Computer science is seeing a decline in enrollment at all levels of education, including undergraduate and graduate study. This paper reports on the results of a study conducted at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign which evaluated students attitudes regarding three areas which can contribute to improved enrollment in the Department of Computer Science: Recruitment, preparation and retention. The results of our study saw two themes. First, the department's tight research focus appears to draw significant attention from other activities -- such as teaching, service, and other community-building activities -- that are necessary for a department's excellence. Yet, as demonstrated by our second theme, one partial solution is to better promote such activities already employed by the department to its students and faculty. Based on our results, we make recommendations for improvements and enhancements based on the current state of practice at peer institutions.
@cite_16: We recount some of the most significant and colorful findings of our four-year study of gender issues in the undergraduate computer science program at Carnegie Mellon. We also discuss the subsequent dramatic increase in the number of women in the program. We conclude with recommendations for the most generally useful and effective actions departments can take to attract and retain female students.
@cite_21: T his document is the report of a workshop that convened a group of experts to discuss the recruitment and retention of women in Computer Science and Engineering (CSE) Graduate Programs. (1) Participants included long-time members of the CSE academic and research communities, social scientists engaged in relevant research, and directors of successful retention efforts. (2) The report is a compendium of the experience and expertise of workshop participants, rather than the result of a full-scale, scholarly study into the range of issues. Its goal is to provide departments with practical advice on recruitment and retention in the form of a set of specific recommendations. Women are significantly underrepresented in CSE academic departments [5][40]. As computing technology becomes increasingly pervasive, this underrepresentation translates into a loss of opportunity for individuals, a loss of talent to the workforce, and a loss of creativity in shaping the future of society. While there are many causes of this underrepresentation some rooted in early socialization and primary educational experiences academic departments at the university level nevertheless can have an effect [6][7]. In particular, an improvement at the graduate level in recruitment and retention (and thus in graduation rates) would enable more women to move into visible and influential positions in the CSE community. The increasing presence of these women would provide positive role models and mentors. In order to treat all students fairly, educators must pay attention to gender-based traits. Although in characterizing behaviors one must be careful to acknowledge the existence of individual differences and to avoid stereotyping, there is a large body of information on gender traits. There is strong evidence, for example, that women, even though they perform at the same levels, have less confidence in their abilities and individual accomplishments than men [2][17][36][39][43]. Women are often less aggressive than male students in promoting themselves, attempting new or challenging activities, and pursuing awards or fellowships. There is evidence that females come to computing as only one interest among many, and are thus less single-minded than their male counterparts [27]. Often women report feeling "out of place" in the male-dominated, hacker culture [3] [22] [28]. In light of such differences, some of our recommendations are gender-specific. Most, however, are not. The adoption of our recommendations would improve the educational environment for all students. The recommendations are given in two sections, the first
@cite_7: This paper recommends methods for increasing female participation in undergraduate computer science. The recommendations are based on recent and on-going research into the gender gap in computer science and related disciplines They are intended to work in tandem with the Computing Research Association's recommendations for graduate programs (see [18] in this issue) to promote a general increase in women's participation in computing professions.Most of the suggestions offered here could improve the educational environment for both male and female students. However, general improvements are likely to be of particular benefit to women because women in our society do not generally receive the same level of support that men receive for entering and persisting in this field. Parents, friends, and classmates seldom encourage women to choose and continue in a computing discipline. Those few women who declare a computing major tend to experience continued lack of support throughout their education. They have few female peers to call on for help. Furthermore, students in their own and other majors may consider them odd. Even faculty can discourage women with unthinking remarks or with expectations based on the assumption that men's behavior and experience are the basis for success in computing majors. This lack of support can block or weaken women's commitment to computing. Moreover, when conditions in a department are generally unfavorable, those with a weakened commitment to the discipline often leave at higher rates than those who have sufficient support to overcome the conditions.
@cite_11: 
The vast majority of research on the decreasing enrollment throughout computer science education repeatedly focuses on two potential "solution" areas: recruitment and retention, which involve getting more students to join and keeping those who have joined @cite_7 @cite_16 @cite_11 . Recruitment entails attracting K-12 students to computer science and often involves outreach efforts which attempt to make computer science look "cool," exciting, useful, and rewarding. In addition, when recruiting underrepresented students in particular, researchers often recommend opening up admissions criteria without lowering standards, welcoming reentry students, and providing opportunities to bridge educational gaps that students might have between their previous education and the entry-level courses at the university @cite_16 @cite_21 .