Systems Program - History

Taylor University has been building up today's Systems program for the past 35 years! Initially encouraged by a 3-year grant from the Eli Lilly foundation in 1973, Taylor was one of four universities funded to work on upgrading their curriculum in the Systems area. The next year, Eli Lilly provided similar grants to 30 additional universities.

At this time in Taylor's history, there was only a Computer Science track within the Mathematics major. To help in building a solid Systems program, Dr. Leon Adkison, from Virginia Commonwealth University, and John Kastaline came to Taylor University to act as director and associate director of the growing program.

Adkison's first major task in building up the program was to find new faculty to help teach in the Business department. In Spring of 1975, Taylor University was able to see their first student with Systems graduate!

After the Eli Lilly grant expired in 1977, Taylor was the only university that decided to continue funding the growing Systems program. That same year, Kastaline became the director of the newly established Administrative Computer Department (today's I.T. Department) as Adkison continued developing the Systems program and the Computer Science major.

In Spring of 1978, Taylor University celebrated it's first Computer Science graduate!

Today, over eight percent of Taylor students are graduating with Systems curriculum added to their major. In addition, about 40 students are graduating each year with degrees in Computer Science, Computer Engineering, or Computer Science-New Media.