Students are taking advantage of a new associate degree program in Systems Security Information Assurance at Owens Community College in the newly renovated Heritage Hall.

Owens is the only college in Northwest Ohio to offer an accredited associate degree program in System Security Information Assurance, known as information or network security in the business world.

Mazhar Anik and Denise Pheils of Owens help student Michael Davis in a new classroom lab in Heritage Hall.

The two-year program in the School of Business and Information Systems recently received formal approval by the Ohio Board of Regents.

“The need for highly skilled information security specialists is greater than ever before as more and more businesses are relying on information technology. Maintaining and securing these systems is vital to ensure that security threats, ranging from damaging computer viruses to online credit card fraud and identity theft do not occur,” said Mazhar Anik, chairman of Information Systems and Office Administration at Owens.

Four new students are enrolled in the degree program with many more students who have been taking classes in preparation for the program’s accreditation. It requires 65 credit hours of computer and network security courses offered at Owens.

“It’s been needed for a long time. We have been working on getting this degree program for five years,” said Denise Pheils, professor of Information Systems at Owens and the lead instructor for the system security program.

“We have two students who could be ready to graduate with the degree after taking two new classes required for it,” Pheils said. “The demand for graduates with such a degree is great.”

Pheils said the bachelor’s program at Eastern Michigan University (EMU) has placed 100 percent of its graduates. Owens is a “feeder school” for the bachelor’s, master’s and doctorate programs at EMU and is working with the University of Toledo to do the same there, she said.

“There is a significant lack of security-trained professionals needed in today’s business as people with the right background are extremely hard to find,” said Tom Olzak, a former director of information security at HCR Manorcare in Toledo.

Olzak said that security analysts need to understand the importance of protecting data with some sense of risk management in his response to a questionnaire from Owens about the new associate degree program. He now teaches enterprise security classes online for the University of Phoenix and is the author of two books about information security for businesses.

“There is a strong need for people with that skill set and there would be plenty of opportunities for them in the public and private sector,” said Eric Zatko, director of the Lucas County Integrated Justice System that provides IT support for the county courts system.

Zatko serves as president of the Toledo chapter of InfraGard, a public-private collaboration established by the FBI for infrastructure protection. He is an adjunct faculty member at Owens who has taught security courses.

Two sections of Introduction to Network Security offered at Owens this fall are filled with a maximum of 24 students, plus a waiting list. Pheils said the program has attracted more nontraditional students including unemployed persons coming back to school for new training. Michael Davis, age 31 of Toledo, is a nontraditional student who attended his first class Aug. 16. He plans to take the Advanced Security course next semester, graduate in May with an associate degree in Information Systems, and find a job to support his family.

“Security is critical for all computer networks, to protect the company and its systems. It’s good to have actual knowledge and apply it in the real world,” Davis said. “The quad pods with four computer stations allow students to interact with each other in the class.”

Pheils said Owens said the most advanced computer equipment in the classroom labs at Owens for educating the students in network security. The classroom labs are part of the renovated Heritage Hall that opened this week on the Toledo campus.

The $2.9 million renovation of Heritage Hall serves as the home to Owens’ School of Business and Information Systems and the School of Nursing. It features six experiential learning classrooms for instruction and hands-on laboratory learning with the latest in academic resources and technology.

“This educational facility was designed with the goal of providing students with innovative academic resources at the highest level. The opening of Heritage Hall represents this institution’s commitment to academic excellence,” said Renay Scott, interim executive vice president and provost at Owens, in a news release.

The School of Business and Information Systems and School of Nursing will utilize three learning classrooms each in Heritage Hall. It also features 65 offices, one conference room, an employee lounge, a large student lounge and restroom.

Heritage Hall was designed with energy efficiency in mind by The Collaborative Inc. of Toledo and MDA Engineering of Maumee. Comte Construction Company of Toledo served as the general contractor. Warner Mechanical Corp. of Fremont handled the plumbing and fire protection. VM Systems Inc. and Lake Erie Electric, both of Toledo, handled the mechanical and electrical contracts.

Heritage Hall was formerly known as the Penta Career Center Skill Center purchased by Owens for $6 million in 2008.  The purchase included 325,530 square feet of classrooms, offices, educational labs and parking lots on 56.38 acres located adjacent to the college’s Toledo-area campus.

Tags: Owens Community College

This entry was posted on Thursday, August 19th, 2010 at 2:38 pm and is filed under Community, Education.
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