Larry Davis, chairman of the Computer Science Department, said declining enrollment is a natural leveling-off after a spike in 2000 caused by a bustling Internet economy and fears about a Y2K disaster.
Thirty-seven high school students squinted at the lines of code on the marker board as lecturer Nelson Padua-Perez launched into a lesson on the Java programming language Tuesday afternoon in the Computer Science Instructional Center lecture hall.
The students, wearing glasses and buttondowns, fitted polos and mini skirts, represented a microcosm of computer science’s dream class of 2009 and beyond: Rather than an all-male group of budding geeks, many were minorities, and 22 were female.
Overall, undergraduate enrollment in the College of Computer, Mathematical and Physical Sciences has declined about 33 percent from 2,100 to 1,400 since 2002, the earliest year for which data is available. Enrollment of women and minorities has declined to a greater extent: 39 and 47 percent respectively.
In an effort to entice a larger number of qualified students to the program, especially more women and minorities, the department has implemented programs such as Padua-Perez’s Java Passport program to teach high school students basic programming and for him to figure out why women and minorities aren’t embracing the discipline in greater numbers.
Jim Purtilo, associate chair of the Department of Computer Science, said the about 80 rising freshmen slated to matriculate this fall thus far, in addition to an unknown number of transfer students, could spell an even smaller school in coming years.
Larry Davis, professor and chairman of the department, said while the declining numbers seem alarming, the decrease is just a natural leveling-out after an enrollment spike in about 2000 — when a bustling Internet economy and fears about looming Y2K disasters peaked interest in the field.
“Historically, we had a boom year around the start of the new millennium, and the program swelled way beyond our capacity to handle students,” he said. “What we’re really seeing now is the ability to relax the class size down to something sensible.”
Padua-Perez first coordinated the Java Passport program for high school students last year. He planned to bring his wife to class the next week for a salsa lesson — to help dispel the stereotype that computer scientists are anti-social and obsessed with technology.
“If you look here in [the department] you see very balanced people,” he said. “They enjoy going out, doing sports.”
A survey he distributed to his students early in the program posed questions such as, “If someone majors in computer science, do you think they spend all day by themselves?” He plans to hand out a similar survey at the end of the course to gauge how students’ perceptions have changed.
While Padua-Perez chose students for the program based solely on their GPAs and transcripts, he geared certain elements of the course to interest his female students. He plans to explore graphics manipulation with the class to demonstrate how computer science skills can be applied to other disciplines.
“Women are very practical,” Padua-Perez said. “They want to see how [computer science] can make a positive impact.”
Both of the teaching assistants working for the program are women, an unanticipated bonus Padua-Perez said should further engage the female students.
“Maybe you go back to your school, and you’re the only one of two [women in your computer science class], but you’ve found this community,” he said.
Padua-Perez has applied for a grant from the National Science Foundation to develop an advanced curriculum for students with previous programming experience and to allow high school students to stay on the campus during the six-week course.
Professor Bill Gasarch co-coordinated the third summer Computer Science SPIRAL program, an acronym for Summer Program in Research and Learning, to encourage black university students to attend graduate school. This year, 13 students participated.
“I read many years ago that if you do things pedagogically to help recruit minorities and women, it forces you to do good in general,” he said. “When you reach out to those underrepresented in computer science, it helps those already there.”
Students in the Passport program said the negative stereotypes surrounding the field have not affected their involvement.
Kenneth Bradford, 17, a rising senior at Charles Herbert Flowers High School in Springdale, takes most of his classes with other students enrolled in a computer science track.
“I wanted to be able to get a head start on what I’ll do next year in high school,” he said of his decision to enroll in Passport.
Sarah Blaszak, 17, a rising senior at Long Reach High School in Columbia, is one of three girls in her computer science class. She has never felt out of place in the class, she said, because both instructors at her school are female; the only flack she gets is good-natured teasing from her friends.
“My friends laugh at me when I say I’m going to computer science class,” she said. “They’re like, ‘Haha — dork.’”
