IST Summary

Executive Summary and Key Recommendations

In his 1997 State-of-the-University Address, University President Graham Spanier asked if Penn State was organized in the most effective way to prepare our students for the Information Age. Were we doing enough, he asked, to help meet the enormous needs of today's workforce--and to help government, industry, and society deal with the daunting challenges of tomorrow? After carefully studying what Penn State is currently doing and considering the extraordinary opportunities available to us, the IST Strategic Planning Group recommends a set of changes in how information technology is integrated into our undergraduate and graduate programs at all locations. Indeed, only through a bold new approach can we position the University as a national leader in the curricular integration of information sciences and technology.

Our primary recommendation is that Penn State create a School of Information Sciences and Technology. The School will be the focal point for developing, offering, and coordinating University-wide activities in Information Sciences and Technology (IST) both at the undergraduate and graduate levels. Although its administrative hub will be at University Park, the School will work closely with faculty and programs throughout Penn State. Through the World Campus, the School will work directly with post-baccalaureate students who cannot come to campus but who need additional knowledge and specialized skills. There are enormous research and development opportunities in the area of IST, and this new School should be attractive to many constituencies--students, parents, employers, funding agencies, and foundations.

Penn State already has a formidable array of IST-related programs in traditional disciplinary fields that produce nearly a thousand graduates a year. The establishment of a School of Information Sciences and Technology will complement and build upon these existing activities. The new School's programs will be focused on IST education, research, and outreach, and represent a unique opportunity for students to pursue more advanced studies in IST major and minor programs, or in related functional areas.

The School will be highly interdisciplinary, and its programs will foster collaboration among existing programs at all locations. The School will be a seedbed for curricular development and innovation, and will help Penn State fulfill its new general education requirements in "information literacy." Undergraduate and graduate degrees in IST will be established, as well as a new IST minor that will be available to students majoring in other academic disciplines at the University. The proposed new IST undergraduate degree will feature a common core of courses and several curricular tracks that will allow students to pursue particular areas of academic interest. That is, students will learn not only about information technology--the creation, management, and interpretation of information--they will learn about it within the context of other academic areas. Such topics as telecommunications, operations research, computer science, hyper-media communications, cognitive science, intelligent and learning systems, electronic commerce, computational science, Web-based and network computing, scientific visualization, and digital libraries--all of these areas offer wonderful opportunities for our students, but all of these areas require cross-disciplinary faculty expertise. Students will learn to apply information technology within the intellectual framework of established disciplines. But they will also learn the skills that industry experts have repeatedly found missing in new employees: excellent communication, project management, and teamwork.

The School of Information Sciences and Technology will not only have strong curricular partnerships within Penn State, it will forge strong partnerships with industry and government. Partnerships are vital to the success of the School, both for keeping the curricula relevant to workforce issues and for providing students with a chance to learn from professionals who are using information technology to solve real problems in industry and government. Such partnerships will spur research opportunities for faculty and students. An external advisory board will be created, along with an internal coordinating council, to draw upon a wide range of expertise. The goal is to ensure that the new School is responsive to the changing needs and opportunities of contemporary society. Penn State alone cannot solve the crisis in the IST workforce, but it can set a sterling example of how to institute major changes to address the issues. We are confident that the creation of a new School of Information Sciences and Technology is the first step towards transforming Penn State for the century to come.