Four Models for Including Community Colleges in Broadening Participation: A Call to Action

While computer science (CS) jobs are growing rapidly, universities are not producing enough CS graduates to fill a projected shortage of almost a million workers by 2020 [1]. To add to this problem, there is a striking lack of diversity in the graduates of CS programs nationwide [2]. Of the degrees awarded, the overwhelming number - 80% - were awarded to males, while only 5% went to African-Americans, 18% to Asians, and 9% to Hispanics [3, 2]. Bringing community colleges (CCs) into the fold will enable us to confront this projected workforce shortage [2]. More importantly, it will enable us to diversify one of the most important fields of our time, computer and information sciences. Over half of community college (CC) students are non- white, and more than half of all Hispanic and Black undergraduates start at community college [4].