College of St. Catherine meets growing demands of business with new undergraduate and graduate academic programs

For Immediate Release--August 15, 2000
Contact: Angelo Gentile, College of St. Catherine Communications Office; 651-690-6521

College of St. Catherine meets growing demands of business with new undergraduate and graduate academic programs:
--Information Systems Degree Program Combines Business and Tech
--Specialty Areas Are Added in Master's in Organizational Leadership

St. Paul--New undergraduate and graduate academic programs launching this fall at the College of St. Catherine in St. Paul are prime indicators of the college's emerging role in business-related education.

On the undergraduate side, a new Information Systems degree program brings technology and business together in a field of study that responds to the increasing need for high-tech professionals with strong management skills. On the graduate side, new specialty areas in St. Catherine's highly regarded Master's of Arts in Organizational Leadership are meeting a growing demand for managers and leaders in three special segments: health care, information services and technology and strategic management.

New information systems degree program offers unusual combination of technology and business; responds to dramatic demand for tech professionals; creates high-tech opportunities for women
An information systems degree program starting this fall at the College of St. Catherine, which offers an uncommon blend of technology and business coursework, is designed to meet the dramatic demand for technology professionals nationally as well as create high-tech job opportunities for women.

The unusual curriculum, which was developed with extensive involvement by industry experts, combines a technical base in math and computer science with advanced coursework in management and business, says Craig Roger, an assistant professor of information systems at St. Catherine's. The combination of technology and business will enable program graduates to choose a number of IT-related positions, Roger says, such as "information analysts, data analysts, system analyst/programmer, and beyond. We do want our majors to go on to various kinds of project leadership roles and eventually on to management roles, and I believe women are particularly good at such roles. But our traditional-age undergraduate student needs to develop strong technical foundations and problem solving skills in order to obtain that first entry-level position in IT and be able to apply those skills immediately and contribute to the organization's goals."

Along these lines, Roger says, the program is not a traditional Management Information Systems (MIS) or Computer Science program, but a blending of both. Math/Computer Science and Business/Economics are required in roughly equal parts in the major, along with a core of study in Information Systems, which blends technical skills and business knowledge.

"The result is a major that is not traditional MIS or CIS/Computer Science, but a blend of both," says Roger.

An advisory board of business executives emphasized the importance of both technical and management competencies for the program. Companies involved included Minnesota Life, Reliastar, 3M Co., NSP, American Express, West Group, The St. Paul Companies, and Allina Health System.

Jean Delaney Nelson, Minnesota Life's vice president of information services and a member of the advisory board, says, "With the program's balance between business and technology coursework, combined with St. Catherine's traditionally strong liberal arts background, I believe the program will produce graduates well prepared for careers in the technology field."

That field is in dire need of additional skilled employees. Last year, the U.S. Department of Commerce estimated that 1.3 million new technology specialists will be needed by 2006.

In addition to the growing employee demand, industry observers say that high-tech professions have been largely avoided by women. For example, in the mid-1990s, fewer than 30 percent of the computer science/information science bachelor's degrees were awarded to women, down from a high of 36.8 percent in 1985, according to a U.S. Department of Education report.

Planners of the new IS degree are working toward resolving this gender gap by offering the major in a learning environment that's committed to women's diverse learning styles. The program will be offered through the College's full-time undergraduate day program.

Three specialty study areas are added to 15-year-old Organizational Leadership
grad program at College of St. Catherine
--Health Care Leadership, Information Services and Technology, and Strategic Management are new specialties
Three new specialty study areas or concentrations within the Master of Arts program in Organizational Leadership at the College of St. Catherine will be offered beginning this fall.

In addition to the program's general master's-level major in organizational leadership, which marks its 15th year this year, one of three new concentrations can also now be selected by students: Health Care Leadership, Information Services and Technology, or Strategic Management.

"By offering these concentrations, we are responding to real-world needs of employers and employees," says Julie Belle White-Newman, program director. "At the same time, these concentrations build on the strengths of St. Catherine’s."

The graduate program in organizational leadership is geared primarily to working professionals in early to mid-career positions, with all courses offered in a flexible, weekend format. Though students generally are women because St. Catherine’s is a women's college, this graduate program also is open to men. The organizational leadership program is distinct from similar offerings regionally and nationally because of its core emphasis on ethics and leadership, says White-Newman.

Health Care Leadership
This emphasis takes advantage of the College's experience and well-regarded reputation in education for health care professions. It is aimed at those professionals who already have clinical-based undergraduate degrees, says White-Newman, such as registered nurses, physical and occupational therapists, and social workers.

Both health care managers and those wanting to move into health care leadership roles will benefit from this program, says White-Newman, which is designed to prepare students for administrative and leadership responsibilities in the rapidly changing environment of health care.

Information Services and Technology
Those professionals who lead--or want to lead—an information services or systems unit within an organization or corporation will be interested in this specialty area. This concentration draws on coursework from the College's master of arts program in library and information science and is focused on "knowledge management," rather than high-tech systems management, says White-Newman. The program enriches students' "information toolbox," and its emphasis on ethics and leadership prepares students for a wide range of current information-management issues such as collecting competitive intelligence.

Strategic Management
This concentration combines the business curriculum of an MBA with the program's core curriculum that emphasizes ethics and leadership, something White-Newman calls a "value-added" approach to business-management education. "It is a direct alternative to an MBA, it's a holistic MBA," says White-Newman.

Students will take the organizational leadership program's core courses and then study the six functional areas that top MBA programs offer: finance, management, organizational theory, marketing, communications and economics.

The College of St. Catherine is the largest Catholic college for women in the country. Through a diversity of programs, the college offers the intimacy of a four-year liberal arts college and the opportunity to complete baccalaureate, associate and master's degrees in a variety of health-care specialties, liberal arts and professional programs. Committed to meeting the educational needs of women of all ages, St. Catherine's offers many of its bachelor's and master's degree programs in both traditional day and weekend formats. With beautiful campuses in St. Paul and Minneapolis, the college has a total enrollment of 4,372.