Expand Programs for Those with Weak Quantitative Skills

Issue

One of the biggest stumbling blocks for women to careers in engineering, science, and technology is weakness in quantitative skills. This weakness prevents them from taking gateway mathematics courses such as calculus, linear algebra, and discrete mathematics that are required for degrees in engineering, science, and technology.

Status Quo

Mills has a fantastic group of mathematics teachers- they have won national recognition--and the enrollments in our mathematics courses have doubled over the last five to six years, not only in the entry level courses, but also In the mid-level and upper division courses. But we do not offer a great variety of courses that reach out to women with weak quantitative skills and prepare them to pursue degrees in science. In fact, the only such course that we offer regularly is Precalculus, once a year, and that course has not been taught by a tenure-track member of our department since the 1980s.

The reason is that we have a very limited FTE in mathematics--about 3.5 FTE--and all of that FTE is used by the tenure-track faculty to teach the many service courses we offer--such as the three semester calculus sequences and linear algebra---and the core upper division mathematics courses for the majors---the real analysis sequence, the algebra sequence, and one upper division mathematics elective each semester.

So our program is very attractive for women who are already prepared quantitatively to pursue degrees in science, but thereis very little in the program that reaches out to women who are not prepared quantitatively; these women are left by the wayside. There is a huge pool of women out there--in high schools, in community colleges, and potential resumers-- who would like to pursue careers in science and technology if they could only strengthen their quantitative skills.

Proposal

Mills should develop a richer program of courses that reach out to women with weak quantitative skills.

What Would It Take

This would probably require  more FTE in mathematics.

Expand Entry Level Computer Science Offerings

The Issue and the Potential

Of all the fields in science and technology that offer promise to women, computer science may be the most attractive. Even the weaker of our students who leave Mills with a degree in computer science immediately find high paying jobs with attractive possibilities for career advancement, even in these bleak times of recession.

Many women, including women with strong quantitative backgrounds, who pursue degrees in computer science at other institutions do not succeed because most colleges and universities do not reach out to women in computer science.

The Status Quo

Mills could fill a real niche here. We have fantastic computer science teachers here at Mills, but our FTE is so limited in computer science--3.5 FTE--that all of it is devoted to teaching the entry-level, mid-level, and upper division courses that we offer in our bare-bones major.

We have only one course on the books that reaches out to students who are not prepared to take the first CS course in the major-minor sequence---namely CS 62--and it hasn't been taught in several years. So only a small fraction of Mills students ever take a computer science course.

It is said that at Stanford, 95% of the undergraduates take at least one computer science course. They have a whole array of interesting and exciting entry-level courses to attract students (and something similar is apparently true at Harvey Mudd) . And potentially, the same could be true at Mills. But we need a combination of additional exciting entry-level courses and various activities to attract women (those at Mills as well as high school students considering their college options) to computer science.

Proposal

Identify current rate at which Mills students graduate with at least one computer science course.  Identify resources needed to achieve various target levels along a several year trajectory toward having a noteworthy level.  Be creative and build collaborations between CS and other departments where programming and related skills are or might be taught.

Related

Stanford Daily.  "CS106A enrollment reaches record high"
Stanford Daily.  "Computer science becomes Stanford’s most popular major"
New York Times 2 April 2012 "Giving Women the Access Code"
PBS April 25, 2012 "Why Engineering, Science Gender Gap Persists"
AAAS "What are the best ways to increase the number of women in computer science?"

Community Outreach for Math and Science

What

Many high school students in Oakland and in the neighboring communities are ready to take college level courses. Some do not have this possibility because of the dearth of AP courses at their school. Others have AP courses available to them, but these courses are often taught by people who are not well-trained in the subject matter and are not very adept at teaching it. This is particularly true in mathematics and computer science---in the AP Calculus and Java or C+ courses.

Proposal

We could start a program that enabled high school women to take courses at Mills for college credit. In the past we have such high school students taking, say, calculus courses, and they did exceptionally well.

Benefits

It might be that some of the students who participated in the proposed outreach program would eventually apply for admission to Mills, but even if few of them did apply to Mills, such a program would provide a tremendous benefit to the community. And the program would cost no additional FTE, at least in mathematics and computer science---and perhaps also in the other sciences. One stumbling block to a program like this is an organized system of transportation from the high school to Mills, but perhaps this could be worked out in conjunction with the School Districts involved.

Make the 2+3 Engineering Program Really Work

Proposal 

Figure out how to make our 2+3 Engineering Program with USC more “Mills,” perhaps by adding more freshman and sophomore level intro engineering courses.

Rationale

We currently have a program with USC where a student will take the first two years of coursework at Mills and then transfer to USC to complete her engineering degree.  This is an innovative program that really does have the potential to attract to Mills smart students that we will not otherwise attract.  To date, though, we have not dedicate resources to it that would help it to thrive.

The program doesn’t work well in practice for a variety of reasons.

• First, students must walk in to Mills knowing they want to be engineers on day one. If a student doesn’t get onto the engineering track the first semester of her first year, she won’t be able to do it. 
• Second, two of the more popular fields, civil and mechanical, aren’t feasible under this program. Our program only caters to the more science-based engineering degree (chemical, computer, biomedical, environmental). 
• Third, without critical mass there is very little chance for the good experience of current 3+2 engineering students to be visible enough to recruit others.

What Would It Take

• To support all engineering sub-fields, we could add a few intro engineering courses. 
• To encourage current students to consider the program, a first semester overview and introduction to engineering could be offered.
• To remove the rigidity problem faculty could develop slight modifications to course scheduling that would introduce the necessary flexibility for, say, deciding before second semester.
• To increase flexibility, summer courses might be offered.
• A more robust program could be better marketed by admissions.

Research/Data

What do we know about how many students are drawn by our engineering program?  What are the numbers for young women interested in engineering overall.  Followup with students who have gone through program (0 have finished; 3 are in process at USC). What courses we need to offer to make our program more effective.

See Also

Occidental 3+2 Program (a useful FAQ and curriculum plan)