Twenty Universities Team Up to Increase the Number of Women in Computer Science

The National Center for Women & Information Technology (NCWIT)  is a nonprofit coalition of more than 350 prominent corporations, academic institutions, government agencies, and nonprofit organizations working to increase women’s participation in information technology and computing. NCWIT helps organizations recruit, retain, and advance women in education and through industry and entrepreneurial careers.

The NCWIT Pacesetters program is a two-year intensive effort by participating members to dramatically increase the number of women in IT. The second cohort in the Pacesetters program includes 20 universities and 14 corporations that kick off the effort on February 25 at the University of California Santa Cruz.

The University of California Santa Cruz, which was also a participant in the first cohort which was initiated in 2010, has seen a 40 percent increase in the number of women as computer science majors over the past two years. At Indiana University, which is also participating in the new cohort, the number of women computer science majors has increased from 75 to 150 over the past 18 months.

The other 18 universities in the new cohort are:

• California Polytechnic University
• Carnegie Mellon University
• DePauw University
• Fort Valley State University
• Georgia Institute of Technology
• Michigan Technological University
• Purdue University
• Santa Clara University
• Syracuse University
• University of California Irvine
• University of Denver
• University of Nebraska Omaha
• University of Tampa
• University of Texas at Austin
• University of Virginia
• University of Washington
• Villanova University
• Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University