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Show - Ill® - FOCUS: BUS ED/CIS -- THE UNIVERSITY JOURNAL • SOUTHERN UTAH UNIVERSITY • FRIDAY, OCTOBER 13, 1995 THE UNIVERSI1Y JOURNAL• SOUT HERN UTAH UNIVERSITY• FRIDAY, OCTOBER 13, 1995 FOCUS: BUS ED/CIS -- nn t BE/CIS department has good placement of graduates 'All of the gradua tes with an emphas1s in CIS are employed in CIS related areas, ' department h ead William son said By LEAH WOOD SENIO R STAFF WRITER I St uden ts majoring in business education or computer information systems depend heavily on the computers in the Bus iness Building compu ter labs to help them with their homeworl< in classes lil<e l<eyboarding for computers, introduction to word processing, introduction to spreadsheets, introduction to database, and desl<top publishing. n 196 7, business education became a composite ma jor at SUU. Today, SUU's business education/ computer infor mation systerr.s department provides two major areas for students. One area is teaching business education and the other area is nonteaching. Each area has two or three em phases available. Students who want to teach in the public schools can emphasize their studies in one of t hree areas: I ) administrative support, 2 ) n;arketing and basic business, or 3) computer information system s. Administ rative support encompasses subjects such as recordkeeping, office procedures, and word processing. Business law, advertising, m arketing and economics are exa·m ples of what students study in preparation to teach m arketing and basic business. Computer information system s includes networking and/or applications on the personal computer using WordPerfect, Microsoft Word, Lotus, Excel, dBase, and PageMaker. "In relation to teaching, we've had very good p~acement of students. We certify about one-third of th e teachers in business education in the state even though we are a small school," said BE{CIS department head Doris Williamson. Williamson said t here are only three universities in Utah that can certify students to teach in the business education field. These arc Southern U tah University, U tah State University and Weber State University. "Placemen t has been good, following up on the graduates of th e last six years we fou nd all except five of the 69 graduates who certified are teaching or in related jobs. "As far as we know, all of the graduates with an emphasis in BE/CIS IN A MINUTE • " Bus iness English" !BU.ED 130) is a cou rse offered by t he SUU BE/ CIS department. It teaches s tuden ts how to spea k in ' bus inesscsc, ' which is used to make three martini lunches and phrases like " Have yo ur m achine call m y mach ine." The course also teaches the finer points of grammar, spelling, word usage, punctuation and capitalization in formal business writing. Actually, if current trends continue it migh t be m ore appropriate to teach a class entitled ' Business Japa nese.' • A no ther popular class in t he business education department is !BUED 495) "Teaching Office Skill Subjects." This 'han ds-on' class inst ructs st udents in many of t he 'arts of t he office' includ ing coffee making, on-th e-lap note taking and lunch reservation making. Actuall y, t he class fa mi liarizes students w ith keyboa rding, infor mation processing, business p rocedures and short hand/ transcription . Students also learn s kills t hat w ill make them look like they are working when really t hey're not. (Just kidding). buzzing about, "Networking Technologies"!CIS 440) is offered in the BE/ CIS department. This class instructs student in the fine art of netwo rking tech nologies, whatever that m eans. It also provides an in-depth look at basic networking knowledge. In addition, st udents who complete t his course will become p roficient at "surfing the net. " This upper division cJ..ass is not fo r the fain t o f heart. • " Advanced Desktop Publishing"(CIS 3 70) is a favorite among the com pu ter information systems folks. It deals w ith m icrocompu ters and laser printers, real high tech stuff, kids. T he class is designed to provide st udents t he opport u nity to apply desk top publishing activities through the use of t he more high tech st uff. Enrollment in t his class requires a note from your m other as w ell as a desi re to live t he fast-paced, do or die, pedal to the metal, here today-gone tomorrow life of desktop publishers. Where would this world be witho ut them ? • "Office Proced urcs"(BUED 270 ) is designed to emphasize administrative s upport responsibilities in t he office. T he class provides personal developm ent and general office dut ies. T his class docs not, however, teach st udents an ything about racquetball, t he proper length of 'business' lunches, or t he proper et iquette for an affair wi th your secretary. • The class that everyone on campus has been I Doris Williamson, business ed./CIS departm ent head • "Records Management" (BUED 150) takes students to the heart of the fast paced herctoday-gone-tomorrow life of the rock band manager. You call the shots du ring the world tour, you get to fire bass players who pass out during the drum solo, you get first crack at the groupies ...er, ah ... act ually studen ts learn t he rules for alphabetic, numeric, geographic, subject, and ch ronologic filing. Students arc also trained in t he effective control and managem ent of records fro various types of businesses. computer information systems are employed in CIS related areas," said Williamson. Compu ter Information Systems was added to t he curriculum in 1992 as an emphasis and several courses have been added to the department cu rriculum. Students who obtain a degree in BE/CIS can also apply these courses towards becom ing certified as either computer network engineers or computer network instructors. These certificates m ake studen ts more marketable for businesses t hat 'As far as we know, all of the graduates with an emphasis in computer information systems are employed in CIS related areas,' sµid Business Education/Computer Information Systems Department Head Doris Williamson. want to network their computer systems or train their employees in utilizing software. " Everything is on computer anymore," said Williamson. Through the BE/CIS department, students learn how to use a variety of equipment and soft ware including personal computers, calculators, transcription machin es, WordPerfect, Lotus/Excel, dBase, and PageMaker. Willia mson said that if studen ts com e to SUU and are unsure about teaching, it would be better to look at t he t wo-year programs. "We offer a one-year clerical certificate or two-year associate degrees in administrative support, small business management, computer info rmation system s networking and applications. These programs provide st udents w ith basic knowledge of the field and from there they can determi ne if they would enjoy working or teaching in these areas or enter the b usiness world," said Wi lliamson. Specific courses in the BE/CIS department incl ude beginning, intermediate and advanced keyboa rding, b usiness English, shorthand, resume/ interview preparation, office procedu res, introductions to spreadsheets, word processing and databases, desktop publishing, and presentation graphics for business. The BE/ CIS department has five professors including: Jean Adams, LaVona Adams, Connie Nyman, Coralie Rawlinson, and Williamson. Lau rie Harris is the department's secretary and Paula Alger advises students in both the business administration and Busi ness Ed./ CIS departments. N ym an started teaching at SUU in 1970. She was also coordinator and teacher of the Manpower Training program with SUU and Job Service. She is now a full-time associate professo r in BE/CIS. Some of the co urses she tea ches include: shorthand, database, business machines math, pri ncipl~s of business and marketing education, and machine transcription. N yman has been instrumental in organizing and teaching several new courses over the years. She has always been willing to be a "pioneer. " As an example, she has taught the Gregg, Century 21, Forkner and Spcedwriting shorthand systems. LaVona Adams is new to the SUU facult y this year. Ada m s is an SUU graduate and is a lecturer in the BE/CIS departmen t. Adams has cake and eats it too By LEAH WOOD SEN IO R STA FF WRITER " I've always wanted to teach. Having a teaching position in t he business education departm ent is like having your cake with icing and eating it all," said Lavona Adams, a new lect urer in SUU's business education/computer information systems department. Although this is the fi rst quarter that Adams is teaching in the business education department, she has been in terested in business since elementary school. "Even before high school," said Adams, "I was in terested in . business. I thin k m y mother inspired t his because she would let me come in to her office after school." Adam s' mother, Melba Forsyth, was a pmchasing agent for the Utah Departmen t of Transportation. Adam~ remembers how much she en joyed going over to her m other's office and playing with t he office equipment. She said i t was fun to get to use the t ypewriter and help with t he paper work. " It was fun to sit in her office·" said Adams. A second inspiration to Adams was her high school business teacher LaJune Nelson. Adam s said she felt she was learning something she could appl y and that Nelson made business an interesting subject. After graduating from high school, Adams looked at several colleges before choosing Southern Utah State College. Her decision was infl uenced by her familiarity with the college and the reputation of the business education departmen t. In addition, she knew the campus because two of her brothers had graduated from SUSC and she knew the classes were small. Also, she was impressed w it h the business education classes. "I graduated from Sou thern Utah State College in 1988 as a business education major. With t his m ajor you are able to turn around and apply your skills. You become very marketable in both t he business world and the academic world." Adams experienced a variety of employment opportunities available to business education majors after obtaining her undergraduate degree ii:t business education. Adams, whose husband was in the m ilitary, had the opportunity of living in Texas, California, and Maryland during the four years after her graduation. Adam s discovered her business skills made her extremely marketable. She worked professionally with California Contemporaries, a temporary agency, and Columbia Medical Plan, a health maintenance organiza tion. She found that her degree offered her t remendous diversity in employment. When t he Adamses returned to Cedar City in 1992, Adams continued to apply her skills by working for the theat re arts department and t he Utah Shakespearean Festival. Last year a vacancy was opened in the business education depart ment when Janine Jolley ret ired. Adams applied for the position and was selected as a lecturer. Adams teaches in troduction to word processing and spreadsheets, business English, business keyboarding, and written business communication. · " It is fu n to com e back and teach with professors who taught m e. " If you are interested in business and you are not su re of what area to study, business education is a great m ajor. You can apply your knowleclge to teaching or, if you don't want to teach, you have a lot of opportunities applicable to many other fielcs." La Vona Adams |