Page 2 • The Battalion • Thursday, August 8, 1996
Career Center’s programs help with job searche
By Tauma Wiggins
The Bati align
With mixed emotions, Texas A&M
graduating seniors are getting ready to
toss their caps and step out into the
real world.
Jeff Anderson, a senior journalism
major, will be moving to Chicago after
graduation to pursue an acting career.
He said he is prepared to leave, but
apprehensive.
“It’s exciting and terrifying really,”
Anderson said. “I’m nervous about mov
ing to a new city, and at the same time
it’s exciting that I’m floating with the
wind, going wherever it takes me.”
Tanisha Hicks, a senior journalism
major, said she is relieved and sad to be
graduating and moving on.
“I was picking up my announce
ments in Rudder Theater and they
had this film of different shots (of
A&M students),” Hicks said. “Then I
saw a clip of me and some of my
friends from my Fish Camp all acting
crazy and I started crying! Now it’s fi
nally over, but you feel sad.”
Jane Groff, a senior industrial distri
bution major, said she is ready to grad
uate and start working.
“It feels great,” she said. “I can’t wait
to start making my own money.”
Graduating seniors have used a vari
ety of techniques to find jobs after col
lege, one being the Texas A&M Career
Center, which matches companies’ re
quirements with students’ qualifications.
Thousands of A&M students like
Groff have found the Career Center’s
programs rewarding.
“I used the placement center exclu
sively,” Groff said. “I got offers within a
month for a job, and I got accepted for a
job in Houston.”
Glenn Payne, the Career Center’s
associate director for placement, said
23,000 interviews were done last year
for job placement, and 60 to70 percent
of the interviews were with engineer
majors and related companies.
Payne said the Career Center pro
vides services for co-oping, where stu
dents intern for college credit, and a ca
reer library, which shows students the
jobs available for their majors.
Payne said 75 percent of co-oping pro
grams are completed by engineering ma
jors, with liberal arts and other majors
making up the remaining 25 percent.
Emily Lenker, a senior biomedical
science major, said A&M science ma
jors frequently have trouble finding
jobs using the Career Center.
“Lots of people in my major don’t
have any luck with it (the Career Cen
ter) at all,” Lenker said. “They (at the
Career Center) assume you’ll go to
medical or veterinary school right out
of college. I’m still looking for a job.”
Graduating seniors in non-engineer
ing classes have been forced to use oth
er job-search options.
Hicks said she has not found help
from the Career Center, but network
ing is the key to finding a job.
“I don’t think A&M could be very
helpful because I want a job in the en
tertainment field,” Hicks said. “I found
a job in Atlanta strictly through net
working and doing it on my own. As far
as liberal arts majors, you have to do it
on your own.”
Payne said A&M does not attract lib
eral arts-related employers, such as
magazine or newspaper agencies, be
cause of a disjointed voice from liberal
arts students on the jobs they desire.
“It will take a lot of cooperation from
(liberal arts) students,” Payne said. “As
long as students can tell me what (jobs)
they want, I could make up a resume
book and send it to newspaper compa
nies, for example, and even arrange a
group visit. But I need a group pull.”
As graduating seniors face the real
ization that college is behind them and
a new world awaits, they offer advice to
students still in school.
“It’s important to have work experi
ence,” Groff said. “During an interview
you have nothing else to talk about re
ally. I’m glad I worked through college.”
Zinnia Garcia, a senior industrial
distribution major, said endurance is
the key to graduating.
“Don’t ever give up,” she said. “It
takes some people five to six years to
graduate. It’s fqn while it lasts, so en
joy it and don’t rush through it.”
Hicks said for the liberal arts stu
dent, maintaining contacts is vital to
finding the perfect job.
“As far as jobs, networking is impor
tant,” Hicks said. “Everyone is a poten
tial contact that can help you in some
kind of way. This person may not be able
to help you, but they may know someone
who can. For instance, a DJ in Houston
was able to get me in contact with some
one who could help me find a job.”
Anderson said procrastination is a
job searcher’s enemy, and he offered
some advice.
“Do your resume at the beginning of
your senior year, not at the end,” he said.
Payne said there are three crucial
points to having success when job
search time rolls around.
“First, do your best at school work,”
Payne said. “Second, get involved in stu
dent activities so you learn to work with
other people. And third, be actively look
ing at experiences like co-oping that give
you ideas what the work world is like.”
New computers make
updating resume cask S
LI
By Melissa Nunnery
The Battalion
The Texas A&M Career Center is up
dating its placement services with four
computers donated by Koch Industries.
These computers will allow students
to access the Career Center home page
and update their resumb disks from the
Career Center lobby. Eleven computers
will have Internet access. Dr. Glen
Payne, associate director of placement,
said a representative from Koch saw
some of the old computers in the Center
and offered to donate new equipment.
“They (Koch) hit an extreme need,”
Payne said. “Now students can come
here and do on-campus interviewing
and Internet job search.”
Payne said students use a Windows
resume disk. Until now, the Career
Center has not had the equipment to
make changes to the disk.
The new computers will enable stu
dents to access the Internet job line.
The job line includes location, start
date, description and the names and
addresses of companies that are hiring.
Scott Minear, a Class of ’90 opera
tions analyst for Koch, was the inter
viewer who saw the need for new com
puters at the Career Center.
“Every student goes through the Ca
reer Center. They still had computers
that were here when I was a student,”
Minear said. “We (Koch) hadso%,
puters to donate. I thought iu:||
mutually beneficial to Koch and:;,
reer Center. It’s a win-win situatij
Because of Koch’s donafes,
Center will offer one-stop skk
with interviews, Internet job seirf
brary resources and literature, ''
“By networking these machine
networked virus software, studeJ
use them to access cooperative !
tion, the on-campus interviews:!
and Internet job search all intheil
Center. I don’t think evenlkEfi,
need for new equipment,” Payn-l
“Company generosity is what kef
ahead in the game.”
Michael Grundmeyer, a Classi
natural gas analyst for Koch,
computers in the Career Center;
a big improvement.
“(As an MBA student),
thing from the MBA lab,” Gmr.J
er said. “It was slow and cumbenj
Windows is an improvement;yn
do it (update resume disk)froniij
Before, you could only do itfrc:|
tain labs.”
Dwight Tomkins, assistant iji
of Career Center computing se:
said some students have comp!
about having to go to other cor|
labs to update their resume disks
See Computers,P<;
Faculty, students react to tenure decisions America offline
By Brandon Hausenfluck
The Battalion
Much more than success as a teacher, re
searcher and publisher is required to earn
tenure at Texas A&M.
Less than 60 percent of faculty members
hired as assistant professors are promoted
to associate professor with tenure.
Dr. Walter Boles, a former assistant pro
fessor of civil engineering, is one who was
not granted tenure.
Boles has earned a reputation in the
space exploration industry as a leading
researcher for developing ways to live
on the moon. He has led students to win
second place in the national Lunar
Shelter Student Contest for two consec
utive years. He has also supervised stu
dents doing lunar excavation experi
ments on NASA’s aircraft, the KC-135.
Both of these events, among others,
have brought worldwide recognition to
this University. They have also greatly
benefited space exploration research.
Wes Scott, a doctoral candidate of indus
trial engineering, said Boles was always
readily available to assist him.
“He (Boles) wasn’t one of those profs
you would want to get rid of,” Scott
said. “We’ve all run into a couple of
professors who you wonder how they
got tenure.”
NASA is one institution Boles’ re
search benefited.
John Connolly, lunar and Mars mission
designer for the NASA Johnson Space Cen
ter in Houston, said Boles was dedicated to
his research and is on the cutting edge of
space exploration.
“Walter Boles is trying to explore ar
eas of civil engineering that no one has
explored,” he said. “I commend him for
the work he’s done.”
Connolly said Boles was good with stu
dents and treated them as equals.
“He does more things for students
than most professors,” he said. “Stu
dents to him are colleagues, not cheap
labor, and he is always doing all sorts of
student-motivated things.”
Boles’ colleagues respected him as a pro
fessor and were sorry to see him go.
Dr. Ignacio Rodriguez-Iturbe, department
head and professor of civil engineering, said
although Boles is a qualified professor, he
was not a survivor of the tenure process.
“I have the highest respect for Dr. Boles,”
he said. “This does not reflect his academic
qualities at all.”
The tenure process starts when a
prospective faculty member is considered
for employment. Once hired, the faculty
member is subject to a probationary peri
od of full-time service, not to exceed seven
years. They are also carefully evaluated
each year so they will be aware of their
progress toward tenure.
Dr. David Ellis, an assistant professor of
finance, did not receive tenure because he
did not send out enough publications. He
said one of the disadvantages of publication
is the length of time it takes.
“It’s a long process to send a paper to be
published,” he said. “You have no control
over the paper for six to eight weeks. Revi
sions take a long time.”
Ellis said he became a member of
the faculty at A&M before he finished
his Ph.D.
“I came to A&M six years ago without fin
ishing my Ph.D.,” he said. “I was going
through the best part of my first year here
finishing my dissertation.”
Ellis said he looks forward to relocat
ing his wife and four kids and does not
have any bad feelings towards A&M.
“I have no ill feelings at all. I have
enjoyed my time at A&M. I have devel
oped a solid foundation and have very
good colleagues,” he said. “It’s not worth
the hard feelings. My wife and I can be
happy wherever we go, so I hope we can
find the best place for me professionally
and for my family.”
Candidates must meet criteria in three
categories to be eligible for tenure.
During the review process, assistant
professors should contribute to the de
velopment of new courses and create
new methods of teaching. Publications
of their research conclusions should be
made in journals and other works per
taining to their field.
The candidates for tenure are also
expected to serve the University, stu
dents, departments, colleagues, and
their colleges.
Their research should also benefit
professional societies, research organi
zations, and government agencies.
Technical glitch cause
online service to eras
g/.
by Chuck Johnson
&
3^-
ZL
■
Skotteh
By Quatro
He tried deodorant, cologne, even wearing
air fresheners, but to no avail. Limburger
remained the scourge of the cheese counter.
SAN FRANCISCO (AP) —
America Online was knocked out
Wednesday by a technical glitch,
leaving more than 6 million cus
tomers worldwide without their
e-mail and favorite Web sites for
almost 19 hours.
The nation’s largest online
service crashed about 4 a.m.
EDT, while new host software
essential to operating the sys
tem ^as being installed.
The outage is probably the
biggest in online history, said
Mark Mooradian of Jupiter
Communications, a New York
online marketing firm.
“Good-bye from America On
line. The system is temporarily
unavailable,” was the message
customers got when they tried
to log in. They were asked to
try again in 15 minutes ... then
one hour ... then an hour and
15 minutes.”
And so on, and so on, until
10:45 p.m.
“What happened was, when
we were doing the installation,
we had a technical problem,”
America Online spokeswoman
Pam McGraw said from the com
pany’s office in Chantilly, Va.
McGraw said the problem was
different from a software glitch
that brought down America On
line’s e-mail system for an hour on
June 19. This time, it involved
new host software, essential to the
network’s operating systems.
“We know it’s a huge inconve
nience and we want to compen
sate our members for the time
they’ve not been able to get on
line,” she said.
Customers will get a day’s
free service to make up for the
inconvenience, and e-mail sent
to AOL users from outside the
system was being stored and
would be delivered as soon as
possible after the system is run-
mng again.
‘‘We’ll start process::
when we get back upjf
take a little time, but itri)
to them,” McGraw proraiss;
Yvette DeBowofJd
Communications attrib#
outage to growing pa: 1 -
America Online, which)
million members at the:'’
ning of the year and noh
6.3 million.
“They’ve added alot^
s u b s c r i b efSf^Th eyrold ■ , -
was a main database prtf
that they were taking itc*
to fix. Because therear
many members and so iMf
formation, it’s going to]*
awhile to get everything
running,” she said.
Steve Case, America (f
chairman, said the compare
doing everything it couldT
store service.
Across the country, userf
countered blank screens ffil
empty feeling.
‘‘My whole compar,:!'-
stopped. We’ve got peopl«|
ning around trying to dof
off-line. Everyone’s sudderir
alizing how addicted they s|
instant access,” said E. Dp
Ellington, president and;-
executive of NetNoir, a:
Francisco-based media comp
Still, Ellington was philo;
ical about the breakdown.
took his company’s World
Web site off-line: “Hello,?
welcome to technology. It*
perfect, so get over it.”
DeBow said the outage
probably not cause customs
drop America Online in dro'
“Users of online services
still aware that this is a ne*
dustry that’s growing. Pe :
who use computers are prett!
miliar with just how fragile- f
can be at times,” she said.
Eric Parga
Theatre Sa
By James F
The Battai
I t>\ lv Stljdv /Kbroa d Spri njo
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