Focus on Society: AIS Colleges

Focus on Society

An AIS membership opens the door to many benefits aimed at improving personal careers, creating networks for advanced IS research, providing opportunities to create more inclusive communities and more. For the next few months, AIS will be highlighting the many programs and services the association offers through our Focus on Society.

This new program, Focus on Society, will not only highlight the longstanding programs and services our members have grown to expect, but also highlight recent additions to help create a more robust member experience. We invite you to share the ways you have benefitted personally and professionally from your AIS membership in the comments below!

AIS Colleges

As an AIS member, there are many communities you can join to network and learn alongside colleagues from throughout the world. One of those community categories are the AIS Colleges. There are four colleges members can join which include:

• AIS College of Academic Leadership

• This group was founded by AIS as an international group of administrative heads responsible for university level colleges, schools, institutes, and departments for IS. The College of Academic Leadership seeks to further the common interests of administrative heads, to facilitate the sharing of information and resources, to sponsor relevant development activities, to promote professional management of these organization, to facilitate mentorships, and other activities deemed appropriate by members. 

• AIS College of Senior Scholars

• Beginning at ICIS 2003, the College of Senior Scholars works to provide a forum for senior scholars to discuss and, at times, take action on important issues that are affecting (or will affect) the IS discipline. This college has also created the “basket” of journals which are intended to provide more consistency in tenure and promotion cases.

• AIS Women’s Network

• The AIS Women’s Network was the first AIS college and began in Philadelphia with a small number of women at a hotel restaurant. What began as a small group in 1980 is now a network supporting hundreds of women in the IS field. The AIS Women’s Network’s purpose is to promote a network for supporting women scholars in information systems and to enable mentorship relationships that are crucial to speed the success of women in IS.

•  AIS Doctoral Student College

• The AIS Doctoral Student College was approved for creation at ICIS 2019. This college is open to all graduate students and early career scholars in IS who are in good standing as AIS members. It was established to provide a forum for discourse between graduate students and early career scholars, an opportunity for mentor relationships crucial to the success of graduate students and early career scholars, and an avenue for career coaching through AIS-sponsored panels and discussions at ICIS and AIS sponsored conferences. The AIS Doctoral Student College has a, “Five-in-Five” plan which includes five goals they plan to achieved in the next five years.

Each of these colleges are dedicated to connecting like-minded AIS members to help them excel in their professional endeavors related to the topic of the college. To learn more about AIS Colleges visit here: https://aisnet.org/page/Colleges.