SCS DEI Update
Oct. 22, 2020
As various groups and constituents in SCS continue work on issues related to diversity, equity and inclusion, we are committed to providing periodic updates on the work, progress and achievements, as well as inviting participation and collaboration. I want to thank everyone — students, staff and faculty — for their hard work in our attempts to harmonize and synchronize our efforts to make the SCS community more welcoming, diverse and inclusive.
Recruitment Conferences (Online for 2020)
Participation this year has given us the ability to reach out to and recruit a very specific, motivated audience of faculty, master's and doctoral students. Attending these conferences directly addresses our stated DEI goals, helping us meet the expectations of our students, staff and faculty for improving the diversity of our graduate student population.
ACM Richard Tapia Conference — September 16-18
We increased our ability to connect directly with first-generation and underrepresented minority (URM) students to help demystify applying to graduate school.
We put REU and internship information in front of approximately 2,000 attendees.
Grace Hopper — September 29 - October 3
Grace Hopper had technical issues that limited the expected capabilities. We were able to chat with attendees and direct them to our Gather Town and Zoom sessions. Registration was approximately 39,000. The followup career fair will take place November 17-18.
SHPE National Convention — October 26 - 31
SCS will be participating at the SHPE conference next week, with many thanks to CIT for their help in allowing us to participate in their booth. If you are interested in volunteering to speak with attendees on Oct 29 or 30, visit the SHPE Career Fair Volunteer Sheet to sign up!
Other Conferences
There are other opportunities for SCS to participate in upcoming conferences in which we have not historically participated. We will make every effort to engage in them and will report back in these updates.
REU Program Expansion
We are working to expand REU programs across SCS, with the goal of having REU coordination across our departments.
Claire LeGoues and Josh Sunshine presented an overview of the REUSE program to SCS Council earlier this week, and are eager to help support other departments that want to either start a cohort under their umbrella or apply for an REU site.
If you are interested in mentoring REU students, you can reach out to: David Woodruff (CSD), Lori Levin (LTI), Laura Dabbish (HCII), Rachel Burcin and John Dolan (RI), and Josh Sunshine (ISR).
Faculty with active NSF grants should consider applying for the 2021 $8,000 NSF REU supplement in an effort to provide scholarships for URM undergraduates. Josh Sunshine will be sending a reminder to all NSF-funded faculty in December.
Ph.D. Student Dean's Advisory Committee
SCS DEI Progress Tracker
The SCS Ph.D. Advisory Committee is maintaining an SCS DEI progress tracker to map progress relative to the Towards Anti-Racist Change letter: 2 items are fully complete, 4 are on track, 18 are started and 26 remain.
Personal Story
Members of underrepresented groups are encouraged to share their personal experiences, submitted anonymously. As part of these updates, we will share selected stories and offer any assistance and offer related reading items to encourage dialogue. (Submit your story through this Google form.) In each update we will post one quote from a submitted story that illustrates an important DEI-related challenge. This time, we chose to illustrate the issues URM students face in many environments, including in the classroom, to demonstrate the pervasiveness and reality of the problem. Personal Story: "I am an URM in CS and it sucks to constantly be the only URM in the room, have your opinion dismissed because others can't relate to your point of view and having to over-prove that you are worthy of being there." – SCS Ph.D. Student.
Related reading: Professor Wingfield on why “being a person of color in a predominantly white workplace creates its own special kinds of stress.”
SCS DEI Seminar Series
At its heart, computer science is both collaborative and interdisciplinary. Our most creative ideas and breakthroughs happen when we work with and learn from people with different backgrounds, educations and life experiences. But in reality, our dialogue and work often overlooks or excludes many voices with expertise to share. To begin to rectify this, we’re launching a lecture series in spring 2021 that will highlight speakers whose work centers on diversity, equity and inclusion.
We are soliciting nominations for presenters and volunteers in order to curate a robust, informative series that reflects the needs and interests of our community. We’re looking not only for a diversity of ideas, but also a collection of speakers whose own identities vary and reflect the society we live in. Ideas for topics might be bias in research design, the impact of stereotypes in journal review or culturally sustaining pedagogy — though this is certainly far from an exhaustive list.
SCS DEI Committees
This week, representatives from each of the Dean’s Advisory Committees, departmental DEI committees, and at-large representatives met to discuss ongoing and upcoming efforts in SCS, as we continue our work to embed DEI in all of our goals and activities. These groups will continue to meet regularly in the coming months, focusing on specific actions as we work toward our goals. I am deeply grateful to all who are contributing their time and are committed to helping make SCS a more diverse, equitable and inclusive place.
Attendees at the Oct 20 meeting: Abhi Adduri, Rachel Burcin, Connie Chau, Howie Choset, Lori Cranor, Maxine Eskenazi, Bailey Flanigan, Jodi Forlizzi, Carol Frieze, Martial Hebert, Seyoung Kim, Lori Levin, Leqi Li, Zack Lipton, Sara McAllister, Nichole Merritt, Bob Murphy, Bryan Parno, Ashley Patton, Jonathan Reynolds, Emma Strubell, Bogdan Vasilescu, Leila Wehbe, David Widder, Michael Yoder.
For any questions about or for transcripts of these meetings, contact scs-dei@cs.cmu.edu.
For Next Time
Updates on:
Recruiting events
Ph.D. applicant mentoring and student services
Graduate Application Support Program
Hiring committee process and training
Report on upcoming dean’s meetings with different SCS constituencies
Status report on formation of student affinity groups
Visit our DEI website for a complete record of these updates and to discover ways to connect and collaborate with the efforts of SCS.
Martial Hebert
Dean, School of Computer Science