Page 6
The Behrend Beacon
Job Searching 101
by Diane Carroll
Knight Riddler Newspaper
Spring break traditionally is a time for
college students to escape their burdens
and 101 l on sunny beaches.
Amanda Denning has friends at the
University of Kansas who will carry out
that custom in Acapulco, Mexico, and
she could go with them. But with the job
market for college graduates shaping up
as the worst in a decade, Denning instead
decided to visit companies in Austin,
Texas.
She is setting up "informational in
terviews" in the public relations field,
hoping they will lead to job interviews.
"I have friends who graduated with
the very same major as mine last year,
and they still are looking," said Den
ning, 22, who will graduate in May. "It's
very scary. Very, very scary."
The booming job market of the late
1990 s started to give way early in 2001
and soured significantly last year. This
year it is even tighter. The bumpy
economy and war with Iraq have dis
solved earlier hopes that things might
turn around this spring, said Philip
Gardner, director of the Collegiate Em
ployment Research Institute at Michi
gan State University.
"Everything is on hold," Gardner
said. "I have employers who say they
have intentions to hire. They just don't
know when."
At universities in Kansas and Mis
souri, career placement directors see the
same uncertainty. Some companies are
hiring, they said, but not in the numbers
of the past.
Graduates are in relatively the same
fix as their counterparts were 10 years
ago with the recession of the early 19905,
according to Gardner and others. The dif
ference, they said, is that 10 years ago
everyone knew that the economy would
turn around after companies restructured.
This time, it is harder to predict when
things will shake out, said Douglas
Buchanan, director of career services at
the University of Missouri-Kansas City.
"Now it's like everybody is waiting on
something," Buchanan said. "Everything
depends on everything else."
That inability to predict a turnaround
also weighs on Gardner. Because of it,
he said, "in all my (20) years of doing
this, I haven't been quite as pessimistic."
In August, a survey by the National
Association of Colleges and Employers
showed that employers expected to hire
3.6 percent fewer graduates this spring.
Crossword
ACROSS
1 Tobacco smoke
residue
4 Designer Chanel
8 "The Cometh"
14 Ripen
15 River to the
Caspian
16 Deli purchase
17 San Francisco
hill
18 Touch down
19 Introduction
20 Cooking surface
22 Not as many
23 Women
24 Ticket
28 Double curves
29 May honoree
30 Narrow crest
31 Of a certain
fraternal order
34 Soft drink
35 RR stop
38 Mississippi
people
40 Permit to
41 Cod cousin
43 Level of authority
45 Scents
47 That girl
48 Friar's Club
function
52 Acts of self
mortification
54 Shish kebab pin
55 Close by
56 Collapse
57 Squatter
60 Singer Simone
61 Ely or Howard
62 Gentle wind
63 CCCP, to us
64 Flop
65 Consents
66 Old pronoun
67 Porker's pad
DOWN
1 Snarl
2 Greek markets
3 Makes a new
offer
4 Blind alley
5 Some exams
6 Walking stick
7 Aged
8 Archipelago
member
When the survey was updated in De
cember, one-third of the respondents
said they planned additional cutbacks.
"A lot of kids are trying really hard
and still coming up short," said Camille
Luckenbaugh, the association's em
ployment information manager.
"Last year people were hoping the
first quarter of this year would be a turn
ing point, but that is not happening.
...We keep hoping we'll see a spark
somewhere, but we just haven't seen it
Drop in grad hirings
Annual percentage change in
number of jobs expected to be
filled with new college graduates
+lO% ; • 2002 2003
1999 2000 2001
-41 i
Source: National Association of Colleges
and Employers
Graphic: The Kansas City Star C 2003 KRT
Last month, the association released
a report that showed salary offers to
many new college graduates were lower
than they were a year ago.
The average offer to computer sci
ence graduates sank 13.1 percent, from
$51,429 in January 2002 to $44,678 this
January. Starting salaries slipped in
many engineering disciplines and in
creased about 1 percent for liberal arts
graduates.
At the University of Missouri-Co
lumbia, the 400 engineering students
who will graduate this spring are feel
ing the pinch, said Matthew Reiske,
assistant director for the school's ca
reers office.
"lthink we got spoiled a couple years
ago because the economy was so good
that students could push things off un
til last minute and still receive very
good employment," Reiske said. "Now
the companies that are hiring are not
filling as many positions, so the mar
ket is pretty competitive."
Although the overall hiring picture
looks glum, graduates in education,
health care arid the food industry are
22 2003 Tribune Media Services, Inc
All rights reserved.
Solutions
9 Roman salad?
10 Flexible
11 Like Carroll's
hatter
12 Pierre's friend
13 "The Delta of
Venus" writer
21 Per (for each
day)
22 Rules maker
24 Horn shells
25 Excessively
admired one
26 Eye flirtatiously
27 Tidy
29 Sponger
32 Haggard
novel
33 Coolidge's
nickname
35 Swill
36 Ocean's rise and 44 Coward of
fall theater
37 In due time 46 Sternutation
39 Public-service 49 Prizes
job 50 Begin a journey
42 Recipient of an 51 Fashionable
endowment 53 Concerns
+23%
54 Feel
56 Culinary
concoction
57 Hoopsters' org
58 Work unit
59 Sun. talk
60 Fanatic
FEATURES
;a nitlitillES
Friday, March 28, 2003
among those who should fare better than
most, area universities reported. Gradu
ates in computer science, technology and
consulting have bleaker prospects.
"The most optimistic place for college
graduates right now is employment with
the federal government," said Gail
Rooney, director of Career and Employ
ment Services at the University of Kan
sas. The government is not growing, she
said, hut 50 percent of the federal
government's employees are eligible to
retire between 2005 and 2010, and some
are retiring now.
MU senior Jonathan Lloyd of Kansas
City thinks his chances are improved be
cause of potential retirements in his field
of parks, recreation and tourism. The 23-
year-old, who has one class to take this
summer before graduating, said he ini
tially might have to do something he
doesn't like. But in the long run, Lloyd
is optimistic he will get a good job.
KU senior Bridget Morrisey of Ot
tawa, Kan., said she had friends major
ing in art who wanted to work at muse
ums but who were so unsettled by the
employment prospects that they weren't
even looking.
Morrisey, 21, will graduate in May
with a degree in psychology. She hopes
to land a job in sales and has had several
interviews. If nothing pans out, she plans
to go to graduate school.
She is not the only one thinking along
those lines.
Applications for MU's law school in
Columbia are up, Assistant Dean Donna
Pavlick said.
Pavlick said that the school usually re
ceives 700 applications for the 150 spots
in its freshman class. Last year, with the
big drop in the job market, applications
soared to 903. This year, Pavlick said,
she expects them to hit 1,000.
At Kansas State University, placement
officers are talking about how to help
those they call the "NIKE" graduates _
"no-income kids with education," said
Kerri Day Keller, interim director of K-
State's Career and Employment Ser-
Keller said she expects some gradu
ates who fail to find jobs will return
home this summer and live with their
parents. With a "NIKE in the home," she
said, those parents may start pushing
their children in their job searches. K-
State plans to offer online help, she said.
Freedom: Do you want fries with that?
by Ryan Russell
staff writer
Have the men and women elected
by America to our Congress finally
gone insane with their power? No,
and while planning to attack Saddam
is a good idea, Congress announcing
that french fries and french toast are
now known as "freedom" fries and
"freedom" toast may not be the best
plan ever to drum up
Allied support.
You read right,
freedom fries and
freedom toast. On
March 11, U.S. Rep.
Bob Ney, Ohio,
Chairman of the
Committee on House
Administration,
responded to a letter
from U.S. Rep. Walter
Jones, NC, calling for just such a
change to the House menu.
According to Ney, "This action
today is a small, but symbolic effort
to show the strong displeasure of
many on Capitol Hill with the actions
of our so-called ally, France."
And yet, maybe it's not. This action
seems to be a small, but symbolic
effort to show to the rest of the world
why America is seen by some as the
dumbest country on earth.
Never mind that China, Russia and
Germany have also voiced their
opposition to our fine war efforts. It
must simply be that Congress sees
France as the next biggest threat to
American safety after Saddam
Through the looking glass
I
GASP, NO, WAIT, I'VE CHANGED MY MIND
I
An 85-year-old woman in New Forest, England, felt that simply 1
filling out medical forms was not enough. She had the words "Do I
Not Resuscitate" tattooed on her chest. I
JUST HOLD ME UNTIL I FEEL BETTER
I In order to get attention from attractive women, a short, fat I
'Florida man has been pretending he is choking, then-after the ladies'
!employ the Heimlich maneuver on him-he hugs and kisses them oul
of "gratitude."
When a local newspaper printed an account of one woman "say
ing" him, other women came forward. He has done this at least a
half a dozen times. He is described as 5-foot-6, 245 pounds, with al
I SO THEY KNOW 'SHODDY' WHEN THEY SEE IT I
I Workers did such a bad job putting up a government building in I
I Germany that it will cost millions in repairs. The building in ques- I
I tion is the Ministry of Construction. I
L J
Miaow & Davis
IF T** WAR
DITHERED TWITS
Hussein, Osama Bin Laden, those
"Truth" commercials, and Hulk
Hogan, so we must attack them
before they attack us.
It must be pointed out that ideas
like freedom fries have been thought
of before this. During World War I,
in a fit of anti-German propaganda,
sauerkraut was known as "liberty
cabbage" and hamburger was known
as "liberty steak." There was one
major difference between what
"This action seems to be a small, but
symbolic effort to show the rest of the
world why America is seen by some as
the dumbest country on earth."
occurred during World War I and
what is happening now: France is, at
least on paper, our ally. At least until
they begin taking our propaganda
against them seriously.
Right now, however, the French are
laughing (or crying) about the new
fries in town. Nathalie Loisau, a
spokeswoman for the French
embassy, said, "We are at a very
serious moment dealing with very
serious issues and we are not
focusing on the name you give to
potatoes."
Well dammit, the United States is
never wrong, so if Congress wants
to take time out of planning for the
war, propping up our sagging
Karl Benacci, Features Editor
by Mike Pingree, KRT Campus
bald spot
economy, and dealing with budget
deficits to focus on the French, then
we, as patriotic citizens, need to join
in the anti-France stance.
With that in mind, here is a plan,
secretly obtained from the same
place where the Behrend
Underground Tunnel, Jimmy Hoffa,
and the "real killer" O.J. always
talked about, are located. This is
phase two of "Operation Kick France
In The Freedom."
Why stop at
freedom fries and
freedom toast? I can't
wait until I can freedom
kiss a girl at a party some
night. After we get
married, I'll make her an
appointment to get a
freedom manicure.
While waiting for her,
I'll have a salad with
freedom dressing, thank
you very much. Then when I'm done,
I'm going to have a good old time
and serenade my woman with my
freedom horn. After we put the dog
to bed, I'm going to make sure the
little lady has a good time in bed and
use a freedom...well, you figure that
one out.
By the way, french fries actually
originated in Belgium. And for some
reason, the rest of the world doesn't
take us seriously?
Must be those damn French
people. Go freedom yourself,
France! Just please don't send any
pretzels to President Bush.
moue mown or
MARCH
MADMEN
ostoAocAsr rime.
rm PROTIOMMO
WiTI4 11W
INOUUNOt TO
SNOLLDISLI
.~r
~~~~. ~