epresented, a category that includes Hispanic/Latino, African American/Black and Native American/Alaskan Native people.
That being said, professors and students in the Computer and Information Science department have noticed an increase in students of color in the department over the years.
“If you looked back 10 years ago, I don’t think you would see nearly as many black or Latino people in the class," said Steve Zdancewic, a computer science professor who has taught the introductory computer science class CIS 120 several times.
CIS professor Chris Callison-Burch echoed this sentiment, noting that “it seems like there are more people of color this time around [in this iteration of CIS 121].”
Enrique Mitchell, a senior in computer science who has been a teaching assistant for CIS 120, said he’s also seen a jump in the number of black and Latino students who come to his office hours.
“When I was a freshman, we were definitely few and far between,” Mitchell said. “These last two semesters, I’ve definitely seen a jump in the number of black and Latino students [in CIS 120].”
Mitchell also noted the growth of resources in National Society of Black Engineers for students of color.
“When I first started there wasn’t a lot of support being black in computer science,” Mitchell said. “There were very few upperclassmen who could help me decide whether I wanted to study computer science.”
Penn also seems to have been more successful in recruiting women — also an underrepresented minority in Engineering departments — than it has in recruiting students of color.
Women make up 33 percent of Penn Engineering, which is higher than the national average of 18-20 percent in Engineering departments nationwide. In contrast, less than 10 percent of the Engineering school consist of black and Hispanic students, which is lower than the national average of 21 percent.
Engineering sophomore Ciara Brown said seeing a black person in her CIS lectures now still feels more like a novelty than reality.
“It feels like there’s not an emphasis placed by the university on diversity in STEM,” said Brown. “Those numbers across campus are fairly good but then you take a microscope to the Engineering school specifically, and the proportions are extremely different.”
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