Throughout this academic year, The Rider will explore the programs of study at UTRGV. This is the sixth in a series. The Rider interviewed Jerald Hughes, Information Systems Department chair, for information.
Major: Information Systems
School: Robert C. Vackar College of Business and Entrepreneurship
Chair of the Department: Jerald Hughes
Total credit hours needed to graduate: 120
What is information systems? “Information systems is about the application of computers to organization problems. We’re in the college of business, so most of the organizations our students go to are business ones, but we also supply students to government associations. We’ve had some people go off to the law enforcement divisions, the Government Accounting Office, things like that. So, organizations generally, either profit or non profit, which have things that they need to do like keep track of their employees, equipment, what products should they offer next year, and they need computers do to all these things. So, these are to get those computers up and running and supporting the organization’s goals. Make sure your strategy as an organization is supported by the particular computers you’re using. For example, one thing that might come is that a lot of businesses are looking at getting set up on the cloud. There is a field that is very hot right now that is called business intelligence, which is how to analyze all this data. Businesses have so much data that they’re collecting and they actually don’t know what they need to do or what decision tips are hidden inside that data, so our business intelligence electives help students figure out how to use all the tools that will analyze that data and get the business those answers.”
Which classes can students expect to take? “So, all the students in the [bachelor’s in business administration] will take a management information systems course 3390. They will learn how to judge how they should decide what their cloud strategy would be. If you’re in the information systems major, then you’ll have a bit more about that. You’ll be able to take a course in systems analysis, which is from the ground up how to collect business requirements and make sure you get the computers and software you need to support those requirements. We have a project management course as our capstone, so a business’ project might be implementing something in the cloud, for example. Then, we have elective tracks that support some of the high value specialties that information system jobs are offering right now. One of those is in security, so we have network security, we have information assurance. Our required courses include one programming course, one networking course, one database course, one systems analysis course, one project management course and we have one at the beginning, which is project and team oriented, called business information infrastructure, which introduces projects and all kinds of things that businesses use. So they have virtual systems, they’ll build those from scratch, web pages from scratch, a network project, something for the cloud. All the things that are sort of going on with what you would see running in a business, they get a project for it in that introductory course. Those are the six required, and then like I said, we have elective tracks. Security is one, we have a web design, an e-commerce strategy course that’s very popular.”
What skills will students learn by the time they graduate? “There are basic required skills. There are six courses that all the students will learn. The other thing I wanted to say about what the major consists of is it’s distinguished from computer science and we still need to get that message out to the high schools, because the counselors there, when students say they’re interested in computers, of course, computer science is the first thing they think about, whereas students in computer science would take multiple courses in, for example, programming. They’ll take assembly language programming and data structures and algorithm construction and so on. Our students are placed between the two skills of understanding computers and understanding how businesses are run, and especially how to communicate with the people in the business that need those systems. So the reason I say that is probably the central course inside the discipline is systems analysis, because businesses need workers who understand both how business is run and how you can run computers. We have a course in enterprise software, which is a very high-value skill. These are the huge systems that companies like General Motors and the U.S government and so on build to tie all the pieces of their organization together. That’s called [enterprise resource planning] software and we have two electives in that as well.”
What are some possible careers? “Virtually any organization that has IT, which is virtually all of them now, will have a spot where one of our majors might go. If a student wanted to create the next great programming language, they probably should think about computer science and then they would go and work for a tech company like Google or IBM or one of those.”
Who are some possible employers? “Our students have gone off to work for IT companies. One of our good hires recently was by the Dell Secure Works Division. They took our information security courses and they went there, which is a technology corporation, but we also have some working for the world headquarters of Wal-Mart. Tyson Foods is an international food company with hundreds of thousands of people, and they’ve worked with them. They offer one of our flagship internships. It’s a very well-run system of bringing people into the company. We also help students find jobs locally. One of our tracks is in health information systems, so if a student took a business intelligence course, a web course and, of course, the health information systems course, local clinics and hospitals hire our students down here; school districts and banks as well.”
What salary can a student expect to earn after graduation? “The hottest areas are the ERP and IT. I know that a local hire was by Mission Hospital paid $65,000 to one of our graduates, so students go to them now for internships and entry-level jobs. We’ve also had people going into the banks. There’s a range depending on how that works. Some of these IT departments will start a new hire on the help desk and those will probably come in at about [$40,000 or $50,000]. Once you’re a server specialist or a program development specialist, you go up to the 60s and 70s range. One of our good hires was in Houston. There is a differential between what you’ll get in Houston, San Antonio, Dallas and the Valley. We had an oil company in Houston hire one of our students into their IT division and it was $70,000 to start with a $10,000 bonus. Of course, the school districts don’t pay that much because they don’t have that much money, but I think they’re in the 40s.”
Are there any student clubs? “Yes, our student chapter for the IS major is called the Association of Information Technology Professionals. We go to the region conference every fall and the national conference every spring. They have lots of good sessions for students, like ways to meet employers. The main thing they do is compete against each other in various categories. We send off competitors who have won trophies multiple times, including a first place nationally for the security competition a while back.”
For more information: contact Hughes at j.hughes@utrgv.edu or call 665-3388.
—Compiled by Sarah Carvajal
