U is for Undergrads. I think it’s outrageous;
We faculty get older —it shows in our faces;
But always ‘bout 20, U’s stay the same ages.

I was 26 when I first taught; the undergrads were about 20. At 67 I am still teaching; they are still about 20. One compensation for this unfairness is that each year there are new undergrads, so I can use the same old jokes over and over again.

We didn’t start a CS major until 1979. (In the past several years, we started degrees in Information Science in three colleges.) But we have always taken education seriously (read the letter E), and it shows.

Each year, our vibrant undergrad community does something outstanding. For example, the women’s team won the Game Design Competition at a national conference in Spring 2006; there were three best/distinguished student papers at conferences in 2004–2005; Omar Khan won the CRA Outstanding Male Undergraduate Award in 2003; and the programming team won an honorable mention in the ACM finals in the Czech Republic in 2003.

All this happens because of the good rapport between students and faculty. Faculty value the undergrads because they bring a sense of freshness and keep us on our toes. Senior faculty do their share of teaching freshmen-sophomore courses, and the faculty make it a point to engage students in undergrad research.

Our Association for Computer Science Undergraduates (ACSU) helps provide an environment in which undergrads can thrive. The ACSU mentors freshmen, brings in companies to give presentations, compiles resume books, organizes student-faculty lunches, holds social events, and much more. Several times, the ACSU has won the Engineering outstanding undergrad association award.