Just as a multifaceted ArcView GIS project will relate several themes and databases, GIS professional education and research are relating to multiple players and themes to capitalize on increasing opportunities. At the University of Southern California (USC), a major urban research university located in the heart of Los Angeles, the Department of Geography, Center for Scholarly Technology, Southern California Studies Center, and ESRI are an interrelated GIS team that has come together in three short years. This article describes some of the unique characteristics of rapidly expanding USC GIS programs and where they are headed.

Geographic information science is one of three major programs (the other two being urban and environmental systems) in the Department of Geography. Since 1995, key accomplishments include the appointment of additional GIS faculty members, the construction of a dedicated GIS lab for teaching and faculty/graduate student research, and the successful launch of undergraduate minor and graduate certificate GIS programs.

The GIS minor incorporates courses in urban planning and civil engineering as well as geography. Five courses are required to complete the minor, and students may apply to study in Austria, the Netherlands, Spain, and the United Kingdom as part of an externally funded WWW-based spatial analysis curriculum development project.

Geography majors and GIS minors earn upper division credit for GIS internships and directed research projects, both of which are plentiful because of our relationships with local GIS employers. The introductory GIS class is also recognized as fulfilling a campuswide general science technology requirement.

The year-round GIS graduate certificate is offered entirely via "distance learning" and is aimed at working professionals too busy to leave work and home for graduate school. It incorporates three graduate-level classes that can be completed in 12-18 months. Students take two required classes: Concepts for Spatial Thinking and Spatial Analysis and Modeling. Course notes, reference materials, and access to GIS software and geospatial data are provided, and extensive use is made of ESRI's Virtual Campus and other interactive GIS sites such as the U.S. Census Bureau and U.S. Geological Survey. The students complete research papers and hands-on assignments from their home or office computer. The third course is a choice between a distance learning class focused on GIS and organizational issues or a three-week hands-on GPS/GIS Field Techniques project class. This field course is located on beautiful Santa Catalina Island located 20 miles off the California coast and is scheduled each year immediately prior to the ESRI user conference.

USC is the only U.S. member in the UNIGIS International Education Network of colleges and universities offering postgraduate distance learning courses and programs in GIS. USC shares course materials and access to software at reduced fees from major vendors, including ESRI, through UNIGIS. USC students benefit through our contributions to and use of an established global distance learning curriculum.

GIS research activities are many and varied and include projects to develop new software and/or applications for performing digital terrain analysis, managing chemical spills, tracking marine pollution, and describing voter behavior in Los Angeles County from 1960 to 1996. Several projects supported by the USC Library's Center for Scholarly Technology (CST) and the Southern California Studies Center (SC2) are especially noteworthy in terms of their multidisciplinary scope and likely future impact.

SC2 compiles statistics, maps, and research on many topics represented by USC research faculty as a part of its mission to monitor and guide the environmental, economic, cultural, and social transformations in Southern California. These findings are published in a Southern California atlas series that uses ArcView GIS extensively.

CST sponsors the Information Systems Los Angeles project, which takes a longer-term view and will eventually provide a digital library archive of Los Angeles maps, photographs, satellite images, tabular data, texts, and oral histories for research, teaching, and public access. The system supplements the Dewey and Library of Congress subject-oriented cataloging system with a GIS-based space/time/keyword/format system. GIS map display and query capabilities are used to relate geography-based searches to the regular library catalog system.

These recent initiatives are important building blocks for a future where GIS is related to a wide array of disciplines and application areas in higher education at USC. In the two years since acquiring the campuswide ESRI site license, GIS is regularly used in biology, business, civil engineering, communication, economics, history, industrial and systems engineering, information sciences, policy and planning, real estate development, and sociology research and teaching. The GIS certificate program is planned to grow into a distance learning master's program with the addition of Internet technology, programming, and more application courses.

Readers interested in learning more about the graduate certificate in geographic information science should consult www.usc.edu/dept/geography/learngis/. This site also provides links to other GIS research and education opportunities at USC.