How Can Computer Science Education Address Inequities

The 2019 global pandemic and the social protests in support of Black Lives Matter has made it clear that society has yet to eradicate systemic racism. Can computing education help? Academics, particularly in STEM fields, are often shielded from these conversations as we think they belong in a social science classroom. The effect of the pandemic and the protests has made it abundantly clear that we can no longer be apathetic about systemic issues that impact equity in society. Based on personal experience and on years of participation in Broadening Participation in Computing (BPC) efforts, the author suggests actions that CS departments can do to fight inequity. These can be classified into several broad categories: (a) provide more support and opportunities to students from underrepresented groups, (b) encourage faculty to become active participants in addressing inequity, (c) update the computing curriculum to be more inclusive and culturally responsive, and (d) evolve the departmental infrastructure to manage diversity, equity and inclusion.