Bachelor's Degree
We recommend that the bachelor of science degree in IST require a minimum of 30 credits in the major. All majors should complete an IST core, which may consist of the five courses identified in this report (or an equivalent coverage of core material). All five courses in the IST core could be available as "on-line courses," meaning that the courses can be offered at any Penn State location. Some locations may also choose to offer all or some of the courses as traditional classroom instruction. International experiences and foreign language study are strongly encouraged for all IST majors, given the increasing globalization of information sciences and technology.

Minors
We recommend that an IST minor be created within the School to support the academic programs of students majoring in other fields. An IST minor consisting of a minimum of 18 credits should be built upon a combination of key elements of the core curriculum and other advanced courses in the School, including some that are cross-listed and offered by units in other academic colleges. The IST minor represents an attractive opportunity for a wide range of undergraduate students both at University Park and other Penn State locations to build an IST component into their major programs. IST minors should be widely developed across all Penn State locations. The provision of a broadly based minor that meets the service needs of other colleges would also allow the Smeal College of Business Administration to reposition its management information systems program to focus primarily on students within the business majors.

An IST graduate minor should be developed for students in master's and doctoral programs. Here again, the opportunity for students at the graduate level to incorporate an IST dimension into their studies is vitally important.

Undoubtedly several of the IST core courses (e.g., IST 110) would be available to students throughout Penn State to fulfill the quantitative general education requirements, while at the same time helping to build students' "skills in quantitative analysis, information literacy, and collaborative interaction" (from Final Report and Recommendations of the Special Committee on General Education, Fall 1997). Additional courses that could count toward the general education requirements, and which should be developed by the new School, may include courses in multimedia and hyper-media communications, computer ethics, telecommunications, and IST public policy, among others.

Associate Degrees
Associate degrees at Penn State campuses should be tailored to labor market situations specific to particular regions of the Commonwealth. The associate degree in IST should incorporate major elements of the core curriculum for the baccalaureate degree identified above. Associate degrees should articulate readily into baccalaureate programs for those students who wish to pursue a bacheloršs degree at one of the Penn State locations where they are offered. The Pennsylvania College of Technology's applied associate degrees in information technology, which serve special purpose missions, should also be made available across the Commonwealth in cooperation with various Penn State locations.

Graduate Degree Programs
We strongly recommend that the School of Information Sciences and Technology establish master's and doctoral programs at the University Park campus. A doctoral program is essential to further the research program of the School and to assist in attracting high quality tenure track faculty. Doctoral students also represent an important resource for the instructional program, particularly as teaching assistants in core curriculum courses, for which there will be strong demand from IST majors, from students outside the School pursuing IST minors, and from other students who will likely be taking an IST core curriculum course as general education. Doctoral education, by its very nature, will reflect the scholarly interests and expertise of the faculty within the School as well as that of jointly appointed IST graduate faculty members who have responsibilities in other academic colleges.

We recommend that a professional Master's degree in Information Sciences and Technology be established at University Park in the School of Information Sciences and Technology. This program should be modeled after the successful graduate professional programs offered by Penn State Great Valley's School of Graduate Professional Studies and the Capital College at Penn State Harrisburg. Master's programs in IST at all Penn State locations where this degree is offered should respond to the needs of professionals who wish to further their education while maintaining current employment. The master's program should include options in which students may pursue different IST topical themes in a manner similar to those available to undergraduate majors. The specific nature of these graduate IST options will depend upon faculty expertise, industry needs, and student interest.

Certificate Programs
Certificate programs offer students the opportunity to participate in on-site education in either credit or non-credit formats. Some programs can be customized to integrate specific industry or company needs, and credits earned in Penn State certificate programs can often be applied to degree programs. Certificate programs are extremely flexible, and can be rapidly adapted to changing industry needs.

Certificate programs represent an area of growing importance as businesses and other organizations seek to upgrade the skill levels of their workforces. These certificate programs typically represent 9-15 credit hours of focused coursework. We recommend that a concerted effort be made to address the burgeoning need for certificate programs, both through the new School and existing college units, in collaboration with the World Campus and other Outreach and Cooperative Extension programs and technologies.