Commission on Professionals in Science and Technology and the American Association for the Advancement of Science Report on Preparing Women and Minorities for the IT Workforce

In Spring 2005, the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) and the Commission on Professionals in Science and Technology (CPST) released a report entitled Preparing Women and Minorities for the IT Workforce. In the late 1990s, the largest producer of bachelor's degrees in information technology and computer science (IT/CS) overall and for women and underrepresented minorities was a nontraditional, for-profit, multi-campus institution, Strayer University.

That a nontraditional educational institution is the largest producer of IT degrees both overall and among underrepresented groups raises questions for multiple constituencies, including students, employers, and policymakers. It also raises questions about whether students at nontraditional schools receive different education and skill sets than those at more traditional institutions, whether degrees from for-profit institutions are comparable to those from traditional academic institutions, whether employers view degrees from different types of institutions differently, and whether more policies should be implemented to encourage nontraditional students to attend traditional institutions. In response to these questions, CPST and AAAS undertook a survey, sponsored by the Sloan Foundation, to collect data on IT/CS graduates, as well as faculty and employer views on both nontraditional students/graduates and IT/CS education.

Some of the key findings about education and nontraditional students include:

• it is more likely for nontraditional students to have attended more than one institution, as opposed to their traditional counterparts;
• traditional and nontraditional students both report choosing the IT/CS field first and foremost because of interest, and only secondarily because of the higher salaries and opportunities for promotion;
• traditional and nontraditional students identify many of the same key factors that enter into choosing an institution; i.e. location, cost, reputation, specific programs;
• while traditional students often rely on one or two sources of funding to pay for college, nontraditional students often rely on "diverse sources" to pay for college, meaning they are far more severely affected by changes and cut backs in financial aid programs;
• while faculty members hold "generally positive views on nontraditional students," their opinions on female students are mixed and their opinions on underrepresented minority students are unfavorable.

The primary recommendations of this report, many of which touch on the disconnect between which institutions receive funding and which educate the majority of graduates, are as follows:

• key stakeholders should come together to devise a set of "voluntary program standards" applicable for both proprietary and traditional academic institutions;

• traditional academic institutions should expand and change their programs to attract more nontraditional students (many of whom work full-time);

• sponsors from private and public sectors should seriously consider providing more support for 2-year colleges, as well as for HBCUs and Hispanic-serving institutions;

• public and private sponsors should develop a new collaborative aid program, administered as a competitive block grant to institutions, to allow U.S. IT students to study part-time in areas defined as 'national need';
• programs, particularly at traditional academic institutions, should incorporate expanded opportunities for internships and co-ops both to attract more nontraditional students and offset the "parochialism of many faculty";

• enforcement of employment discrimination law through the Equal Opportunities Commission should be strengthened.

To read the full report, please visit www.cpst.org/ITW_Exec.pdf (PDF) .

Commission on Professionals in Science and Technology Release Reports on the Status of Women and Underrepresented Minorities in STEM Fields

In October 2004, the Commission on Professionals in Science and Technology (CPST) released a report, Women in Science and Technology: the Sisyphean Challenge of Change, positing that advances for women in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) occupations have been uneven. While there have been increases in the proportion of jobs held by women in the social and natural sciences, the number of jobs held by women in engineering fields has stayed relatively the same, and the proportion of jobs held by women in mathematics and computer science has actually decreased between 1983 and 2003. Equally disturbing are the wage data, which indicate that the gap between men's and women's wages in executive/managerial, professional, and STEM occupations actually increased ("pay for women was 81.0% of that for men in 1995, but only 78.7% in 2003).

In June 2005, CPST released a similar report, Sisyphus Revisited: Participation by Minorities in STEM Occupations, 1994-2004, analyzing the representation of underrepresented minorities in the STEM disciplines. The results of this study are also mixed, with data indicating small steady gains for Latino representation, but a plateau for African Americans. According to the report, Latinos have achieved a steady increase in their representation in STEM occupations, but still accounting for only 3.7% of the STEM workforce in 1994 and 5.3% in 2004. However, "representation by Blacks in STEM occupations appears to have peaked in 1999-2001 and now stands at just 6.2%." For both Latinos and African Americans, however, the proportion of STEM jobs held is significantly lower than their share of the entire US workforce (Latinos constitute 12.9% of the overall workforce, while African Americans constitute 10.7%).

To read more about each of these reports, visit the CPST website at www.cpst.org/STEM_Report.cfm.

Higher Education Resource Services Names New Executive Director/President

Judith White, the outgoing chair of the national advisory committee of Campus Women Lead, was named Executive Director/President of Higher Education Resource Services (HERS, Mid-America) in Spring 2005. HERS is a "national leadership development program for women in higher education" and is joined with the Women's College at the University of Denver and the Women's Foundation of Colorado in the Merle Catherine Chambers Center for the Advancement of Women.

Before moving to the position at HERS, White was the vice president for campus services at Duke University. While at Duke, she was involved in numerous projects, including chairing the university's Administrative Women's Network, leading a curriculum review as a board members of BRIDGES (a program focused on women's leadership in higher education in the state of North Carolina), and serving as a senior fellow for the Association of American Colleges and Universities.

In a June 2006 interview with Inside Higher Ed, White described her goals for HERS as such, "to mobilize the HERS network to showcase what women have contributed, to offer models of best practices for advancing women, and to speak up about using those practices on their home campuses." To read the full Inside Higher Ed interview with Dr. White, please visit: insidehighered.com/workplace/2005/06/16/white.

This focus on recognizing, validating, and making public the accomplishments and contributions women have made and continue to make on their campuses, accompanied by a strong emphasis on racial and ethnic equity, comprises essential aspects of Dr. White's vision of transformational and inclusive leadership. To read more about Dr. White's theories on transformational leadership and the "New Academy," please visit her National Initiatives/Campus Women Lead column in the Fall 2004/Winter 2005 issue of On Campus With Women at www.aacu.org/ocww/volume34_1/national.cfm?section=2.

HERS currently offers four programs designed to enhance and facilitate women's leadership and advancement: the Summer Institute for Women in Higher Education Administration; the HERS, New England Management Institute for Women in Higher Education; the NACWAA/HERS Institute for Administrative Advancement; and the HERS South Africa Seminar. To learn more about HERS, visit: womenscollege.du.edu/chamberscenter/hersmid-america.html.

Dr. Catherine Middlecamp Wins National Chemistry Award

Dr. Catherine Hurt Middlecamp, a professor of chemistry at the University of Wisconsin-Madison and a member of the advisory board for AAC&U's Women and Scientific Literacy project, was recently presented with the 2005 American Chemical Society Award for Encouraging Women into Careers in the Chemical Sciences for her outstanding and long-term efforts to increase the interest and participation of women in the chemical sciences. Dr. Middlecamp has made supporting and advocating for women in chemistry a central part of all aspects of her 25-year career. In addition to placing women at the center of much of her work, she has also made it a point to bring issues of importance to people of color both into her classroom and into national chemistry curricula.

The award, which was established by the Camille and Henry Dreyfus Foundation, Inc. in 1993, is intended to "recognize individuals who have significantly stimulated or fostered the interest of women in chemistry, thereby promoting their professional development as chemists or chemical engineers and/or increasing their appreciation of chemistry as the central science." It consists of two parts: a $5,000 award and certificate given directly to the recipient, and $10,000 grant given to an institution chosen by the recipient intended to help support that institution's work toward meeting and sustaining the objectives of the award.

For more information on Dr. Middlecamp, please visit her homepage at www.chem.wisc.edu/people/profiles/Middlecamp.php. To learn more about the ACS award, please visit www.chemistry.org/portal/a/c/s/1/acsdisplay.html?DOC=awards\women.html.