Policies and politics like these, made the University of Florida kill its Computer Science program [http://tiny.cc/y5bjuz] - almost. So when you "Go Gators", perhaps its time to look at the UF contracts for hiring faculty.
I interpreted that move as more internal politics. The EE and CISE programs for "doing computer stuff" compete with each other for dollars and mindshare. The squishyness of the CS tracks (there's an engineering and a liberal-arts track both) also complicates the picture.
My angle is, the reasons quoted to the press for any of these decisions is a deliberate fabrication. Don't make inferences about how the university functions from the press releases. It might be different at other multibillion-dollar businesses, but somehow I expect not.
And here is a video of the announcement:
Basically the gap in demand is huge, but the gap in funding can never be proportionate because it would mean other departments barely get anything. So the CS department is perpetually underfunded, but e.g. the philosophy department probably has more money than it really needs based on natural demand (demand is artificially propped up by required courses)
In fact in recent years, CISE has really helped to propel UF. See: [https://news.ufl.edu/2021/06/top500-rankings/].
https://catalog.ufl.edu/UGRD/colleges-schools/UGENG/CPS_BSCS...