We invented IT.

Making things work. That was the mantra of our Information Technology Department when it was formed in the late 1980s. At that time, networked microcomputers were becoming commonplace in business, and there was a crying need for technology professionals who make things work for non-technical people. Traditional academic programs like computer science and information systems addressed a different set of skill requirements that focused on technology, but not the ordinary user. We reinvented traditional notions of IT to create a new kind of computing professional—part technological wizard, part user's advocate. As the first IT degree program in the country, RIT has been reinventing the field ever since we accepted our first degree students in 1992.

We have also been instrumental in setting national standards and accreditation guidelines for the IT profession. In the spring of 2003, the Association for Computing Machinery created the Special Interest Group for Information Technology Education (SIGITE), which finally recognized Information Technology as a formal academic discipline distinct from Computer Science, Software Engineering, Computer Engineering, and Information Systems. As a major player in this group, RIT’s Information Technology faculty helped to develop national professional accreditation guidelines and model curricula for Information Technology. The fruits of these labors were realized in July 2005, when RIT’s B.S. Information Technology and B.S. Applied Networking and System Administration programs were among the first group of Information Technology Programs to be accredited by the Computing Accreditation Commission of ABET.

When we formed the department back in the 80’s, the general public still thought of Apple as a fruit, and Java as a slang term for coffee. Mosaic, the first true web browser, hadn’t even been invented yet. Within a few short years, the mass marketing of PCs and the explosive growth of the World Wide Web ushered in the Information Age. The Internet and its universal acceptance have revolutionized our society in general and the computing landscape in particular. Nowadays, the typical user of a computer neither knows, nor needs to know, very much about how a computer works in order to use it.

What he or she desperately needs, however, is a “user's advocate” to help deploy and use technology effectively. Information technologists are now change agents—key players who help people adapt as we make the transition from an industrial economy to a knowledge-based one.