we encourage you to attend the meeting “The University of Florida College of Engineering Innovation Award Ceremony and UF Alumni Reception”, Tuesday, April 24th, 5:30 p.m. at the Four Seasons Hotel, Palo Alto, which Dean Abernathy will attend.  We really need your support! If you would like to help us coordinate between the students and alumni, please join our Google Group: silicon-valley-alumn​i...@googlegroups.com. You will receive an invite to this group shortly.  If possible, please also forward this message to alumni from the Bay Area that you know.

Thank you for your Support!

CISE@UF