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Session 2793

Undergraduate Minorities in IT-Related Fields: Findings from a Case Study in a Minority-Serving Institution

Roli Varma

University of New Mexico

Abstract

This paper reports some conclusions from the fieldwork on the experiences of undergraduate minority students majoring in information technology (IT) related fields—computer science (CS) and computer engineering (CE)—in a minority serving institution. The main goal of the study was to understand minority students' attachment to and detachment from the IT-related fields.

Introduction

The number of under-represented minorities (Afro-Americans, Hispanics, and Native Americans), who make up 24% of the U.S. population, either training or working in IT occupations is rather low. For instance, the 1999-2000 Taulbee Survey notes that Afro- Americans earned 324 (4%) of CS and 72 (4%) of CE bachelor degrees. Similarly, Hispanics earned 292 (3%) of CS and 74 (4%) of CE bachelor degrees; the figures for Native Americans were 31 (0%) and 4 (0%), respectively. This is in contrast with Asians who earned 1988 (23%) of CS and 319 (17%) of CE bachelor degrees; and whites who earned 4,744 (55%) of CS and 1,106 (59%) of CE bachelor degrees 3. Since IT plays an increasingly pervasive role in workforce productivity, economic growth, demand for labor, and skill upgrades in the workplace, this under representation of minorities is critical for the American society increasingly dependent on technology.

There is little scholarly work related to the racial/ethnic gap in IT. Most work has been on broader issues of the under-representation of women in science and engineering, since it is assumed that many of the reasons that discourage women from science and engineering careers may also apply to minorities. Recently, the National Action Council for Minorities in Engineering4 has covered the participation of minorities in science, mathematics, and engineering. Margolis and Fisher 8 have studied the gender gap in CS at the undergraduate level at Carnegie Mellon Universit y. Tapia2 has helped to increase the number of minority graduate students at Rice University in applied mathematics from 5% in 1985 to 38% in 1999. The Computing Research Association1 has come up with practical advice to recruit and retain under- represented minority graduate students in CS. However, there is still little work directly related to the minority undergraduate students in IT-related disciplines, especially in minority serving

Proceedings of the 2002 American Society for Engineering Education Annual Conference & Exposition Copyright ©2002, American Society for Engineering Education

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Varma, R. (2002, June), Undergraduate Minorities In It Related Fields: Findings From A Case Study In A Minority Serving Institution Paper presented at 2002 Annual Conference, Montreal, Canada. 10.18260/1-2--10792