Communications of the ACM
A Campus Champion For Women in Computer Science
Harvey Mudd College President Maria Klawe says riding a skateboard gets students to open up to her.
Credit: Bloomberg Businessweek
Harvey Mudd College president Maria Klawe has helped increase the percentage of female computer science majors at the college to 42 percent, compared to the national average of 14 percent.
In 2005 Klawe, a past president of ACM, fundamentally changed the computer science department at Mudd by breaking the introductory course, called CS for Scientists, into three sections — one for students with some background in programming, another for beginners, and a third that focused on computer science in biology. The new introductory course focuses on teaching problem-solving skills that can be applied to engineering, math, and other subjects. Within two years of instituting the new class format, the number of females majoring in computer science rose noticeably, says Mudd professor Zachary Dodds. Duke University, Northwestern University, and the University of California, Berkeley have since borrowed strategies from Mudd to broaden the appeal of computer science and engineering.
Klawe says the next step is to expand the program's reach to other underrepresented groups, including blacks and Latinos. "In the last four years, we have done things that I didn't think were possible," says Mudd dean of faculty Robert Cave.
From Bloomberg Businessweek
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