This paper traces the birth of the Information Systems degrees offered by RMIT University in Melbourne, Australia. The paper argues that university curriculum in new areas is a reflection of forces both social and individual. The case of Information Systems curriculum is distinctly different from Computer Science both in the extent of these influences and in the nature of the relationships between the University and industry in general. The analysis presented here is a social history. It does not concentrate on pivotal moments of invention so much as the people and influences that culminated in programs that persist until today.