The following was an op ed piece in the State newspaper
on 11 January 2007.
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Speaker Harrell's plan to increase scholarship values for
South Carolina's science, math, and engineering students
could not be more important to the state. With this added
incentive, students should pay particular attention to programs
in "computing" (computer science, computer information systems, etc.).
Enrollments in computing programs are down substantially in the
state's public universities, and yet, contrary to media
misrepresentation, that is where the good jobs are.
For years we have heard about disappearing jobs in computing.
The facts are much different, and given the facts about jobs
and salaries, there is every reason for young South Carolinians
to study computing.
The Bureau of Labor Statistics lists nine occupations as the
fastest growing of those requiring a bachelor's or master's degree.
Six of those categories normally ask for a bachelor's degree in
computer science and account for 80% of those new jobs. The
957,000 new jobs forecast in computing from 2004 to 2014 is more
than three times the number of expected degree recipients.
Nationally, one in six new professional jobs will be in computing.
There is no question that a college degree in computing takes hard
work and is not for everyone. The work, however, pays off. Although
traditional programming jobs are decreasing in number, the overall
job market in computing has been better than the national average
throughout the last six years. Excluding health care, more than
twice as many new jobs are forecast in computing as in the life
and physical sciences and engineering combined.
More importantly, jobs in computing are good jobs. Michael Porter's
study found the IT/communications cluster the highest paid of the four
South Carolina clusters. The average yearly starting salary for a
BS in computer science is over $50,000, and CNN Money magazine recently
ranked "software engineer" as the best job in America.
Further, the ability to build the new economy is easier in software
than anything else-one can set up shop in an office and be generating
revenue in short order. Contrast this with multimillion dollar labs
and long FDA approval times for biotechnology and drug design.
There is a final incentive for a computing career. As Time magazine
has just shown, we who do computing get to use the best toys in the world
to build cyberspace -and get paid for it.
Speaker Harrell intends to make it easier for South Carolina students to
fill the high-tech knowledge gap. The students should listen to his message.
Duncan Buell is chair of the Department of Computer Science and
Engineering at the University of South Carolina. The opinions
expressed are his own.
