comprehensive review process<\/a>, but \u201cnot by much,\u201d Nelson said in an email.<\/p>\nSince the release of ChatGPT in 2022, employment for computer science and math majors aged 22 to 27 has fallen by 8%. However, campus spokesperson Janet Gilmore noted that student interest in CS-related majors is \u201cstill strong\u201d despite the rise of AI. Gilmore cited rising instructional costs, campus budget constraints and faculty availability as contributing factors in the reduction in enrollment.<\/p>\n
\u201cLest there be any confusion, the collapse of the CS major is not due to a lack of student demand,\u201d Nelson said in an X post.<\/p>\n
In an X post, Nelson identified the high cost of instruction as the primary cause of campus\u2019s decision to reduce CS major enrollment. Undergraduate teaching assistants now cost the department between $71.95 and $80.51 per hour. Since winning a grievance in January 2020, campus EECS and data science undergraduate TAs receive proportional tuition waivers depending on how many hours they work. According to Nelson\u2019s post, this change significantly increased department costs, which led campus to reduce undergraduate CS enrollment and decrease the number of undergraduate TAs.<\/p>\n
In the email, Nelson also called on campus leadership to \u201cbargain harder\u201d on TA compensation, noting that it is currently \u201cmultiples higher\u201d than the market average. He added that more than 80% of undergraduate TAs do not qualify for need-based financial aid but are still receiving partial or full tuition coverage, much of which is paid using the other students\u2019 tuition and state funding.<\/p>\n
\u201cAs a state university I do not think it is aligned with our public mission to use such funds to subsidize tuition for primarily more privileged students,\u201d Nelson said in the email.<\/p>\n
As campus has cut back on the number of undergraduate TAs in the CS department, some computer science and data science classes have begun adopting AI tools such as Pensive AI Grader in the grading process, reducing TAs\u2019 workload.<\/p>\n
Senior CS major Daniel Wang, who serves as a head undergraduate TA for CS 61B, \u201cData Structures,\u201d shared that the course staff considered using AI for grading, as well as implementing AI bots to answer questions on Ed Discussion, but ultimately decided against it.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think the innate value of having staff members is that you can interact with students,\u201d Wang said. \u201cHuman interaction is the best way to intimately understand the course material.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The number of computer science graduates at UC Berkeley is expected to decrease to 851 for the 2025-26…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":270727,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[34],"tags":[2269,38430,117649,53777,16155,48515,143,145,144,117648,11931],"class_list":{"0":"post-270726","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-oakland","8":"tag-chatgpt","9":"tag-cs-61b","10":"tag-daniel-wang","11":"tag-electrical-engineering-and-computer-sciences","12":"tag-janet-gilmore","13":"tag-jelani-nelson","14":"tag-oakland","15":"tag-oakland-headlines","16":"tag-oakland-news","17":"tag-pensive-ai-grader","18":"tag-x"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/270726","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=270726"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/270726\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/270727"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=270726"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=270726"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=270726"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}