Helping Yalies formulate exit strategies

Revamped and relocated, Undergraduate Career Services tries to regain student confidence.

"I'm afraid it may turn out to just be you and me tonight." A dejected Philip Jones slumps back on the edge of a desk. No suit or tie, just a cardigan and tennis shoes. Unfortunately, no students either, in a room capable of holding well over 50 people. Apparently there is little interest in an Undergraduate Career Services (UCS) forum on applying to graduate school.

The grad school help session is one of the many innovations introduced by Jones in the year and a half since he took over a program that had become one of the most widely criticized at Yale. Jones' arrival is just a part of a new focus on Yale's advising services—with fellowships and study abroad now under the auspices of a new Office of International Education and Fellowship Programs (IEFP).

Get Jones talking about the future—a new location with an increased staff and operating budget, more job fairs and meetings, increased exposure to non-profit opportunities, many of which he expects to accomplish within the next twelve months—and he is talkative again. "There are so many changes I want to get done," he says. "We'll develop a new `normal.' More career fairs, more outreach to younger students—all of this will be seen as normal."

But for now, Jones sits alone in an empty classroom. Despite the plethora of changes at 1 Hillhouse Ave., many students still don't know about, or have given up on, the services available to them.

The other 60 percent

There is little doubt that Yale allowed its career, fellowship, and study abroad counseling services to deteriorate. When Susan Hauser stepped down as director of UCS in the spring of 1999, it gave the University an opportunity to reevaluate its program. "The committee that interviewed me made it very clear that this office needed to catch up," Jones said.

Under the control of the office of the Dean, as part of general budget cuts, UCS's funding was slashed by nearly one third in the late '80s. Funding was only increased upon the arrival of Jones and IEFP Director Catherine Hutchison. "When I got here, I found one part-time person who was responsible for all of the study-abroad programs," she explained. "There was a full-time fellowship advisor, but she was completely overwhelmed with her responsibilities."

Hauser, and the department she headed for nearly two decades, had simply failed to keep pace with the changing demands of students. Jonathan Edwards Master Gary Haller headed the committee that reviewed UCS in the fall of 1998. Compared to other institutions, "we found Yale to be lacking," he said. "Technologically, we seemed to be way behind. We were very much tuned to certain areas. But if you wanted to work with the environment in South Carolina, that office really couldn't help you."

Jones echoed Haller's sentiment. "Two years ago, this office was doing a good job for certain populations," he said. "Our pre-law guidance was solid, our pre-medical counseling was excellent. And on-campus recruiting worked for those looking for the most traditional industries, banking and finance. But what were we doing for the other 60 percent?" Jones described the UCS that he took over as "an office that needed to change its focus and update itself." Even a simple system to keep track of student visits was absent. "They used to use blue notecards," Jones says in near disbelief. "Notecards get torn, ripped, left on someone's desk, so that if a student saw us three times we could have three separate cards for him."

Like Jones, Princeton Career Services Director Beverly Hamilton-Chandler recently inherited a lagging program. "I think what has happened is that there have been cases where change has come about because our predecessors had been in their positions for quite a bit of time," she said. "Every year [career services] change in what students need. We have to know about the technology and how to use it."

Hutchison had to overcome a similar deficit, but she faced the added complications of starting an entirely new office. Yale's study abroad and fellowships programs were both swamped by credit-transfer complications, financial-aid horror stories, and a genuine lack of interest. Many students simply did not have any idea of what concrete fellowship opportunities were available to them. "Times had certainly changed," Haller said. "When [Hauser] got there the foreign studies part wasn't a focus at all. But now, that was much more important and needed to be addressed."

Now UCS, now you don't

Many targets of student complaints are changing now. Jones and his staff have taken it upon themselves to provide forums for students to learn about everything from non-profits to government and public service positions to careers in sports management and the arts. New this year are JobTRAK and InterviewTRAK, nationally-run Internet programs that allow employers to list openings, and students to submit resumés, electronically. Cory Lynch, director of recruiting at Mercer Consulting Group, is pleased with Yale's changes. "Everything has been online," she said, "which makes the job easier for employers. It's been great."

JobTRAK is particularly valuable to those employers that cannot afford recruiting visits or full-page advertisements in campus newspapers. "There is a myth that all we do is bring i-banks to campus," Sandy Goodson, the senior associate director at UCS, lamented. "Investment banks and consulting firms consistently make up a large number of the groups that come here because they have the financial resources to come and visit." A representative at the National Office for Planned Parenthood explained that her organization never leaves New York and instead must rely on the Internet.

UCS Director Philip Jones hopes students will take advantage of the innovations he has introduced. DAVID GEST/YH

Although some non-profits will travel to job fairs, they still do so with limited budgets. In an effort to lure them, UCS held its first-ever non-profit job fair last year in partnership with Dwight Hall. "With limited resources, we don't normally go to job fairs unless they're specifically geared towards non-profits," Linda Gustafsson, director of recruiting for the American Civil Liberties Union, said. Even then, Gustafsson noted the importance of Internet-based methods for advertising openings. Cindy Kang, BK '99, assistant director of recruiting at GreenCorps, raved about the new non-profit fair, which stood in stark contrast to her final year as a student. "I remember feeling very much like I was the only one going into the non-profit world," she said.

In the end, though, Jones advocates individual counseling as the best method for guiding students interested in less-prominent fields. "Through counseling, we teach students how to approach organizations," he said. "Two years ago, you would have found it exceedingly difficult to get an appointment to see a career counselor," a factor he attributes in great part to limited funding. UCS booked over 2,000 appointments last year, and, with more counselors to be hired this year, that number should increase substantially. "I know that Dean [Richard] Brodhead [BR '68, GRD '72] has been delighted with the very marked increase in personal counseling hours given to students by the UCS staff," University President Richard Levin, GRD '74, said.

Likewise, Hutchison has increased the IEFP staff substantially, making individualized counseling a true option for the first time. "With just one part-time person overseeing all of study abroad, there was simply no time to do publicity or meet with foreign representatives of study abroad programs, or work with departments to jointly sponsor meetings as we have this year," Hutchison said. This year, for the first time, IEFP coordinated a study-abroad fair on Wed., Sept. 27. Over 350 students attended the event, which featured presentations from more than 40 programs. Upcoming sophomore advisor nights will alert students to available options earlier on in their undergraduate careers. A computer database of fellowships is in the works.

Despite these improvements, Yale still lags behind its primary competitors. Yale's first-ever career forum on Fri., Nov. 10 will come several weeks after Harvard's 19th such event, and the implementation of JobTRAK software will simply serve to catch UCS up to a level at which its competitors have been for years. At least both offices now seem to have the full financial backing of the University. "There was a clear sense to me from Dean Brodhead that the Yale Corporation wanted to have the resources to be competitive with what happened at other institutions," Haller said. And it was that lack of support that caused UCS to fall behind in the first place. "Career services has to be an institutional priority," Bill Wright-Swadel, director of Career Services at Harvard, said. "As a part of an organization, it is only as effective as the support it receives in terms of the confidence and resources provided by the institution."

If a tree falls in the forest...

As Jones and Hutchison both know well, changes in the offices mean very little if they can not convince the student body that their programs are worth using and worthy of their trust. Part of the difficulty facing both is communicating the advances their departments are making. "We can't just sit in this office and expect students to come to us," Jones said. Hutchinson noted that the recent fair "was crammed full of students who were coming up to me and saying, `I didn't know we had a study abroad office, I didn't know we had advisors, I didn't know we had this fair."

And yet, outreach doesn't seem to be the primary focus of either office; while JobTRAK may offer a plethora of benefits to students interested in diverse fields, only 1,739 students—less than one third of the student body—has bothered to register and create a profile. Only students who register will receive e-mails regarding events like the grad-school forum and non-profit job fairs. And only 782 bothered to show up for the registration meetings mandatory for

any student hoping to use UCS to submit resumés or interview on-campus. "What I'm working on this year is the product," Jones admits. "Next year I'll work harder on the outreach." Hutchison also confessed to having other priorities—especially the move to new offices. "There are more important things on my mind right now," Hutchison said.

When it comes to getting the word out, Yale continues to lag behind its competition. At Dartmouth, Career Services Director Emanuel Sturman relies on a full-time outreach and marketing coordinator in addition to a public relations intern. "I think that we are a highly visible office on campus," Sturman said. In particular, he is proud of his "Just for Juniors" program, an event meant more to introduce the office to students than to place them in jobs. Solutions as simple as e-mail access to the entire student body at Dartmouth, Harvard, and Princeton have proven effective. "It's an interesting marketing challenge," Wright-Swadel admits. "Twenty-five percent of your population turns over every year, so you can never allow yourself to get too comfortable with how much students know about you." His solution: accost students right from their freshman orientation.

Jones plans to address this problem. "It has to start much, much earlier," he said. He attended sophomore orientations in all 12 residential colleges last spring, and this year he has already met with freshmen counselors and visited a number of early orientation programs.

But for Hutchison, the issue of outreach is more complex. In 1999, 99 students—roughly six percent of the junior class—participated in the junior study-abroad program. By comparison, Princeton is sending 13 percent of its junior class abroad this year, and Dean Nancy Kanach, director of Princeton's study abroad program, enthusiastically cites a target of 20 percent. At Dartmouth, a full 65 percent of students participate. "Study abroad is instrumental to academic success," Peter Arm-strong, exchange coordinator at the Office of Off-Campus Programs at Dartmouth, explained. "The programs are completely supported by the academic departments, and there is a Dartmouth faculty member in residence at each of our study-abroad programs."

But increasing participation in study abroad does not seem to be a concern for Yale administrators. "We have no specific targets in mind for the percentage of Yale College students studying overseas," Levin said. "After all, one can work, study, or travel abroad during summers or after graduation." As a result, Hutchison has no illusions about dramatically increasing the size of her program. "I don't think that I can convince all faculty that this is right for their majors, and I don't think that I can convince all students and their parents that [study abroad] is a good thing for that particular student," she said. "I'm just there for those who are interested."

Similarly, Yale lacks the commitment of schools like Harvard when it comes to fellowships. "We provide a lot of information and we provide it early on," Wright-Swadel said, noting the presence of fellowship advisers in each residential house. "We want our students to be aware of what opportunities are available to them." Hutchison, on the other hand, does not see her office as responsible for this. "The attitude that we have in this office is to be there when a student needs us, so that when a student wakes up to the fact that this is an opportunity that they should be going for, we can be there for them," she explained. "But we're not going to go beating the bushes and we don't have grooming programs."

...does anyone hear?

With the lack of communication between students and the offices, complaints continue. "It's unbelievable how lopsided UCS is towards finance," said one senior interested in the performing arts. But she noted that she might end up going to law school, a career path for which UCS offered a forum on Wed., Oct. 11. "Yeah, that's a good thing," she relented. "I guess they are pretty good at letting us know about law and public policy options." And some seem to have given up on the idea of UCS altogether. "Eventually I want to work in educational policy," Melanie Harris, BK '01, said. "I'm not relying on [UCS]. I've been doing a lot of research on my own." And Gloriana Echeverria, PC '01, is using outside counselors for her graduate school applications. "I want to pursue a master's in public policy," she said. "I think there was a [UCS-run] meeting, but I didn't go to it."

"I fear students who think `they can't help me," says an obviously frustrated Jones. "Yes, we can—that's what we do. That's the most fundamental thing we do, we sit down and talk with students." Jones reclines in his desk chair, pondering the continuing onslaught of student complaints. "I know we're not perfect," he concedes. "Not in 14 months, not considering what UCS was." But he has hope for the future, and he wants this campus to give him, and his office, a chance. "When you've got a vision for what you want to do, awareness of what other people are doing, and the institution backs you, put all those things together and you absolutely should be headed in the right direction," he said. "But it takes time." Graphic by Sarah England. Photo by Katie Aldrich.

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