University adds director post as part of effort to reorganize career services
Skiff Staff

Student Affairs has created an executive director position within career services that Don Mills, vice chancellor for Student Affairs, said will reorganize and redirect the department.

“We’re making an effort to make career services more visible and assertive, which will enable both faculty and students to use its resources more effectively,” Mills said.

Mills said the search committee is looking for candidates outside the university, although Carolyn Ulrickson, the current career services director, is a candidate.

“Carolyn’s position has not been eliminated,” Mills said. “She has done a great job for the university and I hope she will continue to do that for many more years.”

Bill Moncrief, senior associate dean of the school of business, said university career services does not compare to those on other campuses because it is understaffed and has insufficient facilities.

“For TCU to be a national player we need to have a first class center,” he said. “For this to happen we need a better facility and a dedicated staff.”

Bill Stowe, the associate director of career services, said that although some students feel left out from the current job fairs, one-third to one-half of the companies he brings are actually looking to employ students from all majors.

Because many occupational fields do not recruit at career fairs, Stowe said, many of the companies career services does bring in are mainly business-oriented.

“Although most companies are looking for business type functions, they’re not necessarily looking for business majors,” Stowe said. “Students do tend to narrow their focus on what can they do rather than on what can’t they do.”

Chris Daugherty, a senior finance major, said he is tired of hearing that business students receive preferential treatment from University Career Services.

Moncrief said the career services staff is not giving business students preferential treatment, but they are trying to meet market needs.

Daugherty said some occupations including education and engineering are so specific that he can’t see majors in those fields benefiting from the functions of career services as much as he does.

“I would find it difficult have a career fair for education majors,” he said. “There is such a deficit of teachers in this country that they’ll have no problem getting jobs.”

The School of Education does have an internal career services department. Dale Young, director of student teaching and career services for the School of Education, said it is easier for smaller schools to have internal career services because they deal with smaller numbers of students at a time.