Creating Institutional Homes for Computing: Transforming a Department into a School or College

The Computing Research Association has released its latest white paper, “Creating Institutional Homes for Computing: Transforming a Department into a School or College.” This white paper addresses the growing interest and trend in transforming a department of computer science, usually housed within a college of engineering or science, into a school or college of computing. It follows up on a successful panel at the 2016 CRA Conference at Snowbird on Schools and Colleges of Computing and a second panel on transitioning to Colleges of Computing at the 2018 CRA Conference at Snowbird.

As computing continues to grow by tremendous leaps and bounds and to permeate universities’ intellectual landscape, many department chairs are finding their programs have outgrown, or are outgrowing, the confines of their current locations in colleges of engineering or science. Discussions are taking place in many departments about exploring the possibility of expanding to a school or college of computing (or a similar name). This white paper examines the multifold administrative, social, strategic, and economic challenges confronting these departments, discusses strategies for transforming a department into a school or college of computing, cites examples of existing schools and colleges of computing, and provides a growing list of current schools and colleges of computing in North America.

Click here to download the full white paper.

Contributors: Carla Brodley, Northeastern University; Randy Bryant, Carnegie Mellon University; Lori Clarke, University of Massachusetts Amherst (Emerita); Juan Gilbert, University of Florida; Susanne Hambrusch, Purdue University; Chris Johnson (Chair), University of Utah; Richard LeBlanc, Georgia Tech (Emeritus) and Seattle University; John Paxton, Montana State University; and Bobby Schnabel, Indiana University (Emeritus) and University of Colorado Boulder.