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Joel on Software bemoans JavaSchools. He's right; the core concepts of computer science are being passed on to a smaller and smaller number of individuals each year. From the schools perspective, it's understandable; they just want their graduates to be able to get jobs, and 85% of the jobs out there have nothing to do what a traditional CS degree teaches. I think a good solution is to break up the majors; have a major for Software Development, which is your Java curriculum, and another for Computer Engineering. I was in school at just the beginning of the Java phase (intro for me was C/C++, the year after did Java), and many who couldn't make it past intro but still liked technology ended up in the Information Systems major in the Business school, and came out good Java programs, with a nice dose of marketing and finance knowledge to boot. Now that the state of Software Development has progressed beyond what it was then, I think a seperate major would help retain the conceptual curriculum while at the same time providing an outlet for the unwashed masses.
I will also say that just because you can code in Scheme or C, doesn't neccesarily mean you can learn to be a good Java programmer in a few weeks. I've worked with many crack bit packers that couldn't catch an exception if it was staring them in face. Architecting skills can't be picked up by everyone, and a Java programmer skilled in writing maintainable, testable and managable code is, unfortuneately, still somewhat of a rare find. If you know the right questions to ask, you can usually tell the difference pretty quickly.
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