The mission of the Wilbur Wright Information Technology Department is to support the teaching and learning objectives of the college via information technology and instruction. We fulfill our mission through several activities; these activities are designed to allow the student to develop effective listening, critical reading and thinking. Our strategy encourages students to solve academic or job related challenges in a manner that demonstrates proficiency in the use of information technology and techniques.

To ensure that students receive the level of computer literacy identified in our mission, The Information Technology Department will provide students who are entering the business world with a broad based understanding of the concepts behind EDP tools they will be expected to use. We emphasize the use of standard productivity software packages since these packages will be able to satisfy most of their information processing needs. The department will make every effort to utilize the most recent technology to fulfill its mission. Adequate course offerings will be provided to enable students to acquire an AAS degree.

The Information Technology (IT) Department was pioneered in the early 1960's by Irv Ruben of the Business department. At that time the department was called the Data Processing (DP) department and its lab consisted of a TTY terminal, a card reader, and four IBM 026 keypunches located in room 212-A of the South Campus on Austin Avenue. At first Professor Ruben taught all of the courses by himself, but within a few semesters he was joined by Professors Sutherland and Nicosia on a part time basis. Initial course offerings included programming in AUTOCODER, FORTRAN II, and DARTMOUTH BASIC.

The initial mission of the department was primarily to serve the vocational and technical needs of our students. Students who earned an Associate in Applied Science (AAS) degree were qualified for employment as entry level programmers.

For the first twenty years the department continued to grow and add equipment, courses, and teachers. The lab was moved to room 110 and expanded several times. Hardware inventory was expanded to include an IBM 2780 RJE station as well as several pieces of IBM unit record equipment. By 1970 we were able to install an in house Digital Equipment PDP 11/20 computer. This was later upgraded to a multi user PDP 11/44 with dozens of terminals. Outside phone lines were added and a limited number of remote users could be supported. The programming languages COBOL, RPG, PL1, and BAL were added to the course offerings as well as a key-punch data entry course and a computer operator course. Certificate programs were established which enabled students with 6-12 hours of training (and perhaps a college degree in some other field) to qualify for entry level employment. Professors Karnezis, Muckian, Coy, Galway, Lales, Nadas and Dudek joined the department.

During these years the original mission of the department was expanded to include certificate programs as well as to provide computer literacy for non majors. The AAS degree was articulated and many students used it to transfer to four year programs at North Eastern, Roosevelt, and other schools.

In the early 1980's, with IBM's announcement of the PC-XT, the entire nature of the industry changed. Secretarial courses taught by the Business department were repackaged as Office Information Systems (OIS) and upgraded to include word processing. The DP department changed its name to the Computer Information Systems (CIS) department and expanded its focus to include new programming languages (ANSI-C and xBASE) and Microcomputer Application Software courses. Computer hardware was upgraded by the replacement of the VT-52 and LA-36 terminals with personal computers which could emulate the old terminals so as to continue to provide communications abilities to the PDP/11 via RS-232 serial lines and could also run various stand alone applications. Subsequently a file server was added and network interface cards added to the micro computers. Although DP courses had always undergone extensive revisions every 4-5 years, during the 1980's the new micro-computer courses were totally replaced every 2-4 years due to the drastic improvements in technology. Companies like Visicalc, Multimate, Digital Research, and Word Star who had thought they had secure niches in the software industry were replaced overnight as new concepts were invented.

The mission statement was expanded again to include training in the use of micro computer application software. CIS considered having two computer literacy classes, one for majors and one for non majors. During these years the department stayed true to its origins and concentrated on courses which would be useful in business Data Processing. Students who wanted to transfer to computer science programs were usually advised to major in mathematics and take fewer CIS classes.

Within ten years the impact of microcomputers had rippled through industry and academia. The thousand fold drop in computer prices made it economically feasible for every company to computerize its operations and the growth in the number of computer users introduced economies of scale making it possible to produce standard programs that could be utilized by any company. Custom programs individually tailored to each company were no longer required. As a result the industry did not need the large numbers of programmers that it had needed in the past. Enrollment in programming classes plummeted overnight. As high school secretarial programs became computerized it was no longer necessary for office workers to attend college to learn office automation concepts.

The first to feel the brunt of this change was the OIS department which was drastically reduced and finally abolished. Due to declining enrollments CIS programming classes could no longer be taught in multiple sections. Courses that for many years had filled up during preregistration were having to be canceled due to low enrollment. Other departments started to use computers in their courses. The English department and the Architecture department established their own computer labs. CIS picked up one of the OIS teachers, Professor Ellis, to replace Professor Lales and started to use part time teachers very extensively. The change in teachers was reflected in the change in course offerings. PL1 was discontinued and additional microcomputer classes were added.

With the move to a new campus and the changing role of computers in society there was an obvious mandate to eliminate separate computer labs for individual departments. With each semester there came new challenges in new directions. Each semester we were faced with the need to review and revise what we as a department are doing.

Most of our incoming high school students have some level of familiarity with computers. The level of computer literacy has risen significantly in our society. Software products are increasingly easier to use and many of our students only require access to it with minimal hands on training.

CIS 120 - introduction to Microcomputers has become our introductory computer literacy class for both majors and non majors while CIS 101 is only being recommended for majors. Students needed highly personal counseling to decide what to do. Students could no longer use an AAS degree as a basis for a career in Information Systems. Four year degrees are indispensable. The Illinois Articulation Initiative has delineated transfer requirements.

During the last few years of the twentieth century the industry saw a major revival of the COBOL programming language. With the realization that COBOL applications still provided the backbone of all mainframe computing and the immediate need to modify them to handle the so called Y2K bug, the industry experienced a shortage of COBOL programmers. The concurrent coming of age of the internet resulted in a bonanza to entry level IT trained individuals who were often hired with a two year degree or just some form of industry certification.

The dot com boom was short lived and was followed by a dot bust. Vocational and technical career requirements changed overnight. IT professionals with five or more years of experience found themselves out of a job. The department changed it's name from CIS to Information Technology to show that our graduates were involved with more than Computer Systems. Information Security, web development and other areas of specialization are attracting our students.

Unfortunately, even with the change in our emphasis, students were unable to find entry level jobs and most of them decided to enter other disciplines, where jobs were more plentiful, such as Allied Health. We kept trying to revitalize our courses to attract students in the hope that we could find something that will qualify them for entry level jobs, but with no success. For several years the department had been canceling half of the courses that were advertised. Finally in the Spring of 2006, I requested to be relieved of my duties as department chair and be transfered into the Math Department where I had already been teaching most of my load. The other two senior members of the department decided to retire. All that was left was one full time teacher to coordinate what had become primarily a department that taught fundamentals of using computers to end users.

End note

I close my reverie by recognizing the teachers who had worked in the department from 1994 through 2006 with a list of the courses they taught and the years during which they taught them. It was truly great fun. I thank you all for the memories!

Footnote: my background