New Chair Joins Division of Computer Information Systems

Managing Editor

Photo by Linna Jones

Getting to Know the Students- Brian Hairston, the new chair of the Division of Computer Information Systems, talks with Chi Iota Sigma Secretary Richard Vaughn, left, and Micah Hughes at the first CIS Club meeting. Hairston introduced himself to the CIS Club members and told them about his work history and education. (more) http://thevoice.uamont.edu/7-1/news/chair.

   The Division of Computer Information systems hired a new chair in August.

   Brian Hairston, a 1997 University of Arkansas-Monticello graduate, returned to UAM to take to the place of  Jim Roiger, the former chair of the Division of CIS, after he retired July 31.

   Hairston graduated from UAM with a Bachelor’s of Arts in Business concentrating in Computer Information Systems.

   Hairston showed interest in computers growing up and enjoyed working on them. 

   “In the late 1990s when I was in school, it was growing, really breaking out into its own explosive growth and job demand,” Hairston said. “Those things only influenced me more to choose (them as) a career.”

   Hairston and teammate, Steven Cazort attended the Fifth Annual Arkansas Society for Computer Information TechnologyScholastic Programming Contest, March 7, 1996, his junior year. They won the first place in the Computer Information Systems Division for COBOL. COBOL, used for writing customized application programs in business, stands for Common Business Oriented Language. It helps design commercial applications such as pay roll and inventory.

   After graduating from UAM, he went to graduate school at the University of Arkansas at Fayetteville starting of August of 1997 and earned a Master’s degree in Information Systems in August 1998.

    U of A just started offering the master’s degree in Information Systems in 1997. The program consisted of course work in graduate CIS courses and a mixture of Master’s of Business Administration courses such as Statistics, Finance and Marketing.

   "We had a lot of classes within the MBA major, so we got to see a lot of the business side, as well as, the computing side,” Hairston said. “It helped me understand the interactions as far as the roll of Computer Information Systems and working in larger business frame work.” 

   Together the mixture of business and CIS courses helped Hairston to prepare for the corporate world and going out and getting a job.

   Hairston looked in many of different areas when he applied for jobs. He interviewed at J.C. Penny, Texaco, Dillard’s, Wal-Mart, IBM, Acxiom Corporation, J. B. Hunt, Tyson and many different businesses in Arkansas.

   He wanted to stay in Arkansas to stay close to family and friends. He grew up in Warren, attended the schools in the Warren School district and stayed with family while he attended UAM.

   “ I wanted to stay in Arkansas and that ruled out a few possibilities,” Hairston said. “ So, I was looking for a job that challenged me and allowed me to grow and use the skills I developed.”

   Hairston started working for the Acxiom Corporation in August of 1998. He worked for Acxiom for 11 years and in multiple positions. He started out as a programmer working to address the Y2K bug. After about a year, he and his team had the problem resolved and everything in good working order. Then, he moved over to become a Database Administrator and programmer working on large financial databases.

   He then received the chance to become a Systems Engineer and perform daily trouble shooting on multiple operating systems. An engineer, in CIS terms, refers to a person who is responsible for the server from the top down, which includes hardware, software, operating system, connectivity and security. 

   He worked as a back-up Support Engineer for two years, backing up the databases for Acxiom’s financial customers. For his final three years at Acxiom, he worked as a Unix Engineer/ Architect building and supporting Unix production servers. His support team also addressed some security audits and consulting.

   Unix is an operating system, same as Windows. Where Windows is graphically based, Unix is strictly command based, similar to DOS, but much more functional and powerful.

   He lived in Conway until 2006, then he moved here to Monticello with his wife Amber of 8 and a half years and two sons, 4 -year old Logan and year-old Luke. He moved to Monticello to be closer to his family in Warren. 

   He worked from home for Acxiom until this August. He usually went into the Conway or Little Rock offices once or twice a month for meetings or projects, as needed.

   Hairston said Acxiom was his first job and being the chair in the Division of CIS and teaching is his second. He will not be teaching any courses this semester, but plans to teach during the spring semester. He might be teaching senior level classes or a Microsoft Computer Application course. If possible, he strives to make the classes student-driven.

   “I am excited about the opportunity to be here and working to continue the excellent work Dr. Roiger had on with the department,” he said. “I hope to continue to grow the division.”

   Coming back to the academic world always interested Hairston. While in graduate school, he enjoyed teaching and working with students when he was a graduate assistant.

   “(Teaching) has always been a interest of mine and the opportunity to come back to the this program that I graduated from and continue to work with students and help give them opportunities like what were given to me,” He said.

   He described some practical experience he learned in the corporate world, helpful to graduating students and future CIS majors.

   These skills include non-technical skills like; teamwork, professionalism, strong communication skills and the ability to change and learn.

   If a person develops strong communication skills, in addition to their technical skills, they will go a long way and this skill can be applied to any job area.  In addition to strong communication skills, the ability to learn and change is also important.

   “It’s always great to have the ability to teach yourself,” Hairston said. “ With the pace of technology and all the rapid changes that occur, you have to learn on the fly and teach yourself without somebody else or even proper instructions like books or anything like that.”

    Within a support team, there needs to be communication and team work, having good communication and working together, which helps with sharing skills and knowledge transfer within a team. He described how numerous times during his career at Acxiom, he would be given projects to support on operating systems or software packages he was not familiar with. His job was to support the project and he took it upon himself to learn about the software. Once he learned about the program and established a level of comfort with it, he documented it so others on his support team could support it as well.

   Hairston advised graduating CIS majors to look for a job early. He encouraged them to not wait until they are graduating to look for a job and said it will save a lot of stress and it puts them out in front on the market. The market is kind of flooded with job applicants in May and December. He said he will strongly encourage students to begin looking as early as the beginning of the semester they are graduating.

   “I know personally for me, I was graduating in August and I had my job lined up in late April, early May. It took a lot of stress off,” He said.

   Hairston noted several changes to the UAM campus such as the renovations to several of the buildings and the completion of the Fred J. Taylor Library and Technology Center, which started around 1997.

   The number of instructors in the Division of CIS changed from three to six from the time Hairston attended classes at UAM. With the added number of instructors, the division can provide an improved variety of CIS courses such as Ethics, Security and PC Software.

   He cited an obvious growth of total students and the number of CIS majors. When he attended school, around 50 CIS majors were in the department. That number has grown to around 140 students.

“The program has shown really great growth over the last ten years,” Hairston said. “Hopefully, we can continue that growth.”

   For more information about ASCIT State Programming Contest and other winners, click on the link.

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