The post looks like it's SF area. Given that employers want 4-year credentials and there's a big Stanford/Berkeley/top-tier bias, what was the representation by companies prior to this at the community college level?
Looking back over the decades in my career, only a handful of the really standout people that I've worked with had CS degrees. Most common were music degrees or being self-taught.
I understand how people recruiting are filtering for degrees, but I think outside of true entry-level positions it's completely silly to do so.
There is this thing also: when you have a project or a passion, you don't waste 4 or 5 years for a degree, when you already spent everyday during 5 years learning these skills.
Many talented people just skip the school and go straight to work (for themselves or others).
The courses also are usually outdated. Learn AI by yourself with the videos of Karpathy and you will know state-of-the-art. Follow courses from your local university, and you will learn the perceptron and OCaml.
(1) the actual message doesn’t say the fair is canceled - it is still on; the message says no employers specifically looking for software engineers will be attending.
(2) it says that IT employers will be attending the carer fair.
(3) it also says that they plan to have more government employees for software engineers at the next career fair.
IT and CS overlap but imply a different range of activities. I wouldn't be suprised that network admins or helpdesk representatives would be sought out.
