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Faculty Development Workshop
Computer Science in the Next Decade
Hope College
November 15-17, 2002

Coordinator: Herb Dershem
Phone: 616-395-7508
dershem@hope.edu

Abstract:
Computer Science faces many challenges in the next decade. These include hiring and retaining faculty in a competitive job market; restructuring introductory courses to keep up with current demands; attracting and retaining women and minority students. This PEW workshop is designed to bring together computer scientists from the consortium colleges and universities to talk about how these challenges are being met on their campuses.

General Description and Need:
This workshop will address three areas of critical concern to Computer Science faculty. This workshop will provide a forum where faculty from PEW Midstates institutions can explore alternative approaches for dealing with these concerns, investigate collaborative approaches for collecting data and addressing problems, and establish a network for future information and idea sharing.

The first area of concern is the difficulty in hiring and retaining faculty at undergraduate institutions. The Computing Research Association in March/April 2002 conducted a survey of 104 such institutions. Preliminary results show that only 64% of the advertised Computer Science positions were filled, that an average of 10.5 applications were received for each position, and of these applications, only 4.2 could be "seriously considered." With undergraduate institutions experiencing a growth in enrollment plus an increasing loss of faculty to retirement and industry, this presents a severe problem to the establishment and maintenance of quality undergraduate programs.

Unlike many other disciplines, where the introductory sequence of courses is well defined and standardized across all institutions, there is no consensus regarding the introductory Computer Science sequence. Several different approaches have a significant number of proponents. In Computing Curricula 2001 Computer Science, the Final Report of the joint ACM/IEEE task force, six different models are described. These are Imperative-first, Objects-first, Functional-first, Breadth-first, Algorithms-first, and Hardware-first. In addition to the fundamental issue of the strategy for the introductory sequences, other issues are the subject of extensive debate including choice of programming language, structure and role of laboratories, length of the introductory sequence, and the role and place of discrete mathematics. All of these factors must be considered in the context of the goals of the institution, its faculty, and its students.

Despite years of effort to increase participation from underrepresented groups in Computer Science, the numbers continue to be discouraging. In the decade between 1990 and 2000, the percentage of Computer Science Ph.D. degrees awarded to women increased from 14.63% to 16.49%. At that rate, parity of degrees in Computer Science between men and women would not be reached until 2087, and indications are that even that estimate may be optimistic. The 2000-2001 Taulbee Survey conducted by the Computing Research Association reports that the percentage of women receiving degrees in Computer Science and Engineering are 19% for the Bachelor's, 27% for the Master's, and 16% for the Ph.D. Only 15% of newly hired tenure-track faculty were women. The data for ethnic minorities is even more discouraging with only a combined 2% of Ph.D. recipients who are African American, Native American, or Hispanic.

While Computer Science faculty at all PEW institutions are wrestling with the above issues, they are frequently unaware of the efforts at other institutions. This workshop will open conversations on these issues among faculty at similar institutions and provide an environment where these faculty members can collaboratively develop new approaches and plan future activities, including campus visits, joint authorship of grant proposals, and sharing of resources.

Workshop Schedule:

Friday, November 15
5:00-6:00 Registration and gathering
6:00-6:30 Welcome and introductions - Herb Dershem, Hope
6:30-7:30 Dinner
7:30-8:30 Keynote Address: 'Challenges Facing Computer Science Departments in Liberal Arts Institutions" by Henry Walker, Grinnell
8:30-9:00 Response to Keynote - Mike Jipping, Hope
9:00 Adjourn to Butch's

Saturday, November 16
9:00-10:30 Panel and discussion of Introductory Course issues
Panel members, Alyce Brady, Kalamazoo College, Dave Maharry, Wabash and Dick Brown, St. Olaf
Panel moderator, Herb Dershem, Hope
10:30-11:00 Break
11:00-12:00 Issues in faculty recruitment, Henry Walker, Grinnell
12:00-1:00 Lunch
1:00-1:30 Tour of Hope Computer Science facilities, Mike Jipping, Hope
1:30-3:00 Recruiting and retaining females in computer science, Alyce
Brady, Kalamazoo
3:00-3:30 Break
3:30-5:00 Show and Tell Session, Herb Dershem, Hope
6:30- Dinner at the Piper, tables will be assigned by issue of interest

Sunday, November 17
9:00-10:30 Tables reports from Saturday dinner and discussion, Mike
Jipping, Hope
10:30-11:00 Break
11:00-12:00 Where do we go from here? Herb Dershem, Hope
12:00 Box lunch

Expected Outcomes:
· Disseminate successful strategies and ideas for hiring, creating introductory course, and attracting underrepresented groups
· Creating a support network among the computer scientists at the PEW institutions
· Explore the possibilities of creating partner institutions to address some of these issues

Deadline: October 1, 2002

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Last updated 01/30/2003