Fort Valley State University

There’s a push under way to increase the number of African-American faculty in the area of computer sciences. Right now, blacks in the discipline make up only one percent of tenured faculty. But organizers of a conference recently held in Atlanta want to boost the numbers. Three FVSU students – Jeremy Rogers, Niraj Yadav and Paul Small, with faculty members Dr. John Dubriel and Dr. Cheryl Swanier – participated in the 3rd Annual African-American Researchers in Computing Sciences Conference at Spelman College.
“The purpose of the conference was to show individuals the different routes they can take toward becoming graduate professors, how to make yourself ready for the workforce and how to get your research published,” said Paul Small, a computer science and commercial design major at FVSU.
AARCS aims to increase the number of African-American faculty and research scientists at the tenure-track level by offering conference sessions that teach students how to write research papers, the pitfalls of getting published, how to successfully matriculate at graduate school and resources available for professors.