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MARIETTA -- Computer and information technology careers are among the highest growth prospects for employment in the country, but demand for experts is expected to exceed supply. To address the anticipated shortage, the Ohio Department of Higher Education recently awarded $25 million in grants to 35 Ohio colleges and universities.
Marietta College was among those, receiving nearly half a million dollars from the initiative.
Marietta College president Bill Ruud said the money will be used as scholarship funding to attract students to its computer science and IT major program.
"Choose Ohio First already has given us scholarships, about $300,000 for general STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics) majors," he said. "Gov. (Mike) DeWine, Chancellor (of Higher Education Randy) Gardner and Lt. Gov. (Jon) Husted are very kind to higher education. We were one of 35 colleges who got grants, and for us at a smaller private college, we're pretty excited."
The grants are intended to bolster the college's enrollment in its computer science program. Although Marietta College is a liberal arts institution, it also has a national reputation for technology education.
"We have a history of petroleum engineering for a long time, the only course of its kind in the country offered by a small liberal arts private college. We are pushing students with a liberal arts core married to a technical discipline," Ruud said. "The students entering this program will get a liberal arts education, becoming lifelong learners with expertise in computer science."
Demand for experts in the field is expected to grow by 12 percent in the next decade, and those currently working in computer science are in 14 out of the 25 top-paying job categories, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics.
Ruud said the college is already well-equipped to handle growth in the course, and can grow as enrollment increases.
"As we take in more students, it enables us to garner more resources, and we're already strong in math and computer science," he said. Ruud noted that the recently established e-sports team now has 39 students involved in competitive digital team sports.
"When the National Guard office opened recently, they indicated an interest to partner with us," he said. In addition to corporate information technology, the computer science program also has applications in cybersecurity.
Choose Ohio First was established in 2008 to encourage students from Ohio to attend universities within the state and is primarily directed at students seeking degrees in STEM disciplines. The scholarship money, which for the 2018-19 academic year was capped at $7,689, is granted directly to the student. Successful proposals from colleges generally include matching amounts, according to RFP guidelines published by the state Department of Higher Education.
Gardner, in announcing the Marietta College grant, said the award is intended to support student recruitment and continuation for their first two academic years.
Computer science department faculty Matthew Williamson and Bob Van Camp were involved in assisting college grants and foundation officer Chantal Centofanti-Fields in the application.
Centofanti-Fields said the computer science and information technology fields already have outgrown the number of skilled professionals available to meet the demand.
"Most businesses and organizations now have their own Information Technology department for managing computing hardware and software," Centofanti-Fields said in a statement issued by the college. "This is especially true in the state of Ohio. Even with these career opportunities, there are not enough college graduates with a computing degree to meet the growing job demand. The Bureau of Labor Statistics released a report in 2017 projecting that there will be over one million job openings for computer occupations, with nearly half of those jobs being brand new. Unfortunately, the number of college graduates in computer science, information systems, or related fields is far below the number of jobs available."
Ruud said he believes Marietta College can offer more than just a thorough grounding in the technical field.
"Here, students get a liberal arts education, becoming lifelong learners with expertise in computer sciences. It's important to have people with a solid liberal arts background who also are skilled in the technology that is changing the world," he said.