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Recruitment and Retention Policies for Diversity

• Notes from the Richard Tapia Celebration of
  Diversity in Computing Chris Stewart

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About the Conference

• Purpose
• Highlight the technical contributions and career
  interests of diverse people in computing
• Forum on increasing the representation of
  underrepresented groups
• Held every two years since 2001
• Co-located with the Grace Hopper Celebration of
  Women in Computing

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Pictures from the Conference
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Celebration of Diversity

• Approximate composition of the conference
• From the foyer, I saw about 60 people
• 40 African American, 30 Hispanic, 20 White, 5
  Indian, 5 Asian
• Official stats
• 431 attendees
• 231 students, 62 faculty members, and 101
  college/universities
• 34 representatives from research labs

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Who Attended?

• Research Universities
• Auburn University 26
• Rice University 22
• UC Berkeley
• Princeton
• Texas A M
• Duke University
• Boston University
• University of Michigan
• RIT
• Liberal art colleges
• Spelman
• Vassar

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Theme Passion in Computing, Diversity in
Innovation

• We share our passion for computing with anyone
  willing to hear our technical presentations, view
  our poster presentations, and witness our
  robotics operations in competition. But not all
  the problems we address are technical. We face
  many challenges in broadening participation in
  our community, in opening doors and keeping them
  open.
• Monica Martinez-Canales
• Tapia Conference Chair 2007

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Recruitment and Retention for Diversity

• Need for participation by underrepresented groups
• Strategies to retain undergraduates
• Recruitment and mentorship of diverse graduate
  students
• Recruit diverse faculty at the Tapia Conference

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What does underrepresented mean?

• Any group whose percentage of the total
  population is significantly larger than their
  percentage in computing
• total
  BS BS in CS
• Women 50.8 58
  15.1
• Black 12.4 6.6
  3.3
• Hispanic 14.8 4.2
  4.4
• Native American 0.8 0.7
  0.3

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Benefits of Full Participation

• Increase the number of people in the field
• Love of computing is independent of gender and
  race
• Artificial barriers are the bottleneck
• It is worth trying to remove artificial barriers
• 10,000 potential female PhD candidates
• Potential niche
• Attract more smart people by removing barriers at
  your institution
• Other reasons for full participation
• Diverse perspectives are useful in problem
  solving
• It is a moral issue everyone should have equal
  opportunity at any career path

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Computing is too important to be left to men any
one segment of the population.

• Karen Spärek Jones
• addendum by Jan Curry

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Reasons Underrepresented Undergraduates Change
Majors

• Exit surveys indicate reasons similar to other
  majors
• I am better/will make more money in something
  else
• Focus groups indicate feelings of isolation and
  victimization
• I am the only one
• I must represent my entire group
• I am unfairly targeted/ignored
• Everyone thinks that I am not competent
• Under-representation gives false credence to
  feelings of isolation/victimization
• Maria Klawe (Pres. of Harvey Mudd) was accused of
  racism, In that persons eyes, I really was a
  racist
• Sometimes, we have to look beyond the expressed
  feelings to find the root cause

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Root Causes for Underrepresented Undergraduate
Turnover

• Most peers are in other disciplines
• Few role models
• Tiffani Williams (asst. prof. at Texas A M)
  said that she was scared to deliver her first
  lectures because she didnt know how an African
  American women would be viewed in the classroom
• Broad and non-traditional college preparation
• Access to computers, childhood experiences
• Open-minded about computer science

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Strategies for Undergraduate Retention

• Exciting teachers in introductory classes
• Form a positive impression of computer science
  early
• Common theme
• computer science ? programming
• My view
• computer science ? boring
• Emphasize the outcomes
• Is computer science relevant to everyone?
  Explain why.

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Strategies for Undergraduate Retention

• Dedicate a staff member to diversity issues
• Employed by many schools including Berkeley,
  Rice, and Boston University
• Should this staff member be a faculty member?
• Richard Tapia (and Roscoe Giles) argue YES! In
  the academic hierarchy, faculty members can get
  more done
• Some students said this is ideal, but not
  necessary
• Do they need to come from an underrepresented
  group?
• Maria Klawe says she hopes not, since it would
  indicate a cycle
• A workshop attendee noted that students may feel
  funneled to underrepresented faculty

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Strategies for Undergraduate Retention

• Create an atmosphere of diversity-awareness
• Encourage students to join national networks
• E.L. alliance (www.empoweringleadership.org)
• NSBE and WEIO
• Inviting websites and brochures
• ALT tags on website images
• Talk to students with a willingness to help
• Sponsor activities/study sessions
• Mentorship/encouragement for struggling students

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Recruitment and Retention for Diversity

• Need for participation by underrepresented groups
• Strategies to retain undergraduates
• Recruitment and mentorship of diverse graduate
  students
• Recruit diverse faculty at the Tapia Conference

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Reasons Underrepresented Graduate Students Drop
Out (or Dont Apply)

• The research topic does not seem important
• After two years, I still dont see the point
• None of my friends care about my work
• Advisor-related issues
• My advisor doesnt care
• Feelings of isolation/victimization
• Similar issues bother students from well
  represented groups
• Recruitment/retention strategies for
  underrepresented groups may increase the numbers
  of all students

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A Recruitment Strategy that Excites Students

• Computing has and continues to transform society
• Potential for the future excites people
• Lack of interest stems from poor salesmenship
• Sell the product not the sprocket! (Chris
  Stewart)
• Recruitment strategies often exclusively target
  people that can solve technical problems in a
  vacuum
• Affect on the real world?
• Look for students that can solve real-world
  problems with technical tools
• Plays into student interests
• May be a more direct solution to urgent problems

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Real World Problems

• Secure and fair voting
• Cryptography? Networks?
• Monitor human rights violations
• Sensor technologies? Vision?
• Crime fighting
• Identity theft, unmasking criminals, finding
  patterns in evidence
• Hurricane Katrina
• Better weather forecasting (esp., predict
  hurricane intensities)
• Systems in disaster recovery
• Change is a slow effect of changes in the
  mindsets of many, Roscoe Giles
• Students may have to work around advisors and
  protocols that are still focused on the sprocket
• New approaches to evaluation not just proofs
  and simulations

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Progress for female and minority faculty at
research universities, produced from past
attempted solutions, has been too slow.

• Dr. Donna J. Nelson
• University of Oklahoma

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Recruit Faculty Candidates at Tapia

• Leading schools are already there
• Tufts, UC Irvine, Rice
• Well qualified attendees
• Top publishers SC, AAAI, SIGCSE, PLDI
• Top schools Wisc. Madison, UMD, Duke, UMD
• Excellent graduate school candidates also

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Summary

• Foster a diversity-aware atmosphere
• Committed faculty/staff member on diversity
  issues
• Recruit graduate students with the product not
  the sprocket
• Utilize the Tapia Conference for faculty
  recruitment