WICS is working towards implementing the recommendations of the UW-CS Task Force on Gender Equality Report .   Here is a list of those recommendations (more details on each can be found in the full report):

General

1. Recommendation General-1: Monitor and communicate regularly gender ratios on all aspects of CS. (p.4)

Responsibility: Associate directors, WICS.

2. Recommendation General-2: At all levels, keep "CS is more than programming" in mind, and give examples of CS as problem solving with large impact on social good. (p.5)

Responsibility: Director, Outreach committee, Undergraduate Recruiting Committee, Graduate Recruiting Committee.

3. Recommendation General-3: Consider ways to foster community within CS. (p.6)

Responsibility: Commons committee, Mathematics Undergraduate Office (for M-sections).

4. Recommendation General-4: Maintain the WICS committee. Provide it with monetary and personnel support, and consider teaching relief for the chair. (p. 6)

Responsibility: Director.

5. Recommendation General-5: Ensure that all members of the school know about sexual harassment, ways to recognize and report it, and our policies about it. Give special training to the likely first points of contact. (p.7)

Responsibility: UAPC, Graduate committee, Commons committee.

6. Recommendation General-6: Maintain and support the offce of female graduate student advocate. (p.7)

Responsibility: Director.

7. Recommendation General-7: Offer scholarships to female CS students at the undergraduate level, as well as on other levels where students may be deterred by misinformation about CS due to lack of exposure. Advertise these scholarships well. (p.8)

Responsibility: Director and higher UW administration.

8. Recommendation General-8: Support existing mentoring activities and/or implement local mentoring programs. Encourage graduate students and faculty members (of both genders) to get involved and clarify what credit is given for this. (p.8)

Responsibility: Director.

9. Recommendation General-9: Provide information about women in CS and highlight their achievements. (p.8)

Responsibility: WICS.

10. Recommendation General-10: Clarify how much participation in activities is expected from faculty members, and what credit is received for it. Consider ways to increase the incentive for faculty to be involved. (p. 9)

Responsibility: Director, Advisory committee on evaluations.

11. Recommendation General-11: Consider systematic ways to invite feedback about any gender issues (from both genders, but especially from women) in UW-CS at all levels. (p. 9)

Responsibility: Commons Committee, WICS, Female graduate advocate.

12. Recommendation General-12: Monitor service loads of women in CS carefully. Consider ways to compensate for service given beyond normal expectations. (p.10)

Responsibility: Director, Graduate committee.

13. Recommendation General-13: With every renovation, keep attractiveness and safety of the physical environment to women in mind. (p.10)

Responsibility: Director, space committee.

Outreach

1. Recommendation Outreach-1: Establish an outreach committee. (p.10)

Responsibility: Director.

2. Recommendation Outreach-2: Develop a strategic plan for outreach activities, especially for middle school and earlier. Monitor how CS is presented. (p.11)

Responsibility: Outreach committee.

3. Recommendation Outreach-3: Give especially high priority to attain media exposure for news or events concerning women in CS. (p.11)

Responsibility: Outreach committee.

Undergraduate

1. Recommendation Undergraduate-1: Provide information about women in CS to high-school counselors. (p.13)

Responsibility: Outreach committee.

2. Recommendation Undergraduate-2: Emphasize that CS may easily be combined with other areas of study (both within mathematics and outside of mathematics). (p.13)

Responsibility: Undergraduate recruiting committee.

3. Recommendation Undergraduate-3: Explore ways to allow students with degrees from other disciplines to obtain a degree in (or at least much university exposure related to) CS. (p.13)

Responsibility: Undergraduate recruiting committee, UAPC.

4. Recommendation Undergraduate-4: Tailor the letter to accepted CS students specically to female CS students. (p.13)

Responsibility: Director.

5. Recommendation Undergraduate-5: Continue to monitor carefully the programming assignments given to students, especially in the first year courses. (p.15)

Responsibility: Course instructors and coordinators.

6. Recommendation Undergraduate-6: Keep attractiveness to women in mind whenever re-designing courses in the undergraduate curriculum. (p.15)

Responsibility: UAPC

7. Recommendation Undergraduate-7: Provide more help for students wanting to add another academic plan to their CS studies, by informing students better about the process, and communicating better with other faculties. (p.15)

Responsibility: UAPC, CS advisors.

8. Recommendation Undergraduate-8: Continue to monitor attrition rates, especially among women, and consider ways to address possible causes. (p.16)

Responsibility: UAPC

Graduate

1. Recommendation Graduate-1: Increase the incentive for faculty members to offer research opportunity to undergraduate students. (p.17)

Responsibility: Director, Advisory committee on evaluations.

2. Recommendation Graduate-2: Encourage faculty members to relate topics in 2nd and 3rd year courses to current research topics. Update course outlines to specifically allot time for this. (p.18)

Responsibility: Director, UAPC.

3. Recommendation Graduate-3: Encourage graduate students to use a few minutes of tutorial/office hour time to talk about their research to undergraduate students. (p.18)

Responsibility: TA supervisors (usually the instructor.)

4. Recommendation Graduate-4: Give a preference to women (assuming same qualification level and interest on part of the graduate student) when selecting which TAs are put into contact with undergraduate students. (p.18)

Responsibility: ISG, TA supervisors (usually the instructor.)

5. Recommendation Graduate-5: Offer information sessions on graduate studies that focus on "is graduate school for me?" more so than the details of how to apply for graduate school. Ensure the information sessions are not deterring to undergraduate students whose research plans are still somewhat vague. (p.19)

Responsibility: Graduate recruiting committee.

6. Recommendation Graduate-6: Offer proofreading of applications by a faculty or Ph.D. student mentor, with preference (in case of limited resources) given to female applicants. (p.19)

Responsibility: Graduate recruiting committee.

7. Recommendation Graduate-7: Actively recruit students from other departments with material that emphasizes interdisciplinary programs within CS. (p.20)

Responsibility: Graduate recruiting committee.

8. Recommendation Graduate-8: Reconsider the funding model for graduate students, especially for students with strong background in a non-CS discipline. (p.20)

Responsibility: Director, Graduate committee.

9. Recommendation Graduate-9: Tailor the acceptance package to graduate students specifically for women. (p.20)

Responsibility: Graduate recruiting committee.

10. Recommendation Graduate-10: Make the visit by accepted graduate students a regular event, not just a one-time trial. Routinely invite all female Canadian/PR students. Consider expanding it to students that are not yet accepted. (p.21)

Responsibility: Graduate recruiting committee, Director (for funding).

11. Recommendation Graduate-11: Use the recruiting visits to help visiting students (and especially females) bond with each other. (p.21)

Responsibility: Graduate recruiting committee, WICS.

12. Recommendation Graduate-12: Maintain a separate email list for female graduate students. (p.21)

Responsibility: CSGSA officer or WICS.

13. Recommendation Graduate-13: Assign new female students to offices that have other female students. (p.21)

Responsibility: Graduate office.

14. Recommendation Graduate-14: Consider support for graduate students in need of reduced workload to raise a family. Advertise such possibilities well. (p.22)

Responsibility: Graduate committee.

15. Recommendation Graduate-15: Increase the visibility of UW's policies on leaves for CS graduate students. (p.22)

Responsibility: Graduate committee.

16. Recommendation Graduate-16: Publish a list of non-CS courses that have been approved for credit in lieu of CS graduate courses in the past. Advertise it well. (p.22)

Responsibility: Graduate committee.

Faculty

1. Recommendation Faculty-1: Create funds to be applied for to fund postdoctoral positions for underrepresented minorities. Advertise them well. (p.23)

Responsibility: Director, SACA.

2. Recommendation Faculty-2: Rework recruiting advertisement texts and web pages in the light of making it more attractive to women. (p.24)

Responsibility: SACA

3. Recommendation Faculty-3: Pro-actively invite suitable female Ph.D. students to apply to UW-CS. Make use of all opportunities to reach such students, and monitor how UW presents itself to them. (p.24)

Responsibility: SACA chair, WICS (for conferences).

4. Recommendation Faculty-4: Ensure relevant information about life in Waterloo is given to all recruiting candidates, and especially to women. Include a tour of Waterloo outside university in the recruiting visit. (p.25)

Responsibility: SACA, host of recruiting visit.

5. Recommendation Faculty-5: Help faculty manage implications of a faculty parental leave relating to their graduate students. (p.26)

Responsibility: Graduate recruiting committee.

6. Recommendation Faculty-6: Consider implications of pregnancy and parental leave during faculty evaluations, for the year itself and also in subsequent years. Clarify policies and communicate them. (p.26)

Responsibility: Director, Advisory committee on evaluations.

7. Recommendation Faculty-7: Ensure faculty applying for parental leaves receive adequate information on the impact such a leave may have on various aspects of their career. (p.27)

Responsibility: Director and higher UW administration.

8. Recommendation Faculty-8: Consider possible bias against women during evaluations, especially on the teaching component. (p.27)

Responsibility: Director, Advisory committee on evaluations

 

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