EverettGriz said:AI, robots, all things cyber, space, engineering, medicine etc., are in charge right now. Hard for me to see how this cycles back...
I would submit to a large extent, this sentence answers its own question.
Knowing how to program and code is great, and critical. Knowing how to design your product to fit people's needs, wants, desires and abilities -- and then being able to market that product -- is how companies make money. IT people suck ass at those things. Marketers, finance, economists, social scientists, lawyers, psychologists, historians, artists do those things. And they're in dwindling supply and soon to be high demand.
The pendulum will swing. It always has and always will.
The UM-MSU enrollment pendulum has a history of swinging, but nothing like right now.
From the 60s through the early 70s we had an edge, then from 75-86 MSU typically had 1,500-2,000 more students. I can’t find numbers for both schools between 1987-2004, but we had a small edge <203 from 05-09. Since 2010 MSU has had more beginning with 2013 it has been at least 3,000 more and is currently almost 6,000 more, which is unprecedented.
Considering that and the fact that our own staff don’t see numbers going up until at least 2025 the pendulum may not swing back our way for a couple decades.
The notion that IT people suck ass doesn’t seem lost on MSU’s staff. The Asbjornsen building was built for that reason. Another element that will keep “kids and their parents” eyeing MSU for at least the next decade.
The world, however, is on the verge of a global climate change that will have a huge impact on jobs and the focus educators have on that could bring about a positive change at UM. Hopefully we’re positioning for that.