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SCS DEI Update #4

Nov. 20, 2020

First off, let us recognize that we are at the end of Transgender Awareness Week, and that today, Nov. 20, is Transgender Awareness Day, which memorializes victims of transphobic violence. As we continue to progress in our efforts toward diversity, equity and inclusion for all of our underrepresented communities, it is important to acknowledge the struggles of members of the LGBTQ+ communities. Thanks again to our students, staff and faculty for your help making the SCS community more welcoming, diverse and inclusive.

Approaching Deadlines

• Dec. 1 — President's Postdoctoral Fellowship Program
  (We already have a number of applications in preparation; let’s continue this effort!)

Recruiting Events

• Building Anti-Racist Futures @CMU HCII recruiting event – Nov. 8-10
  • Faculty spoke live and gave 2-4 minute video presentations
  • 150 attendees, many with no prior connections to HCII
  • Effort to create “what worked” template for other departments to replicate in areas such as social media outreach 
• We wrapped up 2020 fall conferences with the follow-up Virtual Grace Hopper Career Fair Nov. 17-18. Jenn Landefeld engaged with 20-30 additional potential applicants (some of whom are already in the process of applying) and helped them with the process.
• CIT has forwarded names of attendees of the Society of Women Engineers conference that occurred in early November, and we are reaching out to those attendees who were interested in SCS programs. 
• GEM Workshop, Saturday, Nov. 21. Organized by Shawn Blanton, interim vice provost for Diversity, Equity and Inclusion. Invitation was sent to 2,200+ GEM Fellowship applicants to join a CMU overview webinar and attend breakout sessions of their choice based on areas of interest across master’s and doctoral programs in university-wide STEM-related programs. SCS master's and Ph.D. programs have sessions set up for the attendees running from 2:45 to 4 p.m. On Dec. 5, we will again invite all GEM applicants to attend a panel moderated by current CMU URM graduate students from across campus.

Onboarding and Hiring

All hiring committees are required to attend a BiasBusters Workshop for Hiring Committees developed by Carol Frieze and Geoff Kaufman, which took place earlier this week.

TA Onboarding training sessions are complete for all undergraduates, but not yet complete across SCS at all levels. The goal is to have these ready for spring onboarding when the next round of training occurs.

Dean's Meetings with SCS Constituencies: Women Faculty – Nov. 9

The following topics were discussed:

Hiring

• Increasing diversity: The goal for hiring is to have a diverse set of candidates, at least 25 percent, ideally 50 percent women or URM. Hiring diversity includes benchmarking across units, SCS and the university
  hiring guidelines are accessible on the Dean's Office website (with an Andrew ID). To make the process clear to the hiring committee, these guidelines have been revised.
• Reappointment and promotion processes have also modified, adding more clarity to the instructions and documentation. These will be visible to everyone soon.
• Mid-level/senior hires + Opportunity Fund: Discussion centered around establishing a diversity pipeline, which requires a different hiring process and requires more time to establish collaborations.
• Measuring progress: Discussion around setting up concrete goals, in this case numbers, which are critical to benchmarking our success.

Retention

• We pledge to continue to conduct in-depth conversations to realize what should be done much earlier to deter departures.
• Appointment flexibility: SCS is resuming work with the provost’s office to improve flexibility for partial leaves. This challenge has many aspects: issues of reentry, partial appointment, time-off after childbirth/adoption, arrangements for single parents, etc.

Service

• Though all departments track faculty service duties, a disconnect between faculty and leadership makes it ineffective.
• A comprehensive and transparent service tracking system is necessary.
• The definition of service is not standard. The University of Michigan School of Information is a good example of a similar institution with a concrete, publicly available standard. 
• Please send your department heads or the dean’s office the examples of effective service tracking.

Discussion will continue on all of these issues and the committee looks forward to updates from the dean’s office. Its next meeting will be the week of Dec. 7.

CS Pathways Summer Programs

CS Pathways is proud to announce that applications for their two equity-focused summer camps will open soon. Learn more about these programs aimed at providing opportunities to learn computer science at the AI4All and Computer Science Scholars websites.

Both programs are offered free to high school students from groups who have been underrepresented in computer science, and provide introductory instruction and project-based learning opportunities to participants. In addition to CS and AI skills, participants receive "hidden curriculum" support, including networking opportunities with local tech businesses and leaders, low-stakes opportunities to learn about and practice time management and study skills, and a chance to meet other teens who are passionate about STEM.

Ph.D. Student Dean's Advisory Committee 

Faculty Hiring

The faculty hiring process is getting underway, and to reduce bias in hiring, the Ph.D. Advisory Committee wants to highlight the SCS Faculty Search Committee Guidelines. 

Personal Story

In each update, we will post a submitted story that illustrates an important DEI-related challenge. (Submit your story on this Google form.) This week, we want to include a story that illustrates the importance of a diverse faculty: "Where are the women from the book/movie Hidden Figures? I want them back. I demand it. Affinity bias has resulted in a monoculture in SCS. We are missing most of the world's talent." – Faculty

Related Reading: For this week, we include a Scientific American publication on fostering a community with a multiplicity of backgrounds and perspectives, while cautioning against "affinity bias," the practice of favoring those applicants who are most like oneself.

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. To date, three items have been completed, six are on track, 20 have been started and 21 remain.

If you'd like to receive updates and calls to action on DEI from the Ph.D. Advisory Committee, email yoder@cs.cmu.edu to sign up.

For Next Time

• Affinity Groups
• Target DEI Goals
• Student Admissions
• New policy on faculty appointment flexibility