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MSIS students to graduate Sunday

Dakota State University fall graduation will be Sunday, December 17 at 2pm in the Dakota Prairie Playhouse in Madison. During fall graduation, the first graduating class of the Masters of Science in Information Systems (MSIS) will also receive their degrees.

The MSIS degree received accreditation in August of 1999 and was first offered at Dakota State in the Fall of 1999. Initially, 37 students were enrolled in the program. Of those first 37, seven will be graduating on Sunday.

            Laurie Dennis, director of the graduate office, says this is an exciting step for Dakota State. “It’s amazing to have graduates after just a year and a half,” said Dennis about the short time frame. “The excitement is that they did it. It really shows the power and value of the program. Students want to use what they’ve learned.”

            “I took the program expecting I would get the latest information about what’s happening in the world of information technology,” said graduating student Peter Gustaf. “To a significant extent, that’s what I got.”

            To graduate, students had to complete a 30-hour credit course. Classes for the program are offered in alternating weeks, with an electronic contact in the off week. The minimum time to complete the course for non-traditional students was thought to be five semesters. These first seven students completed the program in just four semesters.

            “They worked their tails off,” said Dennis. “There is a heavy load of work. We have a couple of students close to a 4.0 grade point average and all are above the minimum of 3.0. That’s exceptional.”

“It’s a very demanding program,” said graduating student Bobbi Richardson. “There’s a steep learning curve. It’s not easy by any means.”

            Throughout the course of the program students were asked how the program could be improved. Students replied by saying only that they wanted more hands-on labs and more access to computers.

            “The program has evolved for the better from the beginning to now,” said Gustaf. “They realized that there needs to be change, and they’ve done a good job in providing for those changes.”

“The students are more demanding. They want to work on the data, not just learn how to do it,” said Dennis. “They want more from their classes and instructors. But in return, the faculty demand much more of them.”

            “They’ve met every concern and adapted to what the students wanted,” said Richardson. “The master’s student is a different breed. We’ve been out in the working world. We’re more demanding than undergraduate students and will tell an instructor if we feel we’re not learning.”

            DSU wanted to offer the MSIS degree because of demand across the area. “This is a program that can reach across the borders, outside the region and into other countries,” said Dennis. “Over 200 applications have gone to international students.” That total includes five students from India who have recently been admitted to the program.

The program has been a big success in its short existence. Original projections had 20 students signing up for the program each semester. The current active status total is 67.

“I don’t think DSU was really prepared for the number of students wanting to take more than one class a semester,” said Richardson. “They were very surprised that students like me wanted to do just that.”