WEDNESDAY, NOVEMBER 29, 2023 - DAKOTA STATE MISSION CHANGE #3

 WEDNESDAY, NOVEMBER 29., 2023 - DAKOTA STATE MISSION #3

On December 7th, I’m flying to South Dakota for the 40th anniversary of the Mission Change at Dakota State University to Computer Information Systems.

On Monday, I wrote about the background and some political changes. Tuesday, I wrote about Eric Johnson and me going to Dallas, Texas, for five weeks in January 1984.

Today - the first year.

*****

In the new Dakota State, there were three new Deans - Eric Johnson as Dean of the College of Liberal Arts, Linda Venekamp as Dean of the School of Education, and myself as Dean of the College of Business and Information Systems. The fourth Dean was Clyde Brashear - Dean of the College of Science - and a holdover from the previous structure.  

We also had a new President.  Chuck Luke, the Executive on Leave from Citibank, was the new President of Dakota State.  

After Eric Johnson and I took the IBM course in PL/I programming, Melanie Stopfer, Lynette Molstad, Tom Farrell, and Louis Pape also took courses. (Some took several courses).

A note about Tom and Louis.

With the change in Mission, athletics was going to change. Tom Farrell had coached just about every sport at Dakota State. When the call went out - “Is anyone interested in being retrained in Information Systems? Tom volunteered.”

If it was hard for Eric to become a computer person (even though he had taken some programming courses), it was almost impossible for Tom Farrell. Tom didn’t give up - stayed up late (and didn’t go out drinking every night!!). Tom mastered the PL/I and Database courses and became an integral part of the BIS team. (Yes, Tom, I am still sorry - but you agreed when I asked you to teach a large section of PL/I with about 60 students!! WOW!!! Programming languages generally have smaller sections, as students will be at your door looking for help. Programs had to be thoroughly reviewed for grading. He did have an excellent student assistant - but it was a tremendous effort).

Louis Pape was a music professor. There would still be a Music Appreciation general education course, but not a major in music. After taking the PL/I training, Louis decided it wasn’t a good fit for him - he remained a music professor, and some additional music classes were added.

*****

It was like opening a brand new college. How did we get students? The old-fashioned way - we gave them money. Citibank sponsored ten Citibank scholarships - an entire ride, with guaranteed paid internships at the end of their freshman year (and the other years). There were other partial scholarships in the new major. Of the ten Citibank Scholars I know of, one is an executive at Citibank, three others worked at Citibank and took other computing positions, and one went on and got a doctorate in computer security and is a professor at Dakota State. I’m not sure where the other five Citibank Scholars went. One transferred to another university for his senior year. (My bias was that he thought having a degree from Dakota State wouldn’t be as impressive as having a degree from the University of Colorado). 

I got to teach my one and only philosophy class that year. As a mathematician, logic was essential, and I assigned myself to teach the “Reasoning and Logic” course. (We did away with the course after that year as the material was duplicated in other classes).

The Citibank Scholars were given internships that started the third week of April - or about four weeks before the end of the semester. The students were to both work and complete their college classwork. I supervised the interns and visited Citibank all summer of 1985 to make sure all was well (which it was - other than one of the interns got stressed and thought he was having a heart attack (which he didn’t) and after a day off, came back to Citibank.)

Between DSU and Citibank, we realized that expecting the Citibank Scholars to do both the internship and the coursework was too much. In subsequent years, interns started the Monday after the Spring semester ended.

There were growing pains. There were three faculty who taught social science/history courses. All three had tenure and had taught at Dakota State for at least 18 years. The one with the most minor years of experience (18 years) was cut from the faculty.  

Other majors were added - but needed to have information systems content. Some modified majors are English for Information Systems, Chemistry for Information Systems, and Biology for Information Systems. All students had to take at least two programming courses. An English class , “Documentation and Presentation,” was added to the Information Systems core (since Reasoning and Logic were removed).  

*****

Enrollment was down. Juniors and Seniors wanted to stay and get their degrees, and Sophomores who weren’t interested in information systems transferred mainly to other colleges. Incoming freshmen weren’t quite sure what they were getting into. Was Dakota State a “technical school” now? Would this involve a lot of math? (No!!!)

The catalog for 1984 was negligible.  

But, the funding for the mission change came in - incoming freshmen got their courses and were on their way to a great career.

*****

Towards the end of spring semester 1985, Chuck Luke returned to Citibank, and the South Dakota Board of Regents put Dr. Richard Gowan in as President. 

In one of my meetings with Dr. Gowan in June 1985, Dick Gowan said, “Bruce, you don’t have your union card.”  I didn’t quite know what he meant. There was a small faculty union on campus - but what did that have to do with me?

He elaborated, “You need to get a Ph.D. in information systems.”

I was 37 years old - did he mean I should return for a doctoral degree?  

Yes, that was what he meant.

That’s tomorrow’s topic.

LOVE WINS

LUCK IS WHAT HAPPENS WHEN PREPARATION MEETS OPPORTUNITY
LOVE TRANSFORMS

KAREN ANNE WHITE, ©, NOVEMBER 29, 2023