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About The Battalion. (College Station, Tex.) 1893-current | View Entire Issue (Jan. 22, 1986)
ts Wednesday, January 22, 1986/The Battalion/Page 5 enter aiding liberal arts majors m v: NY CAS [hewed custom the dm estinj ive thei| the \ndil oauddi best By SCOTT SUTHERLAND Assistant City Editor lome say the centralized place- nt center at Texas A&M is too ;e and isn’t helping liberal arts ors who need special attention. jtu| officials say A&M’s placement |ter is the best way to give slu ts a wide range of job choices in a petitivejob market, tthe University of Texas, liberal majors have a spec ial placement tei that seeks jobs specifically for im. r. Richard Pyle, associate direc- for the University of Texas ement center, says the center is moling liberal arts as a valuable ree. We want people to understand liberal arts skills are still impor- Pyle says. I\nd even Pyle says it doesn’t take ■pedal liberal arts placement cen- Ttoopen doors for liberal arts ma- The difference between how a ter performs is more a philo- hical thing titan a physical thing,” |esays.‘‘It depends a great deal on people who are running things. If you have dedicated people tare interested in a creative pro- iii for liberal arts majors, then I Id say a centralized placement ter could perform just as well as a cialcenter like ours.” udy Vuillet, associate director of A&M placement center, believes dents would lose more than they Id gain if A&M had a specialized ement center. uillet says the center at UT pro les counseling service and self-sell- 1 techniques, but doesn’t provide quantity of job interviews that a jtralized center can of fer, ssociate Dean of Liberal Arts, hdida Lutes, agrees that a central- placement center provides re job opportunities for students. ' don’t think we would benefit ma separate center,” Lutes said. Jit students can benefit more cm contact with a wide range of plovers.” nd according to Michigan State’s 4-85 Recruiting Survey, recruit- aren’t concerned about the type lacement center a university has have luck in securing a job with one of the 750 companies that interview on campus. But over the past 10 years the de mand for liberal arts majors has con tinued to decline. The Occupational Outlook handbook, compiled by the Bureau of Labor statistics, cites a steady decline in the availability of jobs for liberal arts majors. And job opportunities for most fields that have traditionally hired liberal arts graduates, are expected to grow' at only an average pace for the next 10 years. Skip Sturman, director of career ‘7 don’t think we would benefit from a separate center. Our students can benefit more from contact with a wide range of em ployers. ” — Candida Lutes, asso ciate dean of liberal arts. could increase their salability by choosing a specific minor field of study. In the recruiting survey, 32 per cent of the recruiters said account ing and finance backgrounds make liberal arts graduates more employa ble. Writing and communications skills also were listed by recruiters as being very helpful. And recruiters said internships and cooperative education programs can be very helpful. In that category Vuillet says spe cialized placement centers do have an advantage. She says they are very adept at placing students in co-op and intern programs that often pro vide the key to job placement. Vuillet praises these programs as “try-before-you-buy programs that employers and students can benefit from.” Sturman agrees that along with an academic background, internships and cooperative education programs provide exceptionally good experi ence. “Career planners on both sides of the fence recommend business inter nships as one of the best ways to showcase talent and test long-range interests,” Sturman says. Vuillet says students should start researching the placement center long before they graduate, looking for companies that are coming to in terview. Each company that recruits at A&M must apply for a date to inter view at the placement center. Most of those reservations are made early in the semester because companies >r or him I es in it he »i r. J was : any ronide sday. iiesdav 5 ordi tt and to tesi nied d» jOnly 12 percent of the recruiters the nations largest 470 compa- 1 said their decision to hire a Iduate was influenced by a col e’s placement center. Jdore recruiters — 34 percent — B previous success in hiring grad- |es was most important to their ipus recruiting. liven A&M’s past record of pro- Ing top graduates, one would ik that liberal arts majors would iege, wrote in the December issue of Ca reer Magazine that liberal arts ma jors are suffering from today’s com- petitive business world. Sturman says although chief exec utive officers often rave about the value of a liberal arts education, stu dents are finding it rough going in the job market. “It’s difficult to understand,” he says, “why many CEO’s issue glowing testimonials about liberal arts grads while corporate doors are being slammed in their faces.” Stueman says the problem is that CEO’s rarely make low -level employ ment decisions. Instead, he says, middle managers do the hiring and liberal arts majors aren’t tops on their lists. T hese middle men are not con cerned with hiring someone who might pay dividends somewhere down the road, Sturman writes. In today’s economy, managers are pres sured to get a big return on their in- want to get the best dates and times, vestment in a short amount of time. Vuillet says. Liberal arts majors who need Companies fill out application training before they get the hang of cards with the type of major they will the system are simply not worth the be interviewing and a description of investment, he says. the position they want to fill. But Sturman says CEO’s are start- Lutes says liberal arts students are ing to take a closer look at the hiring often intimidated by the requtre- practices of their firms. ments on these job descriptions. “Belatedly, many CEO’s have “Students should look at these re- come to the realization that it may quirements and ask themselves Can not be enough to talk about the valu- I do this job?’ ” Vuillet says. Too able contributions that liberal arts often they count themselves out be- graduates can make without taking a cause the description looks too tech- look at the hiring practices of their nical.” own organizations,” he says. And if students feel they are qual- Vuillet says liberal arts majors—tfied to interview for a position even “Liberal arts students will not fare well if they expect to be treated like an engi neering major. ” — Candida Lutes if the company does not list their major, Vuillet says, they should call the company and ask for permission to interview. Lutes added that students might even consider contacting the com pany later and asking to interview. Regardless of how a liberal arts major gets his foot in the door. Lutes says that selling yourself is a key el ement in landing a job. “Liberal arts students will not fare well,” Lutes says, “if they expect to be treated like an engineering ma jor. They’re going to have to show a little extra initiative.” Vuillet says liberal arts majors need to have a clear idea of what they wish to accomplish in a job. Vagueness or uncertainty is a real turnoff to recruiters, she says. Sturman concurs, saying that too often liberal arts majors come across like the Zonker Harris character in Doonesbury. “Too many times interviewers hear, T don’t know what I want to do,’ or T wanted to be such-and- such,’ lots of negatives, too hard to find the positives,” he says. “Lots of liberal arts majors don’t know what they want to do.” Along with encouraging liberal arts majors to sell themselves, the placement center has also been try ing to sell recruiters on liberal arts majors. In the Fall, the placement center hired Danny Parsley as director of liberal arts programs. Parsley monitors the schedule of companies that will be interviewing in the placement center, watching for job descriptions that liberal arts majors are qualified for. If he sees something encouraging, he tries to influence the company to see liberal arts majors also. And this semester Parsley, in coordination with the liberal arts col lege, helped organize a four-part workshop. The workshop explored the options available to liberal arts majors after graduation and offered hints from Aggie liberal arts grad uates. Lutes says the program attracted a large turnout and she hopes that in the future more programs like the workshop will be offered. Vuillet says that liberal arts at A&M is still growing and maturing, and she hopes that it will develop into a more career-oriented pro gram. “The liberal arts program at A&M is very academically oriented,” Vuil let says. “We need stronger business oriented programs like advertising, media communication and public re lations.” hree men arrested in firefighter’s shooting Associated Press )ENTON — Texas Rangers and ce arrested three men Tuesday onnection with the shooting of a fighter who stopped on a Denton inty road to help motorists, twooi 'h e firefighter, Kenneth Ewing ,ey of Cooke County, was in sta- condition Sunday at Westgate ,i lical Center in Denton, where he 7/11 taken after being shot in the 7 ,, ;r back. ring," relation to tht said. Peace Justice James Erwin set bonds of $75,000 each for Kenny Dean Wheeler, 24; Michael Jeff Col- wick, 18; and Larry Joe Richardson, 17, all of Denton. The trio, arrested early Tuesday by Denton police and Rangers, were charged with aggra vated robbery and attempted capital murder. Blakey, a Love Field firefighter, had stopped along Farm Road 455 in northern Denton County to assist motorists on his way to work about 5 a.m. Sunday, Sheriff Randy Kaisner said. Money was taken from Blakey and he was left in the bed of his pickup truck. Police acted on information from sa!d rimeStOPPerS P ro S ram . Kaisner waTthlTvTar ofd ' Vhich hel P ed us yfar-old son of Ke n neth Blakey taking a tape recorder when he visited his father in the hospital,” Kaisner said. Blakey has not been able to speak with investigators since entering the hospital. “The boy recorded his father’s words while in the hospital and passed the tape on to investigators who were able to use the informa tion to help identify one of the sus pects,” Kaisner said. COLLEGE GRADUATE AUTO LEASE PLAN LEASE a 1986 G.M. Car or Truck of Your Choice Requirements: 1. 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