Report of the Women in Science and Engineering Initiatives Committee

The Women in Science and Engineering (WISE) Committee was charged with identifying resources at the University of Maine that encourage the participation of women in science and engineering, both as students and as faculty; identifying ways to increase the recruitment and retention of women in these areas and recommending ways that the University can support this effort. Our work has convinced us that this initiative would benefit individual women as well as contributing to the good of the University and society as a whole. We have found that although some departments and programs are more successful than others in addressing issues facing women students and faculty in science and engineering, there are no institutionalized organizations, guidelines, or goals directed toward these issues. We believe that significant progress and long-term change will result if there is campus-wide commitment. To that end, the WISE Committee recommends: 1. Recruiting and retaining women in fields of science and engineering at the University of Maine, both as students and as faculty, be made a high priority of the Affirmative Action Plan of the University. 2. The Women in Science and Engineering Committee of the University of Maine (WISE) be institutionalized as a standing committee, appointed by the President, and charged with developing an annual plan recommending a full spectrum of activities directed towards women in science and engineering. Furthermore, we recommend that approximately $20,000 be made available for FY 93 to be earmarked for the WISE Committee (pending approval of a plan and attached budget) to initiate several high-profile, relatively low-cost programs to create institutional momentum for change. 3. Commitment to and accountability for these goals be assured at all levels of the University (i.e., department chairs and faculty, deans and directors, vice presidents, and the president) through allocation of resources and evaluation of programs

NCWIT Scorecard: A Report on the Status of Women in Information Technology

The NCWIT Scorecard shows trends in girls' and women's participation in computing in the U.S. over time, providing a benchmark for measuring progress and identifying areas for improvement

Building A Thriving CS Program In A Small Liberal Arts College

In this paper we describe several techniques that have helped increase enrollment in the computer science program from 23 computer science majors in 2008 to 42 computer science majors in 2010 – an increase of 82.6%. We discuss issues related to curriculum, programming assignments, and professor-student interactions that have made the discipline more attractive and manageable to a variety of students within the setting of a small liberal arts college

Lessons Learned From a PLTL-CS Program

The Peer-Led Team Learning (PLTL) approach has previously been shown to be effective in recruiting and retaining students, particularly under-represented students, in undergraduate introductory CS courses. In PLTL, small groups of students are led by an undergraduate peer and work together to solve problems related to CS. At Columbia University, the Columbia Emerging Scholars Program has used PLTL in an effort to increase enrollment in CS courses beyond the introductory level, and to increase the number of students who select Computer Science as their major, by demonstrating that CS is necessarily a collaborative activity that focuses more on problem solving and algorithmic thinking than on programming. Over the past five semesters, 68 students have completed the program, and preliminary results indicate that this program has had a positive effect on increasing participation in the major. This paper discusses our experiences of building and expanding the Columbia Emerging Scholars program, and addresses such topics as recruiting, training, scheduling, student behavior, and evaluation. We expect that this paper will provide a valuable set of lessons learned to other educators who seek to launch or grow a PLTL program at their institution as well

Identifying Factors that Influence Undergraduate Women to Leave (or Remain in) Computer Science Majors

The share of women in computing careers is significantly lower than the share of women in the United States workforce. This study seeks to examine the social, structural, and individual factors that influence the decision-making of undergraduates who identify as women to leave or remain in computer science-related disciplines. This research explores the broader computer science discipline including related disciplines such as cybersecurity, management information systems, business analytics, and information technology (IT) innovation. There have been studies targeting specific majors, but the categorization of computer science majors is not always reflective of all computing majors. It is imperative that research is performed to determine factors that could provide a more inclusive academic environment in these majors in hopes that higher education institutions can retain more students who identify as female

Strategically Recruiting Women into Your Undergraduate Information Systems Major

This tutorial will present research-based methods for successfully attracting women into an undergraduate computer information systems (CIS) major. Participants will be shown how to develop a comprehensive strategy for increasing the pipeline of high-achieving women in undergraduate computing programs using a “high yield in the short term” approach for recruiting. This approach encompasses strategies to help identify and evaluate a do-able and successful set of internal and external recruiting initiatives

Filling the Pipeline for IS Professionals: What Can IS Faculty Do?

The large increases in the number of IS majors about ten years ago have been matched by equally large decreases in IS enrollments over the last few years. The authors used a survey of over 200 students to answer the question “what can faculty do to attract more IS majors?” This paper reports our results and provides several specific suggestions for directed efforts