Growth in the 2010s (Present Era)

2022 Statistics

Table Displaying Women Enrollment Statistics at NYU Tandon

The 2010s period was the era that showed the most growth in women enrollment at the engineering campus throughout history. There are quite a number of factors that influenced this significant change. One of these involves Brooklyn Polytechnic's merger with NYU in 2014. The recognition that NYU had worldwide attracted many students from across the the country and across the world. NYU is renowned as one of the most internationally diverse top ranked schools in the world and the fact that there was now an engineering campus within the college saw international students consider NYU Tandon as an option when selecting colleges. As an international student myself, I certainly can testify to this as the popularity of NYU was a notable factor that influenced my decision to enroll at NYU Tandon school of Engineering. However the relationship between the merger and increase in women enrollment was not immediate and some challenges were met on the jouney for this to occur. One such challenge was that NYU Tandon, formerly known as Poly, lost their control over admission's priorities. This meant that admissions were now handled by the central admissions board at NYU and not specifically at Tandon as it were with Poly in the past. Therefore Tandon admissions and financial staff services experienced a significant drop from 35 to 1. This caused little institutional knowledge to be left at the engineering campus regarding knowledge about using financial aid to attract and increase women enrollment on campus. 

In the year 2014, there was also the stigma attached to engineering as not being all inclusive. There was change to be made to the normalized opinion among Tandon faculty that engineering schools have low diversity. One early effort to tackle these issues occurred when a new female faculty member held discussions with students with the purpose of enlightening tenured women about the depths of isolation and alienation that the current female students felt. This effectively led the department to sponsoring informal events for female students and planning for further activities in the future. This set off a chain of positive changes. One of these were when Nicole Johnson, the Assistant Dean for Opportunity Programs, was given the task of prioritizing gender diversity. 

Dr Phyllis Frankl, the Associate Dean of Academic Administration was also asked to consider applying for the NCWIT Extension Services for Undergraduate Programs. This led to the Women at Tandon initiative to be started and in 2015 the commitee applied for an NCWIT consultant to kickstart the program. All of these resources were pooled together and in 2015 NYU Tandon launched a comprehensive inititaive to double the number of women in Computer Science (CS) by 2020. This goal was met with astounding success as the numer of women in CS  increased from 61 in 2015 to 230 in 2019. These initiatives also led to an impressive growth in percentage female population at Tandon from 29% in 2015 to 41% in 2019.

Alot of analytic work was done to strategise the increase in these percentages. In 2015, the enrollment data at the time displayed that 17.9% of the total accepted applicants to Tandon were females. However only 12.1% accepted enrollment. To improve these statistics, significant were made to convert these accepted women into actual enrolled students.

Women at Tandon Progams

Upon improving the acceptance rate, Tandon ensured that women on campus had  supportive environments. Over twenty women inititiative programs were implemented  to build and strengthen the female community at the campus. These included programs such as the Women's Summit, Girl's Tech Talk and Women at Tandon Explorations Community. An overview of some of these programs are discussed below.

Tandon West- This initiative is a biannual program held for prospective Tandon female students that gives them the opportunity to learn about the accomplishments of NYU women faculty and students.

Girls Tech Talk- Girl's Tech Talk is a program where students are given the opportunity to speak with other students, faculty and professionals while learning what it is like to pursue a career in a tech field. The program was established by Google and Anita Borg. Anita Borg is a female computer scientist who advocated for increasing women's participation in the Tech Community in the US.

Women Empower Hours- This is a once a month program where undergraduate and graduate women meet over lunch to discuss topics specific to women in STEM including leadership development, job exploration and seeking scholarship support.

WEST FEST - This is a summer event purposed for  accepted women students at Tandon to meet fellow propsective students and connect with campus resources

WoMentorship Program - This is a women's peer mentoring program that matches sophomores and juniors with seniors and graduate students to foster a stronger women's community at Tandon.

Apart from these inititiatives, Tandon also formed and increased the funding of several student clubs for women. These include the Society of Women Engineers (SWE), Women in  Search of Excellence (WISE) and Alpha Omega Epsilon and STEMinist. Apart from facilititating the empowerment of women on campus, these clubs also serve to enahance women in their careers and in the engineering world at large. 

Tandon also was able to increase enrollment by distibuting leaflets that give an overview of the above women's initiative at recruitment and women events. This has caused both prospective and current students to be informed about the vast women programs available at the engineering campus. 

Another significant strategy used to increase the women's population was that of regularly collecting and reviewing data to identify changes to be made. During admissions season, weekly reviews were held concerning the number of women accepting enrollment. Tandon was therefore able to track down any decreases and subsequently implemented summer engagement programs on social media platforms.

Retention

The retention of enrolled students in their majors is a popular struggle at engineering schools. At Tandon, retention has been an issue due to the large population of first generation, low income students and rigorous curriculum. There is a belief that since Tandon is part of NYU, most students at Tandon have financial privilege since NYU is known as a school for the wealthy. However this is not the case and the high number of students abandoning or switching their majors is a reflection fo this.  

To specifically increase female student retention, Tandon employed a number of strategies one of which includes the offering of financial aid to international students. As a minority international student I have personally been positively affected by the financial aid offered to me per year since it covers a very sizeable portion of my tuition and living expenses. Tandon also identified the experiences of early semester students as areas to improve and thus significantly revised the freshman computer science course (CS-UY-11). This led to the outcome of less requests to transfer out of computer science and increased requests to transfer into computer science. This strategy was evaluated with data tracking tools and end of semester surveys. Since the implementation of this strategy, the number of retaining their majors at the engineering school has improved significantly.

Development of a sense of community among women students was also specifically identified as a strategy to improve retention. Feelings of belongingness and inclusion are significant factors contributing to a positive student experience. Tandon employed several departments to address this such as the Academic Student Affairs, WESTM Group and NCWIT. These led to the formation of many of the women inititaives discussed in the previous section. WESTM events purposed to build the women community were also launched which occur throughout the academic year. These events are constantly improved upon through event evalations and focus groups.

Women in Computer Science

The Computer Science department at NYU Tandon has seen one of the largest increases in women enrolment across the school since 2010.The  department saw an increase in women applications from 14.5% in 2010 to 27.3% in 2018. The acceptance of women in computer science also saw an astounding increase from 15.6% in 2010 to 42.4% in 2018.

The rise in the Computer Science department is credited to various outreach and recruitment events held across the country which were purposed for increasing diversity. One specific inititiative is the Tandon K-12 STEM Programs. The purpose of this program is target high school students who have limited access to high quality STEM education. These students usually fall within underrepresented demographic groups such as students of color and girls. One such K-12 STEM program is "Intro to CS and Cyber Security". This is a program where qualified high school girls are selected to engage in two weeks of lectures and hands on training to prepare them for participation in the nationwide CSAW Hugh School Cyber Forensics Challenge which is hosted annually by NYU Tandon.

Most of these programs are operated throughout the year including summer periods so these young students can develop the fundamental proficiencies to study engineering. Many participants of this program have later enrolled at NYU Tandon and thus have contributed to the rise of the women population.

The Computer Science department also hosts several symposiums throughout the year where female professionals in the industry can impart their knowledge onto students at Tandon. One such symposium is the "Women Leaders in Cybersecurity." This conference is held once each semester and includes an impressive line up of leading women experts in law, technology, business and policy.

Dean Jelena Kovacevica

Dr Jelena Kovacevic is the current dean at NYU Tandon. She is the first ever female dean at the engineering campus and is a testament to the drastic improvements made regarding women at the school. Dr Kovacevic is the former head of Electrical and Computer Engineering at Carnegie Mellon in Pittsburgh Pensylvania. Her recruitment as the dean was a result of an international search lead by a search committee that featured two members from the Women at Tandon group. 

Since her arrival at NYU Tandon in 2018, Dean Kovacevic has been committed to getting more women interested in technology. She is focused on investing in research and helping the school continue its historic rise in college rankings. She has garnered numerous accolades during her time at Tandon including being listed in Crain's "Notable Women in Tech" rankings.

As her first year at the school ended, the Dean announced the formation of an initiative called Inclusion@Tandon which is a committe of students and faculty whose purpose is to create strategies geared towards diversity, equity and inclusion at the school. 

Conclusion

In conclusion, NYU Tandon has made amazing strides in changing the gender population from one where women were seen as outliers to one that includes a female population that is comparable to males. This has been a long journey spanning approximately 60 years since when Janett Rosenberg graduated. The evolution did not occur overnight and it is my hope that this archival study appropriately reflects this. NYU Tandon,formerly known as Brooklyn Polytechnic Institute has produced outstanding women engineers including Eleanor Baum and Stella Lawrence Daniels among many others who have made wholesome impacts on society. Even though there were many challenges in their way, they were able to overcome them and contribute significantly to industry in male dominated companies such as NASA. Their early successes have paved the way that inspired more women to realise that the stereotypes concerning women in engineering were just stereotypes. Their contributions to women engineering societies and groups have also set the foundation for the multiple fellowships and initiatives available for women in America and in NYU Tandon today. Furthermore, NYU Tandon has come a long way in overturning the low regard that they displayed towards women in the 60s. The appointment of the first female dean and the outstanding statistic of 40% enrolled women in 2022 is a testament to this amazing evolution.