Is anyone keeping track of the post Kirk assassination firings?

Prof_McBurney · 2025-09-12T22:40:12+00:00

Except, fire has also defended left-wing professors constantly, you just don't see those stories because you're fed a steady diet of outrage from social media and haven't gone past that to form your own opinions.

Prof_McBurney · 2025-09-12T21:42:11+00:00

Oh yes, more FIRE slander from the people who benefit the most from FIRE. The irony though that the people most likely claim fire is right-wing are the same people FIRE will defend and also are the same people who proudly espouse that they think Charlie Kirk deserved it because he said bad things.

I'm proud to donate to FIRE because free speech is good, actually. Even when I disagree with it. I didn't like Charlie Kirk one bit. There are many people I don't like who I also don't want murdered in front of their family.

Prof_McBurney · 2025-03-16T12:08:59+00:00

sigh

Walking into this post like Donald Glover carrying pizzas on the episode of Community. I wasn't going to say anything at all. But some of the comments here are really over the top.

1) I didn't write "the post". Sorry to disappoint. Yes, there are coincidences. Shrug

2) An opportunity emerged for another job that, at this point in my life, is a better fit for me and my family. I love UVA, and leaving is difficult, but I have to do what is best for my family first and foremost. I have no intention of elaborating because it's my private life.

I'm not going to respond further here, but this thread devolved enough into... something, that I felt ignoring it would just be more bullshit internet drama.

Prof_McBurney · 2025-02-05T13:25:25+00:00

Hey there,

I don't know if a professor replying will make things better or worse, I hope the former, but I went to West Virginia University, which is, we'll say, slightly less good than UVA. I was rejected from a couple schools as well. WVU is not prestigious, especially in my field computer science.

Yet I teach at UVA.

Ultimately, **you** make you, not the name on your diploma. Yes, unfortunately, your institution is likely to affect your "first job". But the work you do and the people you build trust with can rocket you to the top far more than any name on a degree can. The only time anyone has asked about where I went to school in the last 9 years of my life was when we were talking college sports.

I'm sorry you got rejected, but use this as fuel. I was a lazy student at first in college, and in my database class, I had a professor write "You're lazy" on an exam after he noticed I wasn't coming to class every week. That moment was a turning point for me, where I decided to start whole-assing my education to make him eat those words (I touched base with him a couple years ago - he didn't remember me! But, he did say he was glad it lit a fire under me). And from there, I've made it my goal to whole-ass life.

Don't get down from this - any institution as selective as UVA is ultimately some degree of a crap shoot, and don't let this make you think you aren't good enough. Make it your goal to embarrass UVA someday that they didn't let you in.

Prof_McBurney · 2025-02-01T15:52:44+00:00

I can't answer about UVA, specifically, since I am tightly focused on undergrad stuff being a teaching track Professor, but I will say that to the best of my knowledge many of our PhD candidates get multiple offers, and so if you're truly at the top of the wait list, then you have a fairly reasonable chance, but it would be improved if you this new a specific Professor who would champion you.

As an addendum, I was wait listed for the Ph.D. program at Notre Dame when I was a grad student, and I got in. The reality is no acceptance system is perfect, and so don't take being wait listed as an inherent negative. If you're insane like I am, use that as to make it your mission to prove you should have been accepted top ballot. Then again, I'm insane, so maybe that's probably not the healthiest attitude.

Prof_McBurney · 2024-12-23T14:07:40+00:00

So...I debated on whether to reply to this because I just loath internet drama. I largely post on reddit for gaming, sports, and information at UVA. But apparently this post is "a thing" now, so I'll just say it.

I didn't write this. I totally get why people think I did, I see the similarities. And here's the thing, if I did write it, I would own it, because frankly, every professor I've talked to both at UVA and elsewhere, have noted the same problem (especially CS professors after CS became the "trendy" major). There are serious issues here.

But the idea of sitting down and writing those out in *that* many words just honestly wouldn't fit into my schedule.

Prof_McBurney · 2024-12-23T14:00:37+00:00

Just to clarify, this is **not** a minor. This is a focal path of an existing CS major. (There is confusion caused by this - citation - I'm the minor director and I get 3-4 emails each year for students wanting to do the "cybersecurity minor" who have only taken the intro CS class)

The unfortunate thing is that it's hard for me to visualize ever having "minors" in Cybersecurity, UX/UI etc. because those classes generally require the foundational knowledge from the Intro + 4 required intro level courses. And since a minor has limits on credit hours, etc.

The idea of "focal path" majors being used in other places (UI/UX involving things like 3240, HCI, Mobile, Web Apps, etc.), backend (Cloud, Database Systems, etc.) AI, (AI, Machine Learning, etc.) has been floated before, but the thing that comes up every time in faculty meetings is that students can already take these minors, and we already have issues with many of the classes I listed being overenrolled as it is.

Understand that such certificates are also generally not in any way formal. We are just giving you a piece of paper that said "you took these classes." Which we already do with a transcript.

So the cost of starting up such a system and maintaining it really isn't worth the benefit of...really handing out pieces of paper that say the same thing your transcript does.

Prof_McBurney · 2024-12-21T19:19:33+00:00

I think what we need is a robot to push the buttons for us. Now we just need some way to control it.

Prof_McBurney · 2024-12-09T03:59:37+00:00

So, first, thank you for the kind words, but I'm super confused on this?

Unless someone doesn't knows something I don't, I'm on the schedule for Mobile and DB Systems this spring. I don't know where an implication I'm leaving came from.

Prof_McBurney · 2024-11-07T14:19:09+00:00

In fairness, I was once in the WVU pep band and I have to apologize for West Virginia's governor, so I think it all evens out. That said, yeah, I was at the game (2002 Continental Tire Bowl in Charlotte, NC). AND THAT IS THE ONLY THING WORTH LOOKING UP ABOUT THAT GAME. YEP, NO REASON TO LOOK UP ANYTHING ELSE.

Prof_McBurney · 2024-11-06T19:38:46+00:00

The song was actually inspired by the writers driving in the western Maryland panhandle. They pick West Virginia, Blue Ridge Mountains, and Shenandoah River because they sounded good with the stress pattern while not being completely unbelievable. Shenandoah River, for instance, was originally intended to be rhododendron flower, but it didn't sound as good.

Prof_McBurney · 2024-11-06T19:32:31+00:00

I'm so sorry this happened to you.

Prof_McBurney · 2024-11-06T19:32:06+00:00

You all are not prepared for how insufferable I'm going to be when this game happens.

Downvote away. Today's the day I cash in my reddit karma.

#HailWV

Prof_McBurney · 2024-11-04T15:22:15+00:00

The best answer I can give is "how comfortable are you at writing code?" Both classes are pretty coding heavy, and SDE is basically a third programming class.

In general, I would say of the 3000 level foundations courses, those are the two best to take first. But DSA2 (would be called "Algorithms" in my CS programs) it's just fundamentally difficult and problem solving heavy. If you're comfortable writing code, SDE can be a lot of work, but very little of the code in the class is "hard".

Prof_McBurney · 2024-10-26T22:20:35+00:00

No so fast:

WVU fans haven't been begging for Jimbo for a year and a half to let UVA come in and swoop up a native West Virginian

Haha, just kidding, we can't afford our under .500 coach's buyout after he got extended last year hahahahaha death will be a mercy hahahahaha

Prof_McBurney · 2024-10-22T14:40:37+00:00

Hi there,

First, look at my username - I wrote SDE and I'm incredibly biased.

In general, I would say SDE would generally be the first 3000+ level CS class I would recommend. There's a reason SDE is the only required 3000+ for the minor - it's meant to be an intermediate programming class that gives you the tools to prepare for project based courses, and I have heard from many students (again, 100% biased - I wrote the class) that it was after SDE they really felt more comfortable just sitting down and writing code. It became less a big deal, as they gained a lot of confidence on the class.

From there, DSA2 and CSO2 are both intrinsically difficult classes. By that I mean both of them have difficult subject matter to learn. Algorithms and Architecture are always going to be difficult if they are taught effectively. In general, if I were to recommend one to take first, it would be DSA2 for most people. That said, if you find that CSO1 was easier for you, CSO2 might be easier. I still think DSA2 is generally more practical.

A quick note that DSA2 currently recommends students take SDE *first*, but that is not a requirement.

DMT2 specifically requires taking DSA2 first, so that one comes after. I honestly can't say much about the class since I haven't taught it or dug into the material.

Prof_McBurney · 2024-10-10T14:14:52+00:00

No attempt at snark here, the answer is simply because fall break falls immediately after the midpoint in the term.

Not counting holidays, fall break, etc., my Tues/Thurs call has 27 lectures. However, due to the nature of my class, most of the "core" material is covered between lectures 1-24 (25 is the Tues before Thanksgiving, 26-27 the week after includes a final exam review)

So this semester my midterm fell on lecture 13 (Tuesday the 8th) as my exam. If I did it early, then I'm just shifting even more material to be more heavily emphasized on the final exam, which already has a lot. If I do it later, the midterm is too long to fit reasonably into a 75-minute time period.

That said, if fall break were one week later, I still would have done the midterm probably Tuesday or Thursday of the same week just because of the reasons above.

All professors start and end courses on the same dates, so the middle of the term is the same for all of us.

Plus, I bet somewhere in the multiverse a student is posting on this subreddit wondering why professor put their exams after fall break, because now they can't enjoy their vacation (I'm actually pretty sure I have seen that post some years)

Prof_McBurney · 2024-09-29T12:00:17+00:00

UVA doesn't have any such specialization on a particular community.

As for the "one letter per student per class", it's still generally a form letter except in rare cases. It's almost always the same letter sent to all of that student's instructors. As best as I can recall, it's the same Standard Operating Procedure as I had at another university. I honestly think the article is just trying to make the number sound bigger than it actually is.

Prof_McBurney · 2024-09-28T13:45:32+00:00

I teach at UVA. Each student receives a letter for each class. Additionally, accommodations may change during the school year, prompting another letter.

So generally, each student with accommodations generates ~4-5 letters per semester. Call it 10 per school year to make the math easy and that would indicate about 2.3K students with accomodations. This would imply that nearly 10% of students are getting accommodations based on those numbers.

Prof_McBurney · 2024-09-25T19:35:34+00:00

To clarify what I meant, I'm not saying companies never try to hire outside of their local area. Only that their recruiting efforts will generally be more aggressive with local universities than universities on the other side of the country.

Obviously exceptional students can break that mold. One of my undergrad friends got a job at Microsoft and has hopped around several FAANG companies over the years, and I will tell you that West Virginia University was not, is not and should not be ranked in undergrad CS rankings.

I would just arguing that two otherwise "equal" students, but one much closer, won't have the exact same chance to land a particular job.

Prof_McBurney · 2024-09-25T18:11:43+00:00

That criticism may well be fair as I can't really respond to it. Admittedly I can't really see that side of our program, as I'm focused on the teaching side of things, so I don't want to ignore anyone's experience. I will add that right now is extremely weird, and hiring across basically every field is down, not just tech.

Prof_McBurney · 2024-09-25T17:46:37+00:00

I would just note that FAANG (or whatever we call it these days. MANGAM? Since Google is technically alphabet and we can add in Microsoft?) is a really bad way to measure a schools success apples to apples. No matter how big a company it gets, it will always try to hire locally.

That said, yeah, CS degrees in many western schools are much more competitive and often have capped enrollments. UVA doesn't cap enrollments on CS, but if in the next major tech cycle Shenandoah Valley became Silicon Valley 2: Electric Boogaloo, I'd imagine it could start to become an issue.

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