To the Editor:
The financial pressures faced by low-income undergraduate researchers are real, and the Department of Computer Science is working to mitigate them. When we spoke with our low-income students last semester, they mentioned the challenges on Carin Papendorp’s ’17 list (“Papendorp ’17: Unpaid research excludes low-income students,” Sept. 16) and shared others as well: interview transportation and accommodation costs, which may only be reimbursed weeks later, or the expense of interview clothing.
Brown CS doesn’t mandate research for undergraduates, and we realize that $3,500 for a summer isn’t enough, so we supplement Undergraduate Teaching and Research Awards to provide a living wage. Additionally, CS internships pay quite well, so our faculty members frequently readjust their research schedules to help low-income students take advantage of them. But more needs to be done. Students have told us that short-term loans would help them get through temporary financial shortfalls, so we’re looking into these and other solutions that provide additional support and guidance for these students on navigating job opportunities. Computer science is fortunate to occupy a prominent position among the science, technology, engineering and math fields, and Brown CS will continue to explore and try to find ways to use the advantages of that position to benefit low-income students.
Ugur Cetintemel
Professor of computer science and chair of the department
