Communications of the ACM

Follow us on Twitter at http://twitter.com/blogCACM The Communications Web site, http://cacm.acm.org, features more than a dozen bloggers in the BLOG@CACM community. In each issue of Communications, we’ll publish selected posts or excerpts.

on the diversity of the field will benefit greatly from engaging the entire academic computing research community. Many universities will respond by expanding their broadening participation efforts to include students from groups who are underrepresented in computing, including women, underrepresented minorities, and students with disabilities (URMD). Here we list 10 small steps departments can do toward this goal.

1. Organize departmental BPC efforts at your university: Create a sign-up list of diversity activities, and incen-tivize faculty to participate. Create a departmental strategic plan for broadening participation that faculty can support and amplify in their funded NSF CISE proposals. Consider how to leverage BPCnet providers as part of your departmental plan.

2. Optics matter: Include pictures
of URMD students in websites and
printed materials. Artwork, examples
in class, etc., should appeal to all stu-
dents and not reinforce stereotypes.
The same goes for examples you pres-
ent in class. If you think they fail to be
inclusive, they probably are.

3. Make departmental infrastructure accessible, inclusive, internationalized: Provide accessible classrooms, labs, offices, websites, videos, etc. Use international alphabets for student names. Ask students for their preferred pronouns.

4. Measure and track: Analyze your enrollment, demographics, etc., regularly to identify problem areas and track changes, on your own, or with the CRA Data Buddies.

5. Create a community for URMD students: Sponsor student organizations, and send students to Grace Hopper, Tapia, and other celebrations of diversity in computing.

6. Recruit URMD teaching assistants, professors, advisors: Representation matters. Students value seeing someone who looks like them being successful in their field.

7. Promote undergraduate research: Work with women and URMD students in undergraduate research projects, such as through CRA’s CREU and DREU.

8. Create curriculum enhancements that appeal to diverse students: Create introductory courses that assume no computing background, CS+X degree programs, service-learning, and accessibility electives.

9. Develop the K– 12 pipeline: Work with K– 12 teachers (CSTA) and improve state curricula (ECEP) to advance K– 12 computing education.

10. Engage the community to stimulate computing interest and skills: Organize rigorous and joyful outreach

Mary Hall,
Richard Ladner,
Diane Levitt,
Manuel Pérez-Quiñones
Broadening Participation in
Computing Is Easier Than You Think
https://cacm.acm.org/blogs/
blog-cacm/233339-broadening-
participation-in-computing-is-
easier-than-you-think/fulltext
December 11, 2018

The U.S. National Science Foundation (NSF) recently introduced new requirements for the Computer and Information Science and Engineering (CISE) Directorate programs, whereby some funded projects must include a Broadening Participation in Computing (BPC) Plan. To facilitate this transition, the Computing Research Association (CRA) is launching a resource portal called BPCnet ( https://bpcnet.org), which is being funded by NSF to connect organizations that provide BPC programs with computing departments and NSF grant proposers. These changes reflect a recognition that any significant impact

Smoothing the Path to
Computing; Pondering
Uses for Big Data

Members of the Computing Research Association suggest ways to broaden participation in computer science, while Saurabh Bagchi looks at use cases for big data.