After Sept. 11, priorities slow to change

Yalies face new calls for leadership, patriotism as reality of recession sets in.

BY ZANDER DRYER

"If you're like me, you won't remember everything you did here," President George W. Bush, DC '68, jokingly told seniors at Convocation last May. Despite the escalating war in Vietnam, Bush spent his college days being "young and irresponsible"—largely unconcerned with a seething conflict halfway around the world.

But when a far more somber Bush addressed a joint session of Congress on Thurs., Sept. 20, he made it clear that today's college students cannot be similarly indifferent. "This country will define our times, not be defined by them," he vowed. "This generation will lift a dark threat of violence from our people and our future."

In the wake of Sept. 11—which saw the first major attack on America in 60 years—everyone from politicians to intellectuals is describing the emergence of a new national culture. And increasingly, these public figures are calling on college students to become leaders who will ultimately forge this new America.

The question now is whether college students will rise to the challenge. As students graduate and move into the "real world," will they support their country, even if they must turn their backs on the unprecedented decade of peace and wealth in which they were raised? Or will they ignore the war on terror, just as Bush and many of his peers—far from the jungles of Southeast Asia and shielded from the draft by II-S student deferments—ignored Vietnam?

TO THE TALKING HEADS AND THE NATIONAL MEDIA, THE ANSWER seems clear: college students in general—and Yale students in particular—are leading the charge to reshape America. One interesting indicator of this sentiment has been this fall's selection of Poynter Fellows: journalists the University brings to campus to discuss "issues of broad public concern" and thus help "Yale students and faculty gain special insight into the media and its role in contemporary culture." Both of the fellows have emphasized the role Yalies will play in forging this new America. When author and Atlan-tic Monthly correspondent James Fallows came to Yale on Wed., Nov. 7, he described war as the "punctuated equilibrium" in the evolution of American society—the time when the most significant changes occur. He told Yale students they are faced with the "unique challenge and opportunity" of redefining American culture.

After conservative cultural critic and Weekly Standard and Newsweek editor David Brooks visited Yale on Wed., Oct. 24, he withdrew his conclusion of a year earlier—published in the Atlantic Monthly—that the nation's elite colleges are cloisters of apolitical, obedient overachievers. During Brooks' visit, Yale struck him "as a place of true inquiry," he said, adding that Sept. 11 has given Yalies "a general sense that the old fixed points of the universe have been shaken loose."

Other media outlets have picked up on the same theme. On Mon., Sept. 17, the Washington Post interviewed a Yale student for an article titled "At Colleges, Students Are Facing A Big Test" that discussed students' new interest in jobs with the government. The New York Times ran an article on Sun., Nov. 11, titled "Hard Times at Yale, Where the Peace Corps Has a Waiting List." The article described Yale students flooding career fairs to interview with the CIA and the Peace Corps. And on Tues., Nov. 20, NPR's Morning Edition aired a segment on Yalies' new interest in the CIA.

In short, anyone watching the news these days gets the idea that, "For God, for Country, and for Yale" is once again the motto of Yale students. But while a surge of patriotism on campus might make for good headlines, Sept. 11 may not have changed students' plans to the extent the media has portrayed.

"THERE'S A MYTH RIGHT NOW THAT Sept. 11 is affecting employment," Philip Jones, director of Yale's Undergraduate Career Services said. "The fact is, the recession began in March and we knew in May that this year's on-campus recruiting was going to be tough in comparison to previous years," he said. "September 11 may have exacerbated things, but it hasn't fundamentally changed the picture." Indeed, a report this week from the National Bureau of Economic Research, the de facto authority on economic growth and contraction, which declared that the nation is now officially in a recession, only confirms the reality that students have been facing for several months.

Thus, despite calls by public figures for leadership and the media's reports on students' new interests, there are few signs that Yalies' post-college plans have changed since the terrorist attacks. "I can't tell you about the changes since Sept. 11, because there's no fundamental shift," Jones explained. "We're dealing with dozens and dozens of students every day, and if something were endemic, we'd be seeing it—but we're not."

Peace Corps volunteer Josh Amend works on a new water tank in Tanzania, Africa. courtesy michigan technological university

Although he expects graduating Yalies will continue to seek positions in the public sector, private sector, and graduate school in roughly even proportions (as they have in years past), Jones admitted "the numbers may be weighted in a slightly different way this year."

The most significant shift has been among students interested in private-sector jobs. "Since this recession started, those who would be going into the public sector are still doing that," Jones explained. "But [many of] those who would be going into the private sector are now going to graduate school, specifically law school."

Data from the Law School Admission Council (LSAC)—the group that administers the LSAT—confirms this. In June 2001, 23,908 people took the LSAT—an increase of nearly 20 percent over June 2000. The increase in test takers at the October 2001 administration was even greater; 46,745 people took the test, an increase of nearly 25 percent over the October 2000 administration. According to the LSAC, these represent the largest increases since 1988, when America was experiencing its last recession.

Tracking Yalies' interest in other graduate programs—specifically, in business school and medical school—is more difficult because most applicants are not college students. Medical school applications have been declining steadily for the last several years, a trend that is likely to continue this year. At Yale, however, interest has "held pretty steady every year," according to Jones. But "we actually deal with more alumni than we do undergraduates," he added. Similarly, most business school applicants have been out of college for at least two years, and business schools are not willing to provide application data.

"Admissions people will not give us rough estimates regarding the latest applicant pool," James Aisner, director of media relations at Harvard Business School (HBS), said. "It's still too early." However, applications at HBS increased slightly last year when the economy showed the first signs of slowing growth.

Rick Zednick, managing director of HARBUS, HBS's student newspaper, said that MBA candidates are more concerned by the economy than Sept. 11. "To be frank... I think the recession is having a greater influence on students' career plans than other elements in the aftermath of the terrorist attacks," he said. "My class applied to b-school in fall 1999, when the economy was still booming and new MBAs were averaging five offers of six-figures-plus upon graduation. Expectations were at an all-time high. Those expectations are clearly not being met now."

Thus, it seems that many students interested in the private sector are reacting more to the burst of the dot-com bubble than to the collapse of the Twin Towers.

THAT SAID, SOME PUBLIC-SECTOR EMPLOYERS ARE reporting increased interest. "We've seen big increases, both at our regional recruitment offices and on our website," Ellen Field, director of media relations at the Peace Corps, said. "From October 2000 to October 2001, our inquiries increased by about 2,000—from 9,656 in October 2000 to 11,828 in October 2001." Due to the processing time required for applications, however, it will take three to six months before the Peace Corps knows whether the people making inquiries will maintain their interest in the program. "We're hoping that in January, we will see some increases in the number of new volunteers," Field said.

Field speculated that many factors, including the economy, were responsible for the increase. But "a few applicants have expressed specific interest in Peace Corps service in response to Sept. 11," she said. "They have a general sense of frustration that they can't get out there and help the people in New York, Washington, and Pennsylvania, and they want to do something."

The Peace Corps has had a difficult time reaching Yale students, however. The New York regional recruitment office—which serves New York, New Jersey, and Connecticut—was destroyed in the attack on the World Trade Center.

"Some [prospective applicants] have been unable to reach us," Field said. "Our [application] stats in the New York region are not as high as in previous years, and we're not seeing the same kind of increases as we are at our other regional offices. A lot of what goes on in the fall is recruiting events at college campuses, and we just haven't been able to send out the people to the New York region."

A student studying in the Yale Law School library. The weak economy has driven up interest in law school among college students. COURTESY YALE LAW SCHOOL

The CIA has had no difficulty recruiting Yalies, however. "When we visited Yale six weeks ago, we had an outstanding turnout by students," Tom Crispell, an officer in CIA's office of public affairs, said. "We've had a lot of applications submitted by Yale students." When pressed on hard numbers, Crispell was evasive. "I don't know if we're allowed to get into specifics," he said. But UCS director Jones said that there was no new interest in the CIA. "The numbers attending the meeting with the CIA this year were roughly the same as the numbers last year," he said. "[Yale] is an institution with a tremendous tradition and history with the CIA." Yale graduates made up a significant portion of the CIA's predecessor, the OSS, and George H.W. Bush, DC '48, served as director of the CIA before being elected president.

Nonetheless, Jones said that Yalies may have a broader interest in government than in years past. But he speculated that factors other than the terrorist attacks are driving that interest. "For the first time in many years, the government is hiring," he said. "The realization that half of the federal workforce is eligible for retirement in a couple of years seems to have come as some sort of revelation to the government."

According to the latest Demographic Profile of the Federal Workforce, issued by the U.S. Office of Personnel Management, the average age of federal civilian employees has been creeping up steadily and is now near 46—which is much higher than the age of non-federal employees. "While there are a few exceptions, most federal agencies have done little or nothing about developing a succession planning program," Gary Koca, a business director at government human resources contractor FPMI, wrote in a recent report. "That's a scary thought indeed."

The armed services also face dwindling numbers as career soldiers retire and younger recruits leave for higher-paying civilian jobs. But, mirroring trends in the general population, Yale students remain uninterested in joining the military. September 11 has not reversed these patterns. After the attacks, "interest was peaked," marine recruiter Major Winchester said. "But it did not lead to an increase in contracts."

ALTHOUGH YALE STUDENTS HAVE YET TO TAKE AD-
vantage of the "punctuated equilibrium" of wartime to reshape America, the radical changes may still be ahead.

When members of America's greatest generation entered Yale, they did not show any signs of the heroism they would later achieve. John Finney, TD '45W, arrived at Yale in July of 1942 specifically to train for combat. But "there was sort of an eerie detachment from the war," he recalled. "We went about our routine as students...We were a rather sheltered group. There we were, in the cloisters of Yale—in uniform—being told that we were gentlemen training to be officers. We were told that's what the Navy wanted...But we just went about our studies. I don't recall us sitting down and saying, `My God, look at the battle of Midway, what a turning point!'"

Many of those same students left Yale early to fight, however. Finney himself served on a PT boat stationed at Samar Island, in the Philippines. Therefore, the true measure of today's Yalies may not be how much they participate in the "fervent debates around the dining hall tables" that Brooks observed, but whether they can sustain their sense of unity and duty—their "us-ness," as Fallows described it—beyond the immediate aftermath of the attacks. The task will be difficult.

During World War II, "each American had a duty, and we knew we would do it," Finney said. "It wasn't like today. There was no question about the legitimacy of the war. We believed in FDR. And most important, we didn't have the choice not to fight—all of us faced the draft." Things are different now, Finney said. "We have an all-volunteer army. There is a mercenary class that goes out and fights our wars for us, and a privileged class at Yale (and elsewhere) that has the luxury of not participating."

In some ways, the challenges Yale students face today are greater than those Finney and his classmates faced. Will Yalies retreat to the luxury of law school and—after the recession ends—investment banking? Or will they heed the president's call to "lift a dark threat of violence from our people and our future?" In Brooks' words, "When minds this sharp finally do close around a conclusion, they will carry it, and the country, a long way."

Cover graphic by Gene Smilansky.

Info graphic by Justin Chen and Zander Dryer.

Back to News...