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Technology and the Liberal Arts Designed to prepare students for leadership positions—as supervisors and managers of other highly skilled people—the program builds high-level technical competence on the solid foundation of the University’s nationally acclaimed general education programs. “We utilize all of the University’s offerings to give our students a well-rounded education in liberal studies and in business with a technical specialization,” says Dr. Karen Coale Tracey, the Department of Computer Electronics and Graphics Technology chair. The program also features required internship and optional Co-Op components to provide students real-world applications for their studies. Recent CCSU electronics technology grad Peter Lukaszewski says his Co-Op and internship assignments at the Connecticut Department of Transportation helped him to see the purpose of the business courses he took. He says he particularly enjoyed the challenge of building the mechanisms that control the TV cameras and radar devices on Connecticut highways at DOT. He enthusiastically added, “That was only one of the things I did. The program is set up so you get to do and learn about many different things.” Lukaszewski describes himself “as one of those kids who loved to take things apart to see how they worked,” and that captures the appeal of the program for students who prefer application to theory. The department ensures that students will have plenty of opportunities to “take things apart” and discover their workings. A significant proportion of class time is spent in labs, usually with no more than 20 students. The result of this particular teaching approach and the individualized attention? Associate Professor Deborah Zanella says, “I’ve seen students of many differing abilities do extremely well here.” They also do extremely well in the marketplace. “Job placement is virtually 100 percent,” says Tracey. While almost all computer workers are in demand, the need for people who understand electronics and networking is particularly acute. That is one big reason behind the department’s new networking and master’s programs (the latter, an interdisciplinary one offered in conjunction with the Computer Science and Management Information Systems departments). “We first offered the interdisciplinary master’s program in Computer Information Technology in cooperation with two other schools at CCSU two years ago, and 300 students enrolled right away. The networking specialization is growing rapidly,” says School of Technology Dean Zdzislaw B. Kremens. While the Department of Computer Electronics and Graphics Technology currently enrolls some 20 percent of his school’s 800 students, Kremens believes it holds the greatest promise for future growth. State College of Technology
Coordinator Karen Wosczyna-Birch calls CCSU’s School of Technology
“extremely timely and responsive to the marketplace” and says this is
one of the main reasons it is so popular with the students at her
college who take advantage of the CCSU Pathway program, which funnels
community college graduates (as well as students at the other
Connecticut State Universities) into the CCSU School of Technology—a
state-designated “Center of Excellence” and the only public school of
technology in Connecticut. Graphics Technology The School of Technology is known for being responsive to industry needs, and the department’s graphics technology program seems especially attuned. “Not everyone who is interested in art has the talent to be a designer,” says Tracey. “But there is significant demand for people who work well with art and text and figuring out how to get it reproduced on catalogs, brochures, magazines, or the Web.” Judith Miller is a rock band publicist who enrolled in graphics technology last year in hopes of expanding her graphic skills. She believes she’s getting “a good understanding of all the programs that are out there, and how to use them. The teachers make themselves available, and not just during class.” Central grad Renata Sedzimir combined the computer skills she learned in the School of Technology’s graphics technology program and the artistic ones she honed while earning her master’s from the Design Department in CCSU’s School of Arts & Sciences. This “best-of-both-worlds approach” has enhanced her career and forms the foundation for the screen graphics she now does for Sunday Night Football and other shows on ESPN. Sedzimir would probably find the
current curriculum even more relevant. The Computer Electronics and
Graphics Technology department now supplements its solid education in
traditional printing methods with on-line publishing and new media
offerings, according to Assistant Professor Margaret Haase, who is
teaching the department’s first Web design course this fall. Promise The department is also trying to
create a new program to meet marketplace demand for professionals with
broad-based knowledge of computer and telecommunications systems. The
new Computer Engineering Technology program could begin as early as next
fall and is one of the reasons its coordinator, Professor Veeramuthu
Rajaravivarma, left a tenured position at a North Carolina university to
join the department. “I came to CCSU to contribute to something that is
still young and growing and full of promise,” he says. — Carolyn Wyman
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Deep inside the sleek plastic
towers of our computers lurks a mass of chips, boards, processors, and
wires most of us would prefer not to think about as we crank out another
e-mail. But some of today’s hottest careers focus exactly on those
high-tech components of modern technology, and the School of Technology
at CCSU has recently launched its new department of Computer Electronics
and Graphics Technology to offer students the opportunity to learn and
master the high-demand skills of managing both the components of
computers and the people who work with them. Reflecting the ever-growing
range of computer applications, the new program also features courses in
networking, Web design, and photo editing.