To the NYU Tandon Department of Computer Science and Student Affairs:

The Fall 2023 semester rendition of the CS-4513 Software Engineering Course under Professor Strauss has suffered from issues with lack of organization and unrealistic expectations for students that could jeopardize a lot of students' grades, ability to graduate, and careers. Professor Strauss' stepping back from the class in October has only heightened issues with the course structure, as the new Professor is overwhelmed with their own responsibilities and is not allowed to make adjustments.

Students are expected to take the midterm exam on Tuesday, October 24th, 2023, with no material to support and help with the exam. The exam is originally designed to be 125 Multiple Choice questions within a class period, spread over content of 10 textbook chapters worth and 100s of definitions. Slides and lectures during the class have covered less than 10% of the material of these textbook chapters, and the reading/ McGrawHill homework assignments are highly insufficient in educating students in course content. Term definitions in the scope of the class are unclear and confusing, and students are highly anxious and balk at the impossibility at the idea of having days to take an exam of such a scope, both in exam format and content.

The Professor has declared that there will be no curve for the exam, and homework assignments are also highly unclear. For example, students are currently getting penalized for textbook reading assignments that are getting retroactively added (for reference, we were told to read the textbook chapters and assigned a deliverable assignment as proof of reading), and reading assignments are now separately getting graded on the McGrawHill platform when some students have read the textbook through other means that will not be sensed by the autograder. It is also to student understanding that the reading assignments were assessed through the Smartbook readings. Students are bombarded by incomprehensible and unsustainable levels of assignments per week, including two textbook chapters a week, two deliverable assignments, and group reports featuring dozen of pages (and moreover, brainstorming for large project design aspects), along with now the many unsavory and disorganization of the class. The TAs are unreachable, there are many grading issues, and the new Professor is grossly underprepared, overwhelmed, and prevented from major changes to the course to fix the structure and make it appropriate for the courseload and four credits that it represents.

The formatting of the class, the exam, and the closeness of the exam with no supplemental material provided are highly disadvantageous to a classroom of paying students, who are both looking to genuinely learn the material at an appropriate scope, having a proper pacing and courseload, and to have grades that reflect our participation in the class. As it stands, the current state of the class reflects none of these.

Signed,

NYU Tandon's Fall 2023 CS-4513 Students