The view from down under
Sister Patricia Marshall · 1975
Xavier shares at least six characteristics with other developing institutions. some of which are not shared by all: private small, predominantly black, liberal arts-oriented, church-related, and serving a large percentage of disadvantaged students. Difficulties in launching and maintaining a computer science program at such an institution are not rooted in any one of these alone but rather in the complex, often apparently conflicting, cross currents of philosophies represented by these characteristics. Serving the needs of disadvantaged students in a liberal arts milieu is difficult enough, and once you establish computer science in this picture, you still have to meet the challenge of staffing with permanent, full-time faculty to effect continuity. It has been evident at Xavier from the beginning (1968) that without a strong computer science curriculum the ability to serve other departments would be severely limited; its experience bears this out. We have no great success story to tell, but we have experience to relate and some ideas for the future.