Mission

The Information Technology Program is a campus wide program administratively based within the Provost Office. Our office is in the Fine Arts Center, room 358.

UMass is a leader in its cross- disciplinary approach to IT education. We seek to educate a broad spectrum of students to be the leading IT practitioners and thinkers. Close to 65 courses, offered by eight different schools and colleges, contribute to our curriculum.

The IT Program also coordinates the annual Information & Communication Technology Summit and collaborates to facilitate the Open Education Initiative, as well as, outreach through Five College, Inc. and local colleges. We also continue to explore, initiate and support new ways to integrate technology in order to sustain a quality education and academic environment for our campus community.

Program History

The UMass Amherst Information Technology Workforce Task Force was formed in 1998 by faculty and staff of the Amherst campus who were members of a President's Office Information Technology Workforce Development Task Force, established to foster linkages between the UMass system and the state's key industries. The UMass Amherst Task Force expanded to include representatives from a number of academic units, including the social sciences, and the humanities and fine arts. At the suggestion of Dean Joseph Goldstein of the College of Engineering, the group took up the subject of IT education at the undergraduate level.

In Fall 1999, UMass Amherst convened a two-day conference and workshop of business, government, and academic leaders to discuss the IT labor shortage. The goal of the conference was to lay the groundwork for a UMass response. See: "Formulating a UMass Response to the Information Technology Labor Shortage."

A short time later, a Curriculum Committee of the IT Task Force formed to sketch out a preliminary IT curriculum for the campus.

On October 13, 2000, some 120 UMass Amherst faculty and staff collected in the Campus Center to focus details of an IT curriculum: who should be involved, what should be taught, what links needed to be formed across the campus in order to move the program forward. The day-long program, sponsored by the Provost, ended with a first request for faculty proposals under the CITI program. By Spring 2001, 20 courses had been developed.

One highlight of the October 2000 workshop was a keynote address by Dr. Cheryl Harris, a UMass alum active in the high-tech sector. While IT programs in institutions around the country have begun with technical roots, Dr. Harris argued that the future of IT requires an even broader approach -- one consistent with the breadth, traditions, and culture of UMass Amherst.