Director's Database

Professor Dave Binkley, Graduate Program Director

Those of you who frequent my research page will know that one of my 2006 papers is entitied "What's in a Name? A Study of Identifiers." The central question raised in this joint work with Drs. Lawrie and Morell, and then-student Henry Feild, has apparently been answered by Loyola's president, as he has approved renaming Loyola College to Loyola University! Alas, one knock-on effect of this change is that all official documents from the college are being held up until the name change becomes "official." Thus, the revamped curriculum that I wrote about in the last issue will not become "official" until sometime near the end of summer.

I realize that many of you are curious if and how this change affects you. First of all, if you enrolled before Fall of 2009, then you have your choice of graduating under the current or revamped curriculum. Those enrolling Fall 2009 or later will graduate under the revamped curriculum. If you are interested in changing from the current to the revamped curriculum, please be aware that you do not have to make this choice official until you are ready to graduate. At that time, send an e-mail to Margaret Daley lettiing her know that you are ready to finish up and under which curriculum you plan to do so.

If you decide to change, be aware that the following mapping of courses will apply: first, if you have taken CS622, then you may replace CS730, which is required in the revamped program, with any course numbered 700 or above. Second, if you have taken CS700, then you may count it as either CS722 or CS724 and then must take the other. My advice would be to take CS722 and CS724 and treat CS700 as an elective. If you plan to make the switch, feel free to send Margaret your understanding of how you stand relative to the revamped curriculum.

One final note: if the summer heat makes you think of cooler fall days, then do check out the Fall schedule, which is available through WebAdvisor.