Minutes for CS Undergrad Recruiting: June 20, 2007

CS Undergraduate Recruiting Committee Minutes

Wednesday, June 20, 2007
10:00 a.m. to 11:30 a.m.
DC 1316

Committee Members: Ashraf Aboulnaga, Peter van Beek (ex officio Undergraduate Admissions), Shai Ben-David, Dan Brown (ex officio Director of First Year), Sandy Graham, Mark Giesbrecht (Chair), Tian Kou, Kate Larson, Naomi Nishimura (ex officio Director of Undergraduate Studies), Tamer Özsu (ex officio Director of School), Troy Vasiga.

Present: Shai Ben-David, Dan Brown, Mark Giesbrecht, Tian Kou, Kate Larson, Troy Vasiga.

1. Summary of committing students numbers.
   • Slightly more than the targeted number of students accepted our offers than target.
   • Proportion of female students was about 12.7% overall, but varied considerably with programme.
   
   
2. Status of the Stage III brochure.
   • Tian and graphics are at iteration 6 of the development process.
   • Committee changes to date have been incorporated.
   • Final reading of specified pages will be assigned to committee members shortly.
   
   
3. Analysis of events held and possible future events
   1. Ontario University Fair
      • Some members of the committee felt this was not that effective (they had attended at times when there were few computer science questions).
      • Others felt it was quite effective and answered many good questions.
      • Mark feels this is an essential part of our recruiting and part of the overall math effort.
      • In Fall 2006 we used considerably fewer personnel than in 2005. This can perhaps be tuned a little more by attempting to predict peak periods, thought it is difficult.
      • Would like CS and CS people to standout out more, but we need to be aware of Faculty and University restrictions.
      • Better signage and badges would be helpful.
      
      
   2. UW Day
      • UW Day had a very high participation rate.
      • Unlike the OUF, these are students who are already seriously considering coming to UW and are making the effort to drive here.
      • In addition to faculty organized events (which include CS participation) we have organized lab tours and a pizza lunch.
      • The lunch serves to draw people to the CS area (assuming we get DC rooms!) it is effective at this, but not necessarily in bringing attendees to talk to CS faculty/staff.
      • Lab tours are fun, but are a long way from the expected experience of incoming students. Also difficult to manage with large numbers of people.
      • Propose to introduce some short and accessible lectures in the style of CS4U at a level appropriate for a grade 12.
      
      
   3. CS4U
      • generally thought to be very successful.
      • Shai thought we could do much better in terms of number of students.
      • We must start earlier in getting together the advertising campaign, including new poster and organizing date a speakers.
      • Need to enlist an enthusiast organizer for next year ASAP.
      
      
   4. High school students taking CS135.
      • This year we do not receive a large number of applicants, and will probably only make two offers of admission.
      • Steve Brown has voiced some important concerns about the whole idea: In particular, Grade 12 students taking courses here do not have two grade 12U math courses, and hence less mathematically mature students.
      • Some students are taking Grade 12 math in Grade 11, but this is few.
      • Really want to target students that are really good and are potentially thinking of going somewhere else.
      • If students have a bad experience or do not perform adequately, this could cause real problems.
      • Another problem is with contact with local schools and teachers; we sent out our information through the GVMA.
      • We need to have our own list of who teaches Math and CS at local schools.
      • We should package our CS4U-like lectures and offer the possibility of profs going to a local school to give these.
      • We can call the schools offering this, but also obtain contact information for events, etc.


4. Committee operations for next year
   • some members complained too many details were being dealt with at UGREC meetings
   • two models were proposed
     • deal with details (vs overview) on alternate meetings
     • main events are handed to small subcommittees, which provide short reports to the main committee