Here’s an excellent letter from the Technology Alliance to the President of Western Washington University:
“Closing down a well-respected computer science program that prepares students for high-impact, rewarding careers and that supplies our innovative industries with high-caliber talent that enables them to grow and thrive does not serve the people of Washington or the students of WWU. It clearly will harm our communities by eroding access to high-demand programs for our students and further depriving our fast-growing technology industries of a locally educated workforce.”
“Over the past decade, we have employed more than fifty successful WWU graduates, including Shaun Wolfe, former CEO and President of WRQ. We have employed nearly twenty WWU interns, twelve of whom we hired as full-time employees. Today, 10 percent of Attachmate’s global product development experts hold a Computer Science degree from your university. Many of those graduates work in our R&D office in Bellingham.”
And a terrific letter from Google:
“Google is growing at a rapid rate in the State of Washington … The Seattle sites are pure R&D sites … Our headcount is up 45% from last year to approximately 1,000 employees … The discussion of the termination of WWU’s CS department concerns me. Google relies heavily on the state’s CS programs to produce qualified canddidates … Google is not alone among high tech companies attempting to grow their presence in the state.”
See a previous post here for background information.
Update: Slashdot is on it — more than 200 comments in the first 12 hours. And GeekWire continues to follow the story.