There may be no place where the gap between politics and reality is wider right now than the UW's computer science department.

Politics these days is all about shrinking. How can we retrench, reduce or reset.

But even the lecture halls aren't big enough to contain what's actually going on in high-tech education.

An intro to computer programming section was so jammed one recent morning that some students sat on the floor. The class was whooping and fist-pumping as their final project — a virtual smackdown between packs of coded, simulated "critters" — played out on the hall's screen.

"You can see we have a lot of students getting excited about computers," Stuart Reges, a principal lecturer in the department, understated beneath the din.

"It's depressing," he said when we walked outside. "Because now we're going to push most of them away."

This year, record numbers have swamped the UW's beginning computer classes — nearly 2,000 students — eclipsing even the dot-com boom in the '90s. Yet the department has trimmed faculty and has not expanded the number of degrees it awards, due to state budget cuts.

As a result, the department now turns away four out of every five who want to go on to major in computer science. These are not applicants from elsewhere. They are UW students who are told: Sorry. No room.

This fall, some who had perfect 4.0 grades in computer science classes were turned down. It's so tight that one B in physics or calculus can get you rejected.

"I don't think I would be accepted here right now," says Marty Stepp, who is a senior lecturer in the department.

When I went to college, back in the distant 1980s, once you got in you could generally follow your dreams. Maybe you wouldn't make the grade in a particular subject. But nobody ever said: This major isn't for you solely because we don't have room.

"It's crazy what we're doing," Reges says. "I was talking to some colleagues at Stanford about this. They said: 'Don't you feel evil?' "

The issue is money. Which nobody is proposing more of for our state universities.

The result is about the biggest lost opportunity you could imagine. The UW now turns aside roughly 500 of its own students every year who want to major in computer science (most major in something else, though some do transfer). The talent pool is rich enough that faculty joke about taking the rejects and starting up a fine new college.

Great idea. I'm serious. That is exactly what someone should do.

This isn't just a computer science problem. According to the state, if our entire higher ed system were expanded to maximum capacity by 2030 (which we are not on track to do anyway), it would still fall short of projected student demand by 12,000 four-year and graduate-level degrees annually.

Meaning: If we want to stop cutting off the educational air supply for our offspring, we need to build the equivalent of another University of Washington.

We should do it. And turn it into the West coast version of MIT.

Far-fetched? Of course. It would probably require tax increases. Or an idle billionaire.

But I bet starting up the UW with 20 students and one professor back in 1861 was pretty far-fetched, too.

Last week, an 80-member group of business leaders formed to try to raise $1 billion for a new sports arena, to woo back the NBA. We'll do that for sports. Couldn't we do it for school?

Others are. Last month, Northeastern University announced it may open a campus in Seattle to grant advanced degrees in computer and science fields.

Northeastern is in Boston. Why would it come way out here? Because the future here is blindingly obvious. Even from 3,000 miles away.

I know, I should be thankful a mid-rank school from the east has the vision and gumption to expand higher ed for us.

It's just that it exposes how we seem to be lacking these qualities right now ourselves.

Danny Westneat's column appears Wednesday and Sunday. Reach him at 206-464-2086 or dwestneat@seattletimes.com.