This chapter presents nine recommendations for reducing the undergraduate
enrollment balance in Course VI. We have focused on short-term activities that
can be easily accomplished with modest resources. Additionally, we have
attempted to avoid recommendations that would entail preferential treatment for
women.
As chapter 1 shows, the disparity between male and female undergraduate
enrollment in EECS mirrors the disparity in EECS interest indicated by entering
first-year men and women when they apply to MIT. Therefore, regardless of
other activities the Department undertakes to improve the enrollment balance,
we should try to increase the number of women who enter MIT with interests in
EECS areas.
We do not advocate using woman applicants' intended major as a factor
in the admissions process. Instead, we propose focusing on encouraging women
with EECS interests to apply to MIT, and especially, on encouraging admitted
women with EECS interests to attend MIT This should be done in coordination
with the Admissions Office, as part of the Institute's ordinary recruitment
efforts.
Some simple steps that should be taken immediately include: (1) sending a
personal letter on behalf of the Department to all women in the admitted class
with EECS interests (2) coordinating with the Admissions Office Contact program
(in which current undergraduates contact admitted students) to help assure that
women with EECS interests are contacted by women EECS undergraduates (3) having
the Admission Office direct visiting students to the EECS Undergraduate Office
(4) having the Department participate in Campus Preview Weekend (an MIT
program in April for admitted women and minority students) (5) Preparing a
brochure about opportunities for women in engineering (not just EECS) similar
to the one sent now to women graduate student applicants, but targeted at
undergraduates.
Other efforts, growing out of these initial ones, should evolve in cooperation
with the Admissions Office.
As indicated in chapter 2, a significant difference between MIT men and women
is the extent to which women feel less prepared than their peers to major in
EECS. Beginning in IAP 1996, the Department should offer a subject that is
specifically addressed to freshmen (both women and men) who may be interested
in exploring EECS but feel that they have little experience with electronics or
computers.
Last spring the Committee sponsored a social event for students to meet women
faculty in EECS. Although attendance was sparse, reactions to it were highly
positive, and it should be continued this spring. Attendance should be open to
both men and women, although the department should make a special effort to
invite first-year women who have expressed interest in EECS.
As indicated in chapter 2, impressions of EECS careers are an important factor
in undergraduates' choice to major in Course VI. The Department should sponsor
a seminar series that provides undergraduates (both men and women) with
opportunities to meet and interact with women in electrical engineering and
computer science industries. Typically this would consist of a seminar
presentation followed by a dinner or other social event. The Department should
provide funding for this program, although it might best be run by a student
organization such as Eta Kappa Nu.
It is difficult to obtain centralized information about UROP positions in
course VI. As a consequence, less aggressive students have difficulty finding
UROP placements, or even applying for them. The Department maintains a lists
of UROP projects, but this is far from complete, many faculty are unaware of
its existence, and it is not extensively coordinated with UROP efforts in the
labs. The Department should provide a matching service where faculty can
advertise for UROPs and students (both men and women) can apply for them.
Participating in this service should be helpful to faculty as well as to
students, since the service can pre-screen student applicants according to
faculty-specified criteria.
The Department has traditionally not participated in MIT's academic midway for
incoming freshmen, one the grounds that there is no need to make efforts to
increase undergraduate enrollment in EECS. One consequence of this decision is
that the main source of information about course VI for incoming freshmen is
the grapevine, with its concomitant mythology, e.g., that Course VI is more
competitive than other majors, is graded more harshly, is not accessible to
people without previous exposure to EECS, and so on. As a result, the
department can seem aloof and uninviting, and it is easy for less assertive
students to be discouraged from considering Course VI as a potential major.
The Physics Department has had positive experience with 8.01L (a version of
8.01 that covers the material at a slower pace and extends into IAP). Course
VI should consider an analogous experiment with 6.001 and 6.002 which, as the
survey in chapter 2 shows, many students regard as overwhelming. For example,
there could be a version of 6.001 that starts during IAP and extends through
the spring, or a version of 6.002 that starts in the fall and extends through
IAP.
It can be very uncomfortable being the only woman in a class of 25 students.
In large multiple-section subjects, the Department should attempt to "bunch"
women so that a few sections are more equally balanced between men and women,
rather than spreading women thinly throughout all the sections.
The surveys in Chapter 2 uncovered no evidence that inappropriate behavior by
staff is any more of a problem in Course VI than elsewhere at the Institute.
Nevertheless, there were reports of at least isolated incidents, such as TA's
"hitting on" students in their class. While MIT already has adequate policies
and channels for dealing with this, it would be helpful for the Department to
regularly provide information for TAs and undergraduate assistants that reminds
them of their obligations under MIT's harassment and conflict-of-interest
policies, and interprets these policies with examples of appropriate and
inappropriate behavior in teaching situations.
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