2003-01-31

Launch of SEAM, Software Engineering at Maryland, a cooperative that brought together students in capstone classes with outside clients whose real problems could be solved with team projects in a controlled environment. Run through CMSC435, participating students received an additional credit, Industrial Practices Apprenticeship, to reflect the added content and time spent. These students would obtain superior professional preparation because of the enhanced mentoring brought into their projects. The successful business model was to augment CMSC435 with follow-up courses on software quality and product assurance, which dovetailed with the first class by linking the advanced students' practicum with management of projects in the next 435 class. Peer mentoring was further leveraged by mentoring of grad students - in addition to teaching assistants - who had professional experiences before returning for advanced degrees, and who were supported by matching funds from the college.

...

Over the next six years, 146 students in CMSC435 received credit for the Apprenticeship component, and 43 students (graduate students as well as undergraduates) took the advanced management and product assurance course. During this time, all of these courses were run entirely without overload pay and none were counted toward faculty workload obligations (though the college received credit for the seats in the annual workload tallies by campus.)

2010-01-28

The CS undergraduate chair, Jeff Hollingsworth, is found to have cancelled the spring offering of the software product assurance course without notice or explanation. All students registered for it were administratively dropped. Students were later told they could register as a generic individual study course, but few were interested in this option. CMSC435 is commonly taken as a capstone course, and most students graduate soon after the class. Those who seek the advanced class typically aren't using it for basic graduation needs, but rather for the 'credential' of having participated in SEAM. Unfortunately, their role in SEAM does not show up on the transcript if it is taken as a generic 'individual study' title. Further, aggressive students commonly have prior a 498 on their transcripts, so one more is less useful to them than other courses. The department's refusal to offer the course disrupts the business model which helped SEAM grow in the first place.

This begins the period of time when instead of offering courses to our aggressive students, we attempt to understand the department's rationale for not allowing these opportunities. Some excerpts the paper trail are:

  • 2010-02-02 (a) We learn the department "feels" that it "should not be creating regular course numbers for classes that don't have fixed meeting times and that are not advertised to the whole department." (The meeting time was always chosen based on the schedules of those who sought the class, and was always open to students who met the pre-reqs.)
  • 2010-02-02 (b) We learn the department cancelled the the course and dropped those who had registered for it in order to be "fair."
  • 2010-03-05 A draft procedure for proposing courses is circulated to faculty. It is never vetted at an education meeting, and to date has never been observed being followed. It gives no insight as to what interests of the department were protected by canceling the SEAM courses two months previously.
  • 2010-03-22 The department undergraduate chair is reminded that comments and questsions were sent in response to his message to faculty, but without any response. Further, it is noted that new offerings have just been listed for spring apparently in variance with the draft policy just proposed. What's going on?
  • Silence
  • 2010-04-02 (a) Seriously, what's going on?
  • 2010-04-02 (b) We learn that the department doesn't actually need to follow a procedure when it is expedient to do otherwise. We'll get back with you.
  • 2010-10-08 It is noted that more new courses are moving forward not by the department process, and we're running out of time to process course proposals for spring semester. How about it?
  • 2010-10-11 We should talk? Swell. Tell me when.
  • Silence.
  • 2011-03-15 We're about to burn another semester. Still waiting to hear back from the department. How about it?
  • Silence.

2012-05-08

In a meeting, the above history is presented to the incoming undergraduate chair, who promises to find out what has been going on that no good answer would be given, much less permission to resume what had been a six year project. No permission itself is given at the time, under the very fair representation that he is not yet officially on the job.

2012-08-10

In an email exchange concerning status of the CS Education program proposal (another administratively stalled initiative), an opportunity to teach a linked pair of fall/winter term courses (on intellectual property in technology) is proposed to the chair (Samir Khuller) and associate chair (Alan Sussman), along with a caution that the department would need to move fast in order to take advantage of the opportunity which was brought to us.

2012-08-31

With the fall semester having just started, and no response from the chairs, it is painfully obvious that the opportunity for an IP course as originally envisioned is gone.

2012-09-25

A meeting with the chair is held in order to clear up questions about inequities in opportunities afforded faculty in the department. After discussion, Samir Khuller promises to (among other things) find an answer to these questions.

2012-10-05

With the Winter Term schedule long-since posted and students registering for it, the undergraduate chair gets back concerning the inquiry about an IP course. Later in the week, he observes that it is "pretty late" to be adding new courses. (Any effort after this point would have been moot. The former student, having found satisfaction with colleagues in another college, has moved on.)

2012-10-19

At a Friday Faculty Lunch, Alan Sussman brings up a discussion topic - how best to allocate department funds for adjuncts to offer 498 courses in emerging areas, overlooking the irony that some faculty present were not being allowed to offer 498's for free.

2012-10-23

In a meeting, the undergraduate chair is reminded that I am waiting on a response from the chair on the matter of teaching.

2012-12-04

The chair's assistant in charge of newsletters inquires about honors courses of the past, and in the course of providing background information to her she expresses an interest in writing about previous projects done in SEAM. I ask her to take back to the chair my frustration that the department might want to promote the results of activities which I am no longer allowed to pursue within the department.

2013-01-13

Still silence. SEAM launched one decade ago, but in recent years has languished for want of simple administrative permissions to try to do things on behalf of students. I give up. SEAM is dead.