Recruiting

1
Recruiting Retaining at Primarily Undergraduate
Institutions
Valerie Barr, Union College Andrea Danyluk,
Williams College Jennifer Rosato, College of St.
Scholastica Gloria Townsend, DePauw University
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Overview

• Advantages disadvantages of PUIs
• Description of practices at our institutions
• Resources
• Question Answer

3
PUIs award nearly 60 of all bachelors degrees
in computer science.
Source http//www.nsf.gov/statistics/seind08/appe
nd/c2/at02-01.pdf
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Why 60?

• small class sizes
• close relationships among professors and
  students
• no involvement of graduate students in the
  teaching process
• ample office hours for students

5
Why 60

• emphasis on students' acquiring problem solving
  skills and critical reasoning skills
• building writing, speaking and listening skills
  across the curriculum

6
Why 60

• ample opportunities to develop leadership skills
  intellectual liveliness
• teamwork, interdis-ciplinary study
• innovative pedagogy such as service learning
  and collaborative researchexperiences.

7
Classes are often taught in lab settings how
true is this for you?
CS1 Upper-Level
CSS 25 max avg of 10
Williams 20/section max of 20
DePauw max of 30 15
Union 17 25
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Challenges
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Challenges

• Fewer faculty sharing workload
• Turnover (i.e. key faculty leaving)
• Fewer women majors to develop critical mass
• Support network, peer mentoring, recruitment of
  others
• Fluctuating data on retention graduation

10
College of St. Scholastica
Williams College
DePauw University
Union College
11
Union College
12
Union College

• Recruiting
• Change in overall recruitment strategies
• 5 theme-based intros, 3 options of minors
• Hooks to neuroscience, economics, arts
• Interdisciplinarity, interdepartmental majors
• Participation in Gen Ed program
• Value enrollments! Marketing.
• Very accessible faculty, 3/8 are women

13
Union College

• Retaining
• Everything we do to recruit helps us retain
• Revision of mid- and upper- level curriculum,
  increased relevance
• Research opportunities
• Support for independent study
• You want to do it, well help make it happen

14
Williams College
15
Williams College

• Recruiting
• Female faculty and students at info sessions and
  open house events
• Female faculty in CS 1 /or CS 2
• 2 women co-teaching CS 1 gt CS is a girl thing
• The power of a young female faculty member who
  students can relate to
• Introductory courses that arent all about
  programming
• Female TAs
• Women in CS events
• Current students and alums
• Faculty and staff

16
Williams College

• Retaining
• Attention to advising
• Upper level courses
• Open-ended final projects
• Team projects
• Research opportunities
• At Williams and away (DREU)
• Women in CS events
• Monday night snacks, cool t-shirts
• Grace Hopper Conference

17
College of St. Scholastica
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College of St. Scholastica

• Recruiting
• Variety of concentrations double-majors
• CS0 CS1 taught by women
• Integrate with adult evening program
• Outreach (camps, clubs, girls scouts)
• Future work Open House for undecided majors (70
  of CSS students are women)

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College of St. Scholastica

• Retaining
• 3 of 4 undergrad faculty women
• Women in CIS group (social activities)
• Projects with non-profit clients
• Future Work TA training
• Continuing Efforts
• Strategic Plan Goal 50/50 by 2019

20
DePauw University
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DePauw University

• Recruiting
• Leveling the CS1 Playing Field project
• Provide T-shirts (wearable advertising) for ACM-W
  members
• Use ACM-W studentsto recruit and to staff lab
  positions(role-modeling)
• Female in-class assistants

22
DePauw University

• Retaining
• ACM-W Chapter
• Regional Celebration
• GHC scholarships
• Two female instructors
• REU
• CS House

23
Tracking Data
School 2005 2005 2005 2006 2006 2006 2007 2007 2007 Size
School F Total F F Total F F Total F Size
Amherst 5 20 25 5 13 39 2 10 20 1700
Swarthmore 2 11 18 2 11 18 2 12 17 1400
Pomona 0 5 0 1 9 11 1 6 17 1500
Carleton 1 13 8 1 8 13 3 18 17 1900
Bowdoin 1 13 8 1 6 17 2 8 25 1600
Middlebury 0 5 0 1 5 20 1 5 20 2200
Williams 1 6 17 1 9 11 2 17 12 2000
Union 1 8 13 2 5 40 0 6 0 2200
Scholastica 14 56 25 10 41 24 4 14 29 2000
DePauw 13 45 29 4 33 12 5 25 21 2200
Gender Breakdown of Graduates
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Resources

• Regional and national conferences for Women in CS
• ACM-W scholarships for conference participation
• CRA-Ws CREU and DREU programs and REUs in
  general
• NCWIT's Programs-in-a-Box

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Questions?