Computer Science and the Humanities at the University of Arkansas
Professors react to an opinion piece published in Wired
Last month, Wired Magazine published an opinion piece authored by Emma Pierson calling for computer science programs at universities across the country to do more in educating their students about the humanities.
Pierson’s piece was primarily concerned about the societal impact and potential harm computer scientists and programmers can do through their code if they don’t think ethically.
“The fact that so many computer scientists are ignorant or disdainful of non-technical approaches is worrisome because in my work, I’m constantly confronting questions that can’t be answered with code,” Pierson, a PhD student at Stanford, wrote.
“A more socially focused curriculum would not only make coders less likely to cause harm; it might also make them more likely to do good,” Pierson wrote.
Despite Pierson’s concern that universities are not doing enough, the computer science and computer engineering program in the College of Engineering at the University of Arkansas addresses the humanities in their educational objectives and handbook.
Graduates of the program are expected to “understand human, social and ethical issues so that they will be good employees or employers, citizens and neighbors,” according to one of the program’s four educational objectives located on the program’s website.
The website also lists “an understanding of professional, ethical, legal, security and social issues and responsibilities” and “an ability to analyze the local and global impact of computing on individuals, organizations, and society” as things students will be able to demonstrate while studying in the program.
As a part of the university’s core graduation requirements, students in the program must take one humanities course, or three hours.
Gordon Beavers, who holds a doctorate in philosophy and is an associate professor and associate head of the computer science department at the University of Arkansas, thinks the requirement is not enough.
He is lead to believe from his experience with his educated colleagues that most computer scientists adhere to ethical norms, Beavers said.
In the opinion piece, Pierson contacted eight top undergraduate computer science programs and found that most did not require courses on ethics or social issues in computer science.
Pierson probably knows that many universities require at least one three-hour general ethics course and is basing her assumptions on the belief that the requirement is not enough, Beavers said.
“It is ridiculous to think three hours of humanities makes a person a well-rounded human being,” Beavers said.
Saying that computer scientists are hating on the humanities completely misrepresents the computer science body at the University of Arkansas and probably at Stanford, Beavers said.
Pierson also called on tech corporations to explore the ethics of their products and hire non-computer scientists to “challenge the views of the workforce.”
Ryan Hutslar, a junior computer science major at the University of Arkansas, thinks this is probably won’t happen.
“Big data is an extremely lucrative business and as such the hope that all these large corporations will suddenly decide to slow down, think harder about the ethics of what they’re doing, or hire people purely for a new perspective is extremely unrealistic,” Hutslar said in an email.
“I do however think the university has recognized the problem of ethical detachment in engineering sciences and has taken steps to combat it,” Hutslar said of the course requirements.
Professional technology societies such as the Association for Computing Machinery and the Institute of Electrical and Electronic Engineers have had codes of ethics since 1992 and 1963, respectively, indicating that ethics and humanities have been a part of the conversation in computer science and engineering for decades.
“It has been well known for 20–30 years that computer science students
need to know about ethics, so they can make decisions that are good
for society,” said John Gauch, a professor, in an email.
“Now, I admit, taking one class in ethics, and a few classes in humanities and social science does not automatically make someone ethical or well rounded, but at least we are trying,” John Gauch said.
Susan Gauch, also a professor, agreed with some parts of Pierson’s piece.
“I think that the piece has a good point — algorithms, especially those making decisions, need to include diversity among their criteria,” Susan Gauch said. “This is a large area of focus for our department, and several researchers are looking to make strides in this area.”
She also found the article to be strange because in order to be an accredited computer science program, the program must include ethics courses, Susan Gauch said.
Overall, there seems to be consensus that more could be done to teach the humanities in computer science programs, but disagreement over whether or not there is a problem with the current situation.
