Story by Ava Chuppe
Contributing writer
am.chuppe@gmail.com
In order to reflect its new approach on technology education, the Center for Telecommunications Systems Management is transforming into the Center for Computer and Information Technology.
The new Center will focus on career outcomes and relationships with industry partners.
Michael Ramage, the director of the new Center for Computer and Information Technology, said the transformation would reflect the improvement of telecommunications.
“As technology has evolved and the boundaries between specific CIT industries have started to blur, now is the right time to transform computer education at Murray State University,” Ramage said. “We’re doing this by improving alignment among existing computer and information technology related degrees, combining recruitment and retention efforts, considering new CIT academic pathways and increasing academic-business partnerships.”
The new plan will reinforce support through field trips, campus events, conferences and guest speaking.
Provost Mark Arant said the new Center was a testament to the excellence of the University.
“The new Center represents the unwavering commitment to student success that the Murray State faculty possess,” Arant said. “As the digital world continues to grow and evolve at a rapid pace, strategies for recruiting, retaining and graduating these majors must change with it. The Center will combine the best of academic and student life efforts toward producing highly educated and skilled leaders of tomorrow.”
The faculty will create a common first-year curriculum over the next few months. Any incoming freshmen who wish to study CIT will come in as meta-majors.
During the first year, the department will work with freshmen on their specific areas of interest in CIT, such as programming, wireless, networking, data science, cybersecurity or game development. Once a student chooses one of these paths, he or she will move into that major.
The Center will also work to place students in jobs and internships through industry partnerships.
“While Murray State has Career Services to assist with internships and job placement, the Center has always assisted, since we have relationships with many of the companies that hire our students,” Ramage said. “Not only will that continue, but the new Center will continue that for all areas of CIT. This should make it easier for companies looking for interns or workers. No more will someone have to reach out to multiple departments looking for workers.”
Terry Sullivan, director of the Gear Up project for the West Kentucky Education Cooperative, said the program at Murray State would help students find careers in CIT.
“As a former information technology instructor, principal and now Gear Up grant director, I have seen the immediate and lasting impacts that Murray State University’s programs have had on students,” Sullivan said. “As we look at the kinds of jobs that will be created over the next decade and the demand for IT professionals in our state, the creation of the Center for Computer and Information Technology will put Murray State University at the forefront in training the next generation for those jobs.”
Anyone interested in the new program can visit murraystate.edu/ccit.