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Technology Are U.S. Enrollments in IT Shrinking? Bureau of Labor Statistics tell the story. Even accounting for an increase in overseas outsourcing of IT jobs, the Bureau predicts that, by 2012, 1.1 million jobs will be added in the computer field, a 35 percent increase; and more than 330,000 jobs will be created in sys- tems design, a 50 percent increase. Plus, with the economy currently on the rebound, specific tech companies are currently hiring: IBM recently announced that it would be hiring 4,500 workers in the U.S. Even with these growth predic- tions, the Computer Research Asso- 50 enrollments in many university infor- mation systems programs—some have plummeted by as much as 50 percent over the past three years. He predicts students' wariness of the slumping IT market, combined with recent offshore outsourcing of IT jobs, may result in a worker shortage in IT as early as this fall. "The decrease in enrollments in the late 1980s was one of the reasons we saw a nationwide shortage of IT workers by the mid-1990s," says Baskerville. "Today's decreasing enrollments could have a similar effect." Recent data from the U.S. The technology sector has taken a beating in the last decade, from the dot- com bust to the more recent stock market tumble. As a result, students may view information technology as an industry on the decline. This may be discouraging students from pur- suing IT degrees, reasons Robert Baskerville, professor and chair of computer information systems at the Robinson College of Business at Georgia State University in Atlanta. Baskerville points to decreasing ciation measured a 23 percent drop in new undergraduate computer sci- ence majors at universities nation- wide in 2003. Even Robinson Col- lege, says Baskerville, has seen its undergraduate enrollments decline 26 percent over the same period, with its graduate enrollments also down significantly. "I worry this may be a cyclical process in the information systems job market," Baskerville says. "As the economy comes back and demand for IT workers TOOLS OF THE TRADE The Wharton Research Data Service Signs Its 100th Subscriber This spring, the Wharton Research Data Service (WRDS), a product of The Wharton School in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, ob- tained its100th institutional subscriber— Vanderbilt University in Nashville, Ten- nessee. WRDS is a Web-based data management system that delivers approximately 1.5 terabytes of data from 19 vendor partners, including Compustat, comScore, and Thomason Financial Services. It provides a resource to faculty, students, and researchers for financial, economic, and marketing information. WRDS was originally developed in 1993 as an internal resource for Wharton faculty but has been available to other schools and nonprofit research organizations since 1997. The school began offering its database to institutional subscribers as a way to provide a centralized source of business information to the larger research community. In addition, the school is able to recover some of its technological costs. Current subscribers include, among others, Stanford University, University of Chicago, MIT, Northwestern University, Harvard University, Lon- don Business School, the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, and the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. In 2001, WRDS received a patent on technology for its method of managing user accounts and data access privileges. In 2003, WRDS received the Enterprise Value Award from CIO magazine and the Computerworld Honors Laureate Award for its use of information technology. Eventually, the school hopes to expand WRDS' database to new disciplines, including corporate governance, mutual funds, and corporate social awareness, says its director Michael Boldin. The service provides "quick, comprehensive access to economic, financial, and marketing data," says Boldin. Because of the breadth of data available, such access would be difficult for researchers to replicate, he adds. WRDS is one of many informational resources that Wharton offers to the larger research community, includ- ing its biweekly e-zine, Knowledge@Wharton, and its Online Trading and Investment Simulator (OTIS) offered through Pearson Addison-Wesley, which allows students to buy and sell equities using real-world market data. BizEd MAY/JUNE 2004 a global trend, as business schools worldwide have not worked quickly enough to prevent students from making long-term career decisions based on short-term realities. A change in business schools' career resumes, businesses will find a signifi- cant shortfall in skilled workers. This could ultimately impact our coun- try's ability to compete globally." Baskerville fears that this may be