Computer Science Program Faces Recruitment Challenges

When CSU Monterey Bay and Hartnell Community College announced their joint three-year computer-science program, CSIT-in-3, last year, organizers knew they might have trouble filling seats. But they didn’t know just how much.

Computer-science careers are lucrative and widely available, especially in Silicon Valley. In coming years, CSUMB Computer Science Director Sathya Narayanan says, experts predict an overabundance of computer-science jobs and not enough computer-science grads, making opportunities ripe for the picking.

Two added incentives: The program allows students to finish their degrees in three years, as opposed to increasingly longer grad times for traditional students; and more than two-thirds of incoming students this year got $30,000 scholarships from the Matsui Foundation.

“You would think with an opportunity like that, you could send an email out and students would just come to you,” Narayanan says. “It didn’t really play that way. We really had to work hard to get the students.”

According to the professor, some recruiting efforts at local high schools yielded just one interested student for every 50 approached. And though the goal was to give at least one scholarship to a student from each high school, ultimately only seven of the county’s 17 high schools are represented in the program.

“PEOPLE JUST DON’T THINK COMPUTER SCIENCE IS COOL.”

One major problem is that not many students in Monterey County have been introduced to computer science and the opportunities available in the field, Narayanan says. It’s a nationwide issue, but the local stats are striking. Only Carmel High School has actual computer-science classes, Narayanan says; other schools, if they have any computer classes at all, focus on the bare basics. The computer-science field is much broader, encompassing math, programming and software engineering.

Miranda Trayford, a program participant who graduated from Salinas High last year, says she took a business-tech class and learned how to use Microsoft Office. But her friends, who are “kinda nerds,” introduced her to programming, and that sparked a broader interest.

That nerd perception is another challenge. “People just don’t think computer science is cool,” CSIT-in-3 Coordinator Katie Cunningham says. “And computer scientists can have a hard time communicating just how awesome it is.”

The program will start recruiting early this year, with info sessions this month. The coordinators hope to team up with North Salinas High to offer an online after-school AP Computer Science class. The class is free from online education company Amplify.com, which is headed by former New York City public school chancellor Joel Klein.

CSUMB organizers plan to hire a coach to help students navigate the course. They’ve already gotten 28 interested students. (North Salinas High seems to be an outlier in terms of student enthusiasm for computer science.)

Narayanan says he’s been talking with public school leaders to see how gaps in computer-science education can be addressed. “This is something that is blatantly lacking in our school system right now,” he says.