Using Strategic Planning Processes to Promote Success for Undergraduate CS Students at a Systemic Level

Jamie Huber Ward; S. Kiersten Ferguson; Sherri L Sanders

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Conference: 2025 Collaborative Network for Engineering & Computing Diversity (CoNECD)
Location: San Antonio, Texas
Publication Date: February 9, 2025
Start Date: February 9, 2025
End Date: February 11, 2025
Conference Session: Track 4: Technical Session 2: Using Strategic Planning Processes to Promote Success for Undergraduate CS Students at a Systemic Level
Tagged Topics: Diversity and 2025 CoNECD Paper Submissions
Page Count: 12
Permanent URL: https://peer.asee.org/54126
Download Count: 5

Paper Authors

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Jamie Huber Ward NCWIT

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Jamie Huber Ward is a social scientist and Associate Director of Higher Ed for NCWIT at the University of Colorado Boulder. Her research focuses on organizational change in higher education; collaborative pedagogy; curriculum reform; post-secondary student experiences; and the experiences of faculty and staff in academic computing workplaces. Jamie's work includes implementing and analyzing research projects designed to enhance all students’ success and sense of belonging post-secondary computing programs, and creating resources based on findings that are accessible to post-secondary computing programs nationwide.

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S. Kiersten Ferguson

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S. Kiersten Ferguson is a faculty research associate at NCWIT and the College of Engineering & Applied Science at the University of Colorado Boulder. Her scholarly and teaching interests include strategic planning and implementation with a focus on systemic organizational change; recruitment and retention of faculty and students; mixed reality simulations; and pedagogical and curricular choices in higher education. Prior to joining NCWIT in 2023, Kiersten was a clinical associate professor in the Annette Caldwell Simmons School of Education and Human Development at Southern Methodist University teaching graduate-level courses and leading the M.Ed. in Higher Education program.

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Sherri L Sanders

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Sherri Sanders serves as the Director of Higher Education and BridgeUP STEM as well as a Senior Research Associate with NCWIT at the University of Colorado Boulder. She leads a team of social scientists who partner with computing faculty, staff, and administrators to develop and implement strategies which lead to the creation of sustainable environments where all students can succeed and gain the skills and literacy needed for the 21st century tech-driven workforce. Before joining NCWIT in 2017, Dr. Sanders served as a senior administrator at The University of Texas at Austin for twenty-nine years, most recently as the associate vice president for inclusion and equity. While at UT-Austin, Dr. Sanders also served as a clinical associate professor in the Department of Educational Leadership and Policy and taught graduate-level classes on college student development theory. She earned her Ph.D. in Higher Education Administration from The University of Texas at Austin; her M.A. in College Student Personnel from Bowling Green State University; and her B.S. in Psychology from Louisiana State University.

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Abstract

Undergraduate; Gender; Computer Science This two-part, interactive presentation is designed for computer science administrators and faculty to learn about and be empowered to make systemic change, and begin to conduct their own needs-assessments. The National Center for Women & Information Technology (NCWIT) works with academic computing programs to facilitate their implementation of strategic, systemic broadening participation in computing (BPC) efforts based on their own institutional contexts. In Part 1 of this presentation, the presenters—social scientists from NCWIT’s higher education team--will present the NCWIT Undergraduate System Model. This model comprehensively illustrates the systemic components of a computing department where change efforts can be focused to broaden participation in computing (BPC) and situates these components within a process of organizational change. After presenting the model, presenters will walk participants through an interactive activity to consider all of the stakeholders for their BPC efforts and how to effectively communicate with different stakeholder audiences. In preparation for Part 2 of this interactive presentation, presenters will briefly overview NCWIT’s Tech Inclusion Journey® for Undergraduate Programs (TIJ-UP) platform, which is structured by the Undergraduate System Model. The TIJ-UP itslef is a unique, research-based framework and software platform that empowers change in higher education institutions to implement systemic, sustainable approaches to create inclusive cultures. It brings together 15+ years of NCWIT research and experience working with institutions of higher education and addresses typical pitfalls of traditional approaches to diversity and inclusion such as overreliance on “diversity training” and other mandatory “compliance” based efforts, use of “piecemeal” or “checkbox” solutions rather than addressing change at a complex systemic level. Instead, the TIJ-UP employs a strategic, collaborative approach that guides departmental change leaders through a structured three-step journey of self-assessment, consensus building on needs and priorities, and guidance for implementation and evaluation. Each step is informed by research in organizational theory, communities of practice, and diversity in technology, and provides clear and applied explanation of social science concepts. The TIJ-UP attends to intersectionality, focusing on dismantling intersecting systems of oppression to make classrooms and departmental culture more equitable and inclusive. It also encourages users to include a variety of stakeholders in self-assessment and strategic planning, and provides evaluation metrics and resources to help organizations assess the impact of change efforts across intersectional demographic groups. By utilizing the TIJ-UP to support the implementation of BPC efforts in a strategic, systemic manner, faculty, staff, and administrators will be able to recruit, retain, and graduate intersectionally diverse students in their programs more effectively. In Part 2 of this presentation, presenters will proceed to interactively demonstrate how attendees can use NCWIT’s Tech Inclusion Journey® for Undergraduate Programs (TIJ-UP) platform within their home departments to facilitate strategic planning processes for their BPC efforts. Presenters will then engage participants in a step-by-step process on how to effectively use the TIJ-UP and complementary, curated NCWIT evidence-based resource collections for BPC strategic planning. Participants will be given time to interactively explore and discuss the TIJ-UP during the workshop. The workshop will conclude with a question-and-answer session.

Citation
Format

Huber Ward, J., & Ferguson, S. K., & Sanders, S. L. (2025, February), Using Strategic Planning Processes to Promote Success for Undergraduate CS Students at a Systemic Level Paper presented at 2025 Collaborative Network for Engineering & Computing Diversity (CoNECD), San Antonio, Texas. https://peer.asee.org/54126

TY  - CPAPER
AB  - Undergraduate; Gender; Computer Science
This two-part, interactive presentation is designed for computer science administrators and faculty to learn about and be empowered to make systemic change, and begin to conduct their own needs-assessments. The National Center for Women &amp;amp; Information Technology (NCWIT) works with academic computing programs to facilitate their implementation of strategic, systemic broadening participation in computing (BPC) efforts based on their own institutional contexts. In Part 1 of this presentation, the presenters—social scientists from NCWIT’s higher education team--will present the NCWIT Undergraduate System Model. This model comprehensively illustrates the systemic components of a computing department where change efforts can be focused to broaden participation in computing (BPC) and situates these components within a process of organizational change. After presenting the model, presenters will walk participants through an interactive activity to consider all of the stakeholders for their BPC efforts and how to effectively communicate with different stakeholder audiences. In preparation for Part 2 of this interactive presentation, presenters will briefly overview NCWIT’s Tech Inclusion Journey® for Undergraduate Programs (TIJ-UP) platform, which is structured by the Undergraduate System Model. The TIJ-UP itslef is a unique, research-based framework and software platform that empowers change in higher education institutions to implement systemic, sustainable approaches to create inclusive cultures. It brings together 15+ years of NCWIT research and experience working with institutions of higher education and addresses typical pitfalls of traditional approaches to diversity and inclusion such as overreliance on “diversity training” and other mandatory “compliance” based efforts, use of “piecemeal” or “checkbox” solutions rather than addressing change at a complex systemic level. Instead, the TIJ-UP employs a strategic, collaborative approach that guides departmental change leaders through a structured three-step journey of self-assessment, consensus building on needs and priorities, and guidance for implementation and evaluation. Each step is informed by research in organizational theory, communities of practice, and diversity in technology, and provides clear and applied explanation of social science concepts. The TIJ-UP attends to intersectionality, focusing on dismantling intersecting systems of oppression to make classrooms and departmental culture more equitable and inclusive. It also encourages users to include a variety of stakeholders in self-assessment and strategic planning, and provides evaluation metrics and resources to help organizations assess the impact of change efforts across intersectional demographic groups. By utilizing the TIJ-UP to support the implementation of BPC efforts in a strategic, systemic manner, faculty, staff, and administrators will be able to recruit, retain, and graduate intersectionally diverse students in their programs more effectively. In Part 2 of this presentation, presenters will proceed to interactively demonstrate how attendees can use NCWIT’s Tech Inclusion Journey® for Undergraduate Programs (TIJ-UP) platform within their home departments to facilitate strategic planning processes for their BPC efforts. Presenters will then engage participants in a step-by-step process on how to effectively use the TIJ-UP and complementary, curated NCWIT evidence-based resource collections for BPC strategic planning. Participants will be given time to interactively explore and discuss the TIJ-UP during the workshop. The workshop will conclude with a question-and-answer session.
AU  - Jamie Huber Ward
AU  - S. Kiersten Ferguson
AU  - Sherri L Sanders
CY  - San Antonio, Texas
DA  - 2025/02/09
PB  - ASEE Conferences
TI  - Using Strategic Planning Processes to Promote Success for Undergraduate CS Students at a Systemic Level
UR  - https://peer.asee.org/54126
ER  -