SCS DEI Update #5
Dec. 4, 2020
We hope you had a restful holiday break. Thanks again to our students, staff and faculty for your help making the SCS community more welcoming, diverse and inclusive.
Approaching Events and Deadlines
- Dec. 6 — Girls of Steel: “Rosie Talks” webinar
- Dec. 10 — Graduate Programs Applications
- MS-PE: Jan. 10
- MHCI: Jan. 20
- Dec. 17 — Robotics Institute Summer Scholars Program (RISS): information session
Recruiting Events
- GEM Workshop — Saturday, Nov. 21
Updated information and additional numbers for the GEM workshop:- Ph.D. Programs: Bob Frederking introduced the SCS Ph.D. programs and took questions for about 45 minutes. Approximately 45 people attended.
- Jenn Landefeld set up gather.town and separate zoom sessions for the different Ph.D. programs. Bob represented the LTI Ph.D. program and had several students pop in to ask questions.
- David Garlan hosted the breakout room for SCS M.S. programs and gave a short overview of our programs and application procedures. About 26 GEM candidates attended. Attendees were invited to attend one of several breakout rooms hosted by individual M.S. programs or in some cases groups of programs. David sent a follow-up message to all attendees encouraging them to apply.
- Departmental DEI Recruiting Events
- ISR has hosted a number of information sessions for potential graduate students, including Eunsuk Kang and Claire Le Goues hosting Grad School and REUSE Q&As on Dec. 1 and Nov. 18, respectively. These sessions were promoted through social media and mailing lists aimed at ~30 HBCU contacts. Attendance has varied, but we seem to have recruited a number of applicants, including URM students.
- Computational Biology held a one-hour “Ask Me Anything” information session for prospective Ph.D. students on Nov. 16, hosted by Oana Carja. More than 60 people signed up, and approximately half were from underrepresented groups. Oana is planning to do a few more sessions on thriving as a Ph.D. throughout the year.
- The MLD DEI team hosted an event to help make information about grad school admission more accessible, which included an info session and breakout rooms with 10 MLD faculty who helped answer questions for prospective students. The info session covered the types of programs at SCS, the admissions requirements and advice about writing the SoP, whom to ask for letters of recommendations, and how to highlight research potential. More than 200 prospective students registered for the event and asked a wide variety of questions pertaining to their various concerns.
Search for Vice Provost for DEI
The university is nearing completion of the search process for the vice provost for Diversity, Equity and Inclusion. As Provost Jim Garrett has stated, "This position plays an integral role in promoting inclusiveness and diversity, challenging the status quo and maintaining a robust dialog centered around anti-racist practices and the research that supports it.”
DEI Scholarship Funds
- We recently launched a new graduate fellowship fund, which will prioritize graduate students enrolled in SCS who belong to underrepresented groups. This fund will be the main solicitation designation in year-end appeals to our graduate alumni.
- We’ve also recently established a fund at the school level to raise more money for REUs across SCS. This fund will help us meet the needs of and grow our existing REU programs. We’ve already received some gifts to this fund, and we’ll be prioritizing it in our donor communications starting in early 2021. If you have questions about either of these funds, please contact Jenny Belardi.
Women Faculty Group
A document spelling out new guidance for teaching and service assignments was generated and approved by the department heads. It is being reviewed for compliance with university rules.
Student Admissions
- More than 50 staff and faculty who are members of graduate program admissions committees across SCS participated in sessions this week to learn about the legal boundaries associated with affirmative action in admissions. These sessions were offered through CMU's Office of the General Counsel in advance of the application review process, which will begin in the next few weeks.
- Three LGBTQ+ organizations' members are newly eligible to receive up to two graduate application fee waivers.
REU Supplement Programs
As part of NSF grant submissions, applications for REU supplements opened Dec. 1. We sent messages to all faculty detailing the importance of these supplements and provided guidance using these supplement funds to help broaden our Ph.D. demographics. Claire Le Goues and Josh Sunshine have written FAQs and provided a sample budget, budget justifications and project descriptions, available in this REUSE Supplement Guide.
From the Ph.D. Student Dean's Advisory Committee
- As the semester winds down, folks are thinking about degree requirements. The Ph.D. Advisory Committee is asking for an ethics requirement in all programs, as the AI major has done. Representative courses (not a complete list) include: 14-820, 10-712, 11-830, 17-684, 94-878, 94-890, 94-883, 15-996 and 16-735.
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 bring a perspective on the power that SCS has in training students for work in tech: "SCS has the power to set norms for racial equality in the tech industry, and it is ethically obligated to exercise this power fairly." — SCS faculty member
Related Reading: We want to highlight Harvard’s efforts to embed ethics across the CS curriculum, going beyond what we are currently asking for. From Harvard's Alison Simmons: "Standalone courses can be great, but they can send the message that ethics is something that you think about after you’ve done your ‘real’ computer science work. We want to send the message that ethical reasoning is part of what you do as a computer scientist." SCS should as well.
DEI Progress Tracker
If you'd like to receive updates and calls to action on DEI from the Ph.D. Advisory Committee, sign up for our mailing list.
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, 22 have been started and 19 remain.
For Next Time
- Affinity Groups
- REU Programs
- Target DEI Goals