Session M4B 1-4244-0257-3/06/$20.00 © 2006 IEEE October 28 – 31, 2006, San Diego, CA 36 th ASEE/IEEE Frontiers in Education Conference M4B-1 Panel - The Computing Alliance of Hispanic-Serving Institutions: Interventions to Increase Hispanic Participation in Computing Malek Adjouadi 1 , Richard Alo 2 , Mohsen Beheshti 3 , John Fernandez 4 , David Novick 5 , and Nayda Santiago 6 1 Malek Adjouadi, Professor of Computer Science, Florida International University, adjouadi [at] fiu.edu 2 Richard Alo, Professor of Computer Science, University of Houston—Downtown, ralo [at] uh.edu 3 Mohsen Beheshti, California State University—Dominguez Hills, mbeheshti [at] csudh.edu 4 John Fernandez, Assistant Professor of Computer Science, Texas A&M University—Corpus Christi, jfernand [at] sci.tamucc.edu 5 David Novick, Associate Vice Provost and SBC Distinguished Professor of Computer Science, The University of Texas at El Paso, novick [at] utep.edu 6 Nayda Santiago, University of Puerto Rico—Mayagüez, Nayda.Santiago [at] ece.uprm.edu Abstract – This panel presents the Computing Alliance of Hispanic-Serving Institutions. The Alliance, developed by eight HSIs with funding from the NSF’s Broadening Participation Program, seeks to increase the numbers of Hispanics in all areas of computing, including increasing the number of Hispanic students who enter the professoriate, retaining and advancing Hispanic faculty, and developing and sustaining competitive research and education programs at HSIs. The Alliance addresses issues of educational diversity by recruiting students into computer science, preparing students to succeed as computing majors, supporting students in their studies through peer-led team learning, helping students develop learning and career skills, and moving students from undergraduate programs into Ph.D. study. The objectives of and opportunities to work with the Alliance will be explored by five representatives of Alliance institutions. Index Terms – Diversity, Hispanic-serving institutions, Recruiting students, Peer-led team learning. PANEL OVERVIEW With funding from the NSF’s Broadening Participation in Computing program, eight Hispanic-serving universities have formed an alliance to increase the numbers of Hispanics in all areas of computing, including increasing the number of Hispanic students who enter the professoriate in computing, retaining and advancing Hispanic faculty in computing, and developing and sustaining competitive research and education programs at HSIs. In terms of education, specifically, the Alliance addresses issues of diversity on several frontiers: recruiting students into CS, preparing students to succeed as CS majors, supporting students in their studies through peer- led team learning, helping students develop learning and career skills, and moving students from undergraduate programs into Ph.D. study. The Alliance will disseminate best practices in these areas. David Novick will introduce the Alliance and moderate the panel discussion. The panelists will discuss the main issues by describing how the Alliance tackles them. The format of the panel will encourage participation from attendees, particularly with a view to enabling faculty and students at other institutions of all types and profiles to make strides with respect to diversity. Audience members will be asked to share diversity issues they have faced. STUDENT RECRUITING John Fernandez will discuss student recruitment. Despite reports that demand for CS and IT professionals will increase substantially in the coming years, recent studies and surveys show a troubling decline in the number of undergraduate students who are declaring CS as a major. The Alliance will disseminate best practices in recruiting developed over the past three years at Texas A&M University- Corpus Christi. Faculty and students worked together to design and implement a recruitment program aimed at reaching out to high school students. One important consideration in hiring college students as recruiters was to create a team that accurately reflected the diversity of the population in south Texas. The recruiting team produced a brochure describing the CS field and showing pictures of students involved in activities on campus, set up a Web site with about the CS program, created a PowerPoint presentation and display board for use in recruiting visits to high schools, and went to high schools, junior colleges, and other pre- college programs to give in-person presentations about the CS program at A&M-CC. The in-person presentations were followed up with the recruiters making phone calls to students who expressed an interest in the program. In the fall semester of 2005, the number of incoming freshmen who declared CS as their major increased by 14%. This was the first significant increase in five years. The spring semester of 2006 showed a 22% increase in freshmen over the previous spring semester. “CS 0” COURSE Mohsen Beheshti will discuss the development of a “CS 0” course to prepare entering students in computing, which will be a three-unit course (not for credit toward the CS major) that