Over the past few years, as educational institutions across the country have rushed to add technology courses to the business curriculum, UD has had no need to catch up. Management information systems (MIS) and information technology (IT) are a long-established part of the College of Business and Economics, where students have been enrolling in the undergraduate MIS minor since 1982.

Now, the College will further expand its technology programs with the establishment of a master of science degree in information systems and technology management and an undergraduate major in MIS. Both new academic programs were approved in May by the University Board of Trustees and will begin enrolling students this school year.

The master's degree is a 36-credit, interdisciplinary program that was jointly developed by B&E and the College of Engineering's Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering. It is designed to provide students with a solid understanding of both IT and business management.

The undergraduate MIS major will emphasize the integration of IT with upper-level business disciplines. Its objective is to offer a program of study that combines business and IT, to satisfy the demand for graduates with a combination of technical and business training.

That combination already is well-established in the College's previous programs, graduates who earned an MIS minor say.

"Studying technology and how it could be used effectively to support a business was quite new in the early 1980s," says Jeff McLaughlin, BE '84, one of the first students to graduate with the MIS minor. "The knowledge that seems commonplace today gave us a distinct advantage back then."

That exposure to technology continues to offer benefits, according to Bill Curtis, BE '98, another graduate of the MIS program. "Understanding technology concepts and how to design a system to execute a business strategy definitely helped me get started in my career," Curtis says. "It put me ahead of other new graduates who did not have the same level of actual experience."

Technology-oriented MIS courses today cover business computing, database design and implementation and systems analysis. But, they provide more than just an introduction to technology.

"The program doesn't focus strictly on the technical aspects of problem solving, as computer science classes would," Carolyn Lese, BE '97, says. "The program emphasizes the business applications, whether in accounting or management, and the projects we had to do taught a logical way of thinking that could be transferred directly to any business career."

McLaughlin says he also believes the program develops critical thinking skills. "I learned how to analyze an issue, develop a strategy for resolving the issue and work with a team to accomplish the goal," he says. "The team approach was especially important, because it got the class used to working in a way that is very much like the real world. And, because we were a group of business students from several disciplines--marketing, finance and management--we learned from each other how to develop solutions, sharing a broad range of ideas and many diverse skills."

The MIS graduates all agree that the program's highlight is the senior-year "capstone" course, in which the students are divided into small groups to work as consultants with a participating company on an actual business project.

"The senior project got us out of the classroom and into the business world," Lese says. "It was a great way to make the transition 'from backpack to briefcase.' We learned what a real client expected of us and that a client isn't always as flexible or accommodating as our professors. We also had to learn how to work effectively with our fellow team members."

The capstone courses, "Technological Problem Solving" and "Problem Solving Project Management," require teams of four to six students to meet with representatives of area companies and devise a project proposal to solve a particular business problem the company has identified. Participating companies reflect a wide variety of business types, and their problem areas--while always involving technological solutions--also are diverse.

For example, last semester's projects included creating a web database and virtual inventory system for a bookstore, improving customer service for one social service agency and streamlining financial reporting for another, evaluating a moving company's web site, devising an equipment maintenance system for a supermarket, working with fund-raising software for a museum and creating a marketing proposal for the University's Parallel Program.

The MIS minor began as a five-course program open each year to 20 B&E students. As interest in the program grew, the number of students was increased to 50. A few years ago, coincidental with the launch of the University's Information Technology Initiative, the College again expanded the program, this time to accommodate as many as 150 students per year. By addressing the demands of a systems-oriented marketplace and by keeping the program at the cutting edge of business education, the College promises graduates that they will find themselves highly marketable.

The MIS minor appears to be living up to this promise. Lese, a senior consultant who works for PricewaterhouseCoopers, says she values UD graduates with an MIS background. "Participation in the program shows that students have gone the extra mile to enhance the value of their education beyond their major field of study," she says.

"The program is highly regarded in the industry, and I know that the combination of technical and business skills helped me get my job. I'm excited to hear that the College is expanding the minor, as this will make an already strong program even stronger."

McLaughlin agrees, saying his experience with other graduates of the College's MIS program shows that "they have developed a set of skills that is valuable in the workforce. Their time in the program makes them more than just 'book smart.' They also have practical experience."

--Mary Jane Pahls