THE UNIVERSITY OF NORTH CAROLINA
AT
CHAPEL HILL

January 31, 2001

MEMO FOR:	Robert Shelton, Provost
	Richard Edwards, Special Assistant to the Provost

FROM:	Task Force, Information Technology in the Undergraduate Curriculum
Barbara Wildemuth, School of Information and Library Science, Chair
Debashis Aikat, School of Journalism and Mass Communication
V. William Balthrop, Communication Studies, College of Arts & Sciences
Richard Beckman, School of Journalism and Mass Communication
Jeffrey Cannon, Kenan-Flagler School of Business
Stephanie Haas, School of Information and Library Science
Douglas Kelly, College of Arts & Sciences
Marian Moore, Vice Chancellor for Information Technology
Gregory Newby, School of Information and Library Science
Albert Segars, Kenan-Flagler School of Business
Deborah Walters, ACE Fellow
Stephen Weiss, Computer Science, College of Arts & Sciences

SUBJECT:	Recommendation Concerning Proposal for an Undergraduate Major in Information Science

This Task Force was formed by Acting Provost Richard Edwards in fall 2000, and was asked to provide a recommendation concerning the disposition of the proposal for an undergraduate major in information science being developed by the School of Information and Library Science.  In particular, the task force was to consider the possibility of efficiencies that might be gained through interdisciplinary offerings.  This recommendation is communicated here.

Recommendation concerning the SILS proposal for a BSIS.  The School of Information and Library Science (SILS) is proposing the establishment of a new undergraduate major in information science (a brief summary of the current proposal is attached).  Information science is the study of cognitive, social, technological and organizational roles of information in all its forms.  As embodied in the proposed degree program, information science encompasses content, people who interact in various ways with content, and the technologies used to create, manipulate and store content.  The task force reviewed this proposal, primarily focusing on the resources needed and whether or how it might be offered with less resources.  The substance of the proposal was not discussed in depth and might be a topic of future discussion.

While the proposal has many strengths, the task force recommends that SILS be encouraged to table this proposal until a time at which either the University has access to additional resources to support it or plans for a more interdisciplinary program can be developed.  At present, there appears to be no excess capacity in any department’s/school’s IT-related courses that could be used to develop such an interdisciplinary program.  The task force does recommend that SILS consider submitting a proposal for expansion of the already-existing (and extremely successful) information systems minor.