By Victor Ordonez

Frank Vicari, FCRH ’18, spent his summer working for Morgan Stanley’s Core Technology Services team. Vicari, a computer science major at Fordham University, used data analytics to determine which fields within his department needed improvement. When analyzing data, Vicari’s weapon of choice was Tableau, one of many programs not taught within Fordham’s Computer Science department.

Vicari is one of five computer science undergraduates interviewed by The Fordham Ram who said they must teach themselves vital programs outside of the classroom in order to succeed in their field. Fordham’s computer science program inadequately prepares them for future careers.

“As far as data analytics, a lot of electives do not deal with what we need to know,” said computer science major Abby O’Neill, FCRH ’18. O’Neill works within Allstate Insurance’s data science program. There, she learned how to use the high-level programming language called Python, again, a program not taught within Fordham’s computer science undergraduate program. However, Python is made available for non-computer science majors.

“They don’t teach python here within the classes that you take,” said O’Neill. “And I am not angry that it is not taught, however, there are plenty of other programming languages out there… why do we only learn C++?”

C++ is the primary programming language that is taught within the department. Java, another programming language, is also taught but it is not required within the undergraduate program. C++ is chosen strategically according to Associate Chair for undergraduate studies in computer science, Daniel Leeds. “If you master one programming language, it makes learning others much easier. They all have pretty much the same structure,” said Leeds. “We focus on C++ because it is one of the main languages used in development software.”

Xiaolan Zhang, chair of the computer science department, said that another reason behind the department’s C++ preference is the programming language level of difficulty. “It is a much harder language, which better prepares the student. Python and Java hide the more difficult aspects of programming.”

Students expressed concerns also involving the transition between some of the mandatory classes within the computer science department. Vicari and O’Neill said transitioning between Computer Science One (CS1) and Computer Science Two (CS2) was difficult.

“Where I left off in CS1 and where I picked up in CS2 were completely different,” said O’Neill. “When I ended CS1, we were still in the early stages of programming, but my next professor for CS2 picked up the lesson in an area of programming that was way further than what I had already learned.”

O’Neill compared the classes to Chemistry One and Chemistry Two. These classes, regardless of the professor, must take universal departmental midterms and finals to ensure that each class is taught consistent content. Midterms and finals for CS1 and CS2 vary by professor, according to Leeds.

“[Midterms and finals] are subject to the professor’s creation, but we are moving to increased oversight by the associate chair to keep more unity,” said Leeds. Leeds added that it was clear different professors have left students in various areas of programming upon ending CS1 and CS2.

“It is my job to monitor those classes and this is definitely a problem, we are working on an initiative to fix this internal department structure,” said Leeds. This both Leed’s and Zhang’s first semester as department chairs.

Leeds attributed some of the internal department issue to the department’s faculty size.

O’Neill said much of her career work was done on her own. “I interned at Allstate, then I got a job within the company, and a lot of this I did on my own,” said O’Neil. “I did not go to career services at all.”

The computer science department currently has no relationship with Fordham’s career services department, according to Zhang. The department does have a link on its Fordham web page that lists employment and internship opportunities.

Almost all of these applications require prior knowledge to some sort of program not taught at Fordham, according to Vicari.

Both Leeds and Zhang said that the amount of time allotted to teach some student what is necessary to succeed in a computer science field is limited.
“This is a liberal arts school, and [Fordham’s] core curriculum takes up a lot of time,” said Zhang. “Some students become computer science majors midway through their junior year, and that is possible, but maybe it shouldn’t be,” said Leeds.

Three other students interviewed by The Fordham Ram asked to remain anonymous. All of the students said there was room for improvement within the department, but acknowledged that computer science is an ever-evolving field.

“It is not entirely [the department’s] fault,” said one student. “It is a liberal arts school, not a computer science school, but they can do better than this.”

Both Leeds and Zhang said the department attributed department issues to the current job market. “It’s very difficult to hire due to the booming market for people with advanced degrees in CS,” said Leeds. “We are doing our best to hire and grow our faculty resource with the full support from administration.”

“Someone my age is out there right now learning these programs on their own,” said the students. “After I pay my tuition and get my computer science degree, that person will get the job I want because they learned the important programs I should have taught here.”