At the behest of the new Interim Chair of the Computer Science department, Professor Jeff Dinitz, and the Computer Science Faculty, the Computer Science Crew (CS Crew) held an open forum on CS courses to be offered in the spring 2011 term.

In preparation of the course review, the CS Crew, through faculty advisor Robert Erickson, requested that the faculty provide additional information on the courses they would be teaching in order to flesh out the descriptions given in the course catalog. A number of professors and lecturers responded, a deed for which many students were grateful.

E-mail invitations to undergraduates in the CS department, coupled with promises of pizza, yielded a strong turnout for the Computer Science department, of 27 students. The discussion did not focus only on courses offered, and included helpful hints on how to get the most from an instructor, no matter the course.

Students were encouraged to ask questions of their instructors when they did not understand subject matter, to seek out help from their instructors during their office hours, as well as to make the most of CS Crew help hours and other resources available to them.

The review left students with the feeling that they could succeed in the Computer Science department; that they were not alone on their academic path.