Computer Science Living-Learning Community for Women at Rutgers: Initial Experiences and Outcomes (Abstract Only).

We have developed the Douglass-SAS-DIMACS Computer Science Living-Learning Community (LLC) for first-year women at Rutgers, now in its second year. Each year, around 20 first-year women undergraduates at Rutgers who intend to major in computer science are selected for the LLC. LLC participants live in a common dorm and are provided with an educational, mentoring, and community-building program that supports their progress as Rutgers students and as computer science majors. To our knowledge, this is the first undergraduate living-learning community for women in computer science at any university. A focus group conducted with women from the inaugural cohort revealed that faculty support contributed to feelings of belonging, both in the program and in the CS department, among the participants; participants valued the academic support they received as part of the program and felt communication structures within the program were effective; and participants expressed a desire for advanced undergraduate peer mentors. A quasi-experimental study of this cohort indicated that LLC participants showed a decrease in satisfaction with the CS department at Rutgers; a decrease in computing-related self-efficacy; and an increase in the belief that computing ability is inborn. Follow up interviews suggested that the efficacy of the LLC might be dependent on two factors: participants' commitment to a CS major coming into the program and participants' level of involvement with the LLC group. In response to these results, we have made some changes to the program and continue to carefully study the program in order to maximize its effectiveness.