The Computer Science curriculum at Northeastern University is being completely overhauled.  The people making these decisions and changes are an undemocratically appointed committee, all of whom have no involvement in the current Fundies-OOD curriculum. We must not allow these changes to be implemented in their current form.

Everyone with a degree is impacted. Students who have survived the Fundies track have been molded into skilled and capable programmers through courses that promote adversity and rigor. That should be reflected on one’s degree. With this change, Khoury College's educational quality will decline, our reputation will decline, and the value of all our degrees will decline.

It is not just our opinion that the HtDP-based (Fundies) curriculum molds stronger programmers compared to mainstream educational approaches. It is supported by research showing that students from HtDP-based CS1 courses perform 3x better on the standard benchmark rainfall problem. Furthermore, the ACM (recognized for giving out the Turing Award– the "Nobel Prize of Computer Science") recognized the HtDP curriculum with an educational award  for its unique design-oriented approach. With empirical and anecdotal evidence supporting Northeastern’s current teaching, moving away from the tried and true style only lessens the educational quality that students receive. 

Here is an overview of the proposed changes

• Fundies 1&2 will be taught in Python and Pyret with a less effective curriculum, allowing Northeastern students to skip the intro course with the lax requirement of AP CS credit (did AP CS teach you more than Fundies?).
• OOD will cease to exist, and will be replaced by a lighter version of Algorithms.
• The only course that will teach large-scale software design (which is what all software engineers do!) is Software Engineering, which will be transformed into a less extensive OOD.
• Higher-level courses (like programming languages, software development, logic, and many more) will have to be drastically reworked to accommodate the less rigorous introductory curriculum.

We are not opposed to all changes to the current curriculum, in fact, we welcome positive changes. We simply think the changes put forward by the undemocratic processes of the university committees are changes for the worse.

Our school currently has a reputation for having a unique and rigorous curriculum, built up by teaching students our current curriculum for the past 20 years and producing competent, high-value graduates. If we allow these changes to take place, we risk losing this reputation, which could lead to fewer co-op and job opportunities for Khoury students and graduates.

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Contact Email: savefundies@gmail.com