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Two decades following the publication of David G. Brown's "Criteria for Pruning Programs," (which recognized that traditional financial support to higher education was decreasing and proposed 10 guidelines for evaluating existing programs) a study was developed to determine what criteria are actually being used by comprehensive universities and state coordinating boards to determine which programs to reduce or eliminate. The study looks at the manner in which academic administrators perceive the relative value of each criterion in an ideal evaluation system, recognizing that this might differ a bit from what is happening in practice. A questionnaire was developed that operationalized Brown's guidelines for evaluating programs for possible reduction. The original criteria were modified to include centrality, critical mass, complementariness, program vitality, substitutability or duplication, cost benefit analysis, quality, demand, and uniqueness. Surveys were distributed to the vice chancellors for academic affairs of the 50 state higher education boards that are members of the State Higher Education Executive Officers, and 76 were distributed to public universities represented in the 50 states. It is concluded that the criteria suggested by Brown are still relevant today. The findings verify that Brown's nine modified criteria are the key factors used at both research university and state coordinating board levels for decisions resulting in program reduction or elimination. Tables are included along with a copy of the questionnaire and a listing of the institutions. (SM)

In this research paper, we describe faculty development as mentors to postdoctoral fellows (postdocs). Postdoctoral fellowships have become a significant step in academic and industry positions, while little research investigates the purpose of a postdoc position, the experiences of postdocs, and how faculty develop as postdoc advisors. As part of a larger project investigating postdoc mentorship, nineteen semi-structured qualitative interviews with faculty advisors uncovered themes about how postdoc advisors learn to mentor and advise postdocs. Faculty from U.S. and Canadian universities completed 60-minute online interviews. Participants had varying experience and expertise in advising postdocs. Observational learning theory provides a framework for identifying the process of learning from observation and the replication of mentors' past experiences. Open and axial coding was used to identify faculty experiences that informed how they mentored their postdoctoral fellows. Faculty who had completed a postdoc as part of their training reflected on their experiences, often identifying positive and negative experiences they used to guide, mentor, and plan the development of the postdocs they advise. Faculty who did not complete a postdoc used doctoral and industry experiences to inform their decisions. This work provides a unique window into postdoctoral training and mentorship, highlighting the need for more explicit expectations and plans for postdoc advisors. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

An analysis of loneliness and friendship in first-year university students is examined. Random samples of students (N=390) enrolled in introductory psychology classes were polled in the first two weeks of the academic year; the last three weeks before first semester final examinations, and the last three weeks before second semester final examinations. Respondents were asked to fill out questionnaires about where they resided and who were their friends. They completed the UCLA Loneliness Scale. Findings indicate that loneliness was related to residence, with students who lived in dormitories least lonely, students living at home (with parents) next least lonely, and off-campus students the most lonely. Other conclusions were that students spending their first year at a university in dormitories made more new friends, retained fewer of their old friends back home, and were less lonely than any other residence group. Students living with their parents had fewer friends at the university and these tended to be old friends. Students living off-campus made fewer friends and maintained more of their old friendships back home. (Author/BMW)

Women are underrepresented in the field of computer science in the United States. However, this is not a new problem as female participation in computer science (CS) has been experiencing a steady decline over the last three decades. Current reporting on women's participation in this field has been published as steadying around 13-17%, depending on the data source. Although, there are varying levels of participation in other countries, particularly in Muslim majority countries. For example, women in Bahrain, Morocco, Palestine, Oman, Saudi Arabia, Iran, and Tunisia earned more than half of the total number of science degrees in their respective nations. This stark contrast between the United States and these other countries has prompted an exploration into the factors that contribute to women's participation in computer science. This study focuses on understanding how cultural environment can affect the participation of women in CS, specifically with respect to individual, household, community, country, and global influences on occupational pursuit. The research question guiding this study is: what cultural factors influence Muslim women's occupational pursuit of computer science? This qualitative study explores, through semi-structured interviews, the experiences and influences of Muslim female students currently pursuing graduate degrees in CS. Leveraging snowball sampling, this research study seeks to better understand Muslim women's pathways to and through computer science. This study will also provide further insight as to how and why certain experiences or cultural influences impact women's choice of computer science. Through thematic analysis leveraging NVivo12, the preliminary findings suggest that micro- and macro-cultural environmental factors are different for Muslim women students across different cultural groups as well as the influence these variables have on their participation and achievement in CS. Our findings suggest that cultural background may influence women in different ways. Understanding the pathways of Muslim women, given their high representation in computer science in their home nations, might provide insight into different ways to engage more women (Muslim or otherwise) in CS in the United States. This study provides a counter-narrative to underrepresentation of women in this field by presenting the pathways of those achieving or exceeding parity in science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) fields outside of the United States. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Despite the projected growth of computer and information technology occupations, many computing students fail to graduate. Studying students' self-beliefs is one way to understand persistence in a school setting. This paper explores how students' disciplinary identity subconstructs including competence/performance, recognition, interest, and sense of belonging contribute to academic persistence. A survey of 1,640 students as part of an NSF grant was conducted at three South Florida metropolitan public universities. A quantitative analysis was performed which included a structural equation model (SEM) and a multigroup SEM. The study examined different groups of students such as male versus female, and freshman versus senior students. Results suggest identity sub-constructs contribute differently to academic persistence among freshman and senior students; however, no significant differences were found between male and female students. The findings, such as the significance of particular aspects of computing identity on academic persistence, can have implications for educators and college administration. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

As technology increases in the global arena and the necessity for a more diverse group of individuals to fulfill engineering and computing roles increases, it is important to engage more students in computing majors and roles. Identity has proven to be an important lens through which researchers can better understand how to engage students in these fields. In particular, our framing for computing identity includes students' self-perceptions about recognition, interest, and performance/competence. Using survey data, this study examines the computing identity of high achieving underserved students in computer science (CS), computer engineering (CE), and information technology (IT). For these students, we compare the constructs between men and women, computing fields, and first year students (commonly referred to as freshmen) and postsecond year students (which includes junior and senior students). Based on preliminary data, results show that female participants had less of a computing identity than male students, specifically with respect to computing recognition and overall computing identity. Students in IT programs had less of an overall computing identity than students in CS and CE. Finally, first year students were lower on their overall computing identities and specifically performance/competence beliefs and interest. These results suggest that even within computing programs, students differ in their computing identities. Furthermore, there are different constructs related to computing identity that vary for different subgroups of students. While these results are insightful, future work will compare the computing identities of high achieving underserved students with a larger population of computing students as well as strategies for building their computing identities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The national imperative to increase the production of computer science and engineering professionals has garnered the attention of both public and private sectors of the economy. As such, private companies, such as Verizon have begun to fund what they call Innovation in Learning (VIL) initiatives that aim to increase participation in these fields. Initiatives such as these, also recognize the need to diversify the engineering workplace by focusing specifically on engaging, inspiring, and motivating underrepresented minority (URM) youth by exposing them to engineering and other STEM concepts. During summer 2017, a southeastern university participated in hosting one of the seventeen Verizon sponsored STEM Camps. The university hosted 144 URM middle school boys for three weeks on campus to explore engineering habits of mind, engineering design principles, and computer science application development fundamentals. The camp was primarily facilitated by fourteen student mentors. One of the principle elements of the camp was to have mentors that reflected the demographics of the student population. As such, the mentor demographics consisted of 12 URM male mentors and 2 URM female mentors. Upon conclusion of the summer camp all of the student mentors were asked to participate in an open-ended survey that inquired about their experiences as studentmentors. The research questions guiding this study were: What role does race and gender have on the development of student mentor relationships? What are the implications of those mentor relationships on STEM identity development of the student-mentors? These research questions were answered through the use of thematic analysis, yielding two main themes: 1) barriers and connections associated with race and gender and 2) development of role identity - specifically the sub-constructs of performance/competence and interest. The results of this study suggest that engaging in mentoring relationships, while motivated by altruistic desires, strengthened STEM role identity development of the student-mentors. Previous literature has demonstrated that salient STEM identity development can contribute to persistence in these fields. Promoting engagement in mentoring opportunities, like summer camps, could aid in increasing and sustaining URM STEM majors. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

To help address the issue of underrepresentation of African Americans obtaining engineering degrees and matriculating into engineering industry, the National Society of Black Engineers (NSBE) launched the Summer Engineering Experience for Kids (SEEK) program in 2007. As of 2015, the program had 17 sites across 16 major U.S. cities. The free 3-week summer camp provides access to engineering education activities through competition based, hands-on curriculum. At each of the locations, four individuals were hired to serve as site leaders to oversee all operations and logistics at the program: 1) Site Director 2) Assistant Site Director 3) Operations Specialist and 4) Data Specialist. Classroom instructors, who are referred to as mentors, were hired at a 6:1 ratio with a total of 3 per class. The site leaders and classroom mentors were primarily comprised of undergraduate and graduate engineering, STEM nonengineering and education majors. During the summer of 2015, instructor surveys and student pre and post assessments were distributed, collected and analyzed by the external evaluator. The instructor survey data was analyzed and findings were shared within one of the three reports provided to NSBE by the external evaluator including the overall, all-sites report, site-specific reports and an internal report. However, several of the 34 questions within the instructor post-program survey, a mix of open-ended and likert scale, were not analyzed by the external evaluator. A quantitative analysis will be conducted using raw data from questions related to classroom instructors' feedback on site leadership performance including areas of management, supervision, their ability to give feedback, professionalism, work ethic and problem solving skills. These results will then be compared to the classroom instructors interest outcomes on the SEEK program. The implications of this research include better understanding the role of leadership during short-term, out-ofschool (OST) engineering programs such as training and professional development and other potential best practices. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]