SCS DEI Update
Sep. 16, 2022
What We're Doing
DEI Lecture Series
The SCS DEI Team is excited to announce the first event in our DEI Lecture Series for the 2022-2023 academic year.
"Broadening Participation in Computing by Opening New Pathways to the B.S., M.S. and Ph.D."
Carla Brodley, executive director of the Center for Inclusive Computing and former dean of Khoury College of Computer Sciences, Northeastern University
4:30 p.m. | Thursday, Oct. 13
Rashid Auditorium, GHC
(A virtual attendance option will be announced soon.)
Abstract: For the last two decades professors, nonprofits, philanthropists, the NSF and other agencies have been working to broaden participation in computing (BPC) in higher ed at all levels. Some progress has been made, but often it is incremental and takes place in small pockets. To accelerate the rate of progress in diversifying computing nationally requires that we as a field understand and remove institutional barriers at every level of higher ed and rethink the invitation to create systemic sustainable change. Launched in 2019 with funding from Pivotal Ventures LLC, an investment and incubation company created by Melinda French Gates, the Center for Inclusive Computing (CIC) is working in partnership with colleges and universities across the country to increase the representation of women — of all races and ethnicities — in computing. A key focus is to identify and remove institutional barriers and create new pathways to the B.S., M.S. and Ph.D. in computing. In her talk, Brodley will explore the most common institutional barriers the CIC sees across its portfolio. She will discuss the concrete measures that can be taken to address barriers to retention and the need to open new pathways to computing, such as creating a B.A. in computing, making CS1 a general education requirement, handling the distribution of prior computing experience in the intro sequence, creating interdisciplinary B.S./B.A. degrees, rethinking Ph.D. admissions, and creating and scaling the M.S. in CS for non-computer-science majors.
Tapia Conference
The SCS DEI Team, along with SCS faculty, staff and student representatives, attended the Tapia Conference last week. We had fun tending the booth and meeting potential students and answering their questions about what it is like to work and study at CMU.
Announcements
Dismantling Caste Supremacy
CMU will host events and training around dismantling caste supremacy this coming academic year. These virtual training sessions will be facilitated by Thenmozhi Soundararajan, who is an activist, author of the book "The Trauma of Caste" and the Executive Director of Equality Labs. More information will be available in our next issue.
Support Group for BIPOC Students
Ife Sinclar, Dareen Basma and Mengchung Chiang will host a virtual, time-limited, eight-week support group featuring mixed psychoeducation and processing components for BIPOC students who are interested in learning about how systematic oppression impacts their mood, academic performance and social interaction. Contact Mengchung (mengchun@andrew.cmu.edu) for more information.
Thank you,
The SCS DEI Team
http://www.cs.cmu.edu/dei/
scs-dei@cs.cmu.edu