Geographic Information Services in the Undergraduate College: Organizational Models and Alternatives

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Although GIS is well established at most research universities, it has only recently been integrated into the instructional programs of many undergraduate colleges. This article explores three organizational models for implementing GIS in the undergraduate environment: the departmental model (GIS based in a single academic department), the non-departmental model (GIS based in another agency, such as the library or the computer centre), and the “no centre” model (in which there is no identifiable centre for GIS despite its use in teaching and research). Survey results from 55 liberal arts colleges in the United States reveal that institutions with GIS centres (departmental or otherwise) tend to have enhanced instructional capabilities, better institutional support, and greater capacity to handle large-scale demand for GIS. Non-departmental GIS centres are associated with several additional advantages: the availability of GIS courses in a wide range of academic disciplines, increased support for faculty just beginning to learn GIS, and higher potential demand for GIS resources and services. These findings may indicate that non-departmental GIS centres encourage the diffusion of GIS across multiple departments, or that non-departmental centres are most likely to emerge at colleges where GIS is already well established across a range of disciplines.