The UNK CSIS Advisory Council
continued to be very active in 2012-2013. Current members (in alphabetical
order) are: Jim Allen, VP of IT, Berkley Technology Services, Des Moines, IA; Jeff Blackmon, Technical Consultant for Risk Management and
Security, Strategic Continuity Solutions, Olathe, KS; Pete Evans, Oracle
Applications Developer for the Douglas-Omaha Technology Commission; Steve
Goddard, Professor of Computer Science and Chair, Department of Computer
Science, University of Nebraska-Lincoln, Lincoln, NE; Rob Harbols, Web System
Development, Buckle, Inc., Kearney, NE; and Scott Weitzel, Senior Patent
Attorney, Avago Technologies, Inc., Brighton, CO. Faculty members are Shahram
Alavi and John Hastings. Student members are Spencer Knight and Tyler McConville. Dr. Harms serves as the secretary, and plans, organizes and facilitates
the Council activities.
As stated in the Bylaws: "The Council shall provide leadership in and promote the development of the Computer Science (CS) and Computer Information Systems (CIS) programs as it relates to and meets the needs of the students, UNK and the industry. The Council shall advise the CSIS faculty and administration on matters related to the Computer Science and Information Systems professions and graduate school entrance requirements". The Council will meet once a year for a one day on-campus meeting and conduct other related business via email and phone conferences.
The Council meet via phone conferences throughout the year. Its most recent on-campus meeting was held March 1, 2013. At
this meeting, the Council met with representatives from UNK Admissions and the University of Nebraska Foundation to discuss
recruiting, scholarships and marketing the IT careers to students. They met
with Chancellor Kristensen, Senior Vice Chancellor of Academic Affairs, Dr. Charles Bicak, and Dean of the College of Natural and Social Sciences, Dr. John La Duke, to
discuss the future direction of the CSIS Department. They discussed the CSIS programs with students, and met with the CSIS faculty to discuss curricular issues.