DailyMississippian The
Thursday, May 3, 2012
LaBanc offers insights about student affairs
thedmonline.com
Unemployment rates growing New OHS
SYDNEY HEMBREE | The Daily Mississippian
Brandi LaBanc stands in front of the globe in Bryant Hall. LaBanc, a vice chancellor for student affairs candidate, talked about her passion for helping students.
BY RYAN GROVER drgrover08@gmail.com
Brandi LaBanc was not hesitant to express her passion for students and her desire to serve them as vice chancellor. The current Northern Illinois University associate vice president of student affairs was active in her sorority and studied accounting during her own college tenure. After graduating and starting work as an accountant, she quickly realized that wasn’t the right area of work for her. With the support of friends and family, she decided to get back into the university scene. She has since worked at several universities in many different positions. Although not a professor, she considers herself “an educator with a different kind of classroom.” LaBanc said vice chancellor for student affairs is a position she has been looking forward to and has tried to keep herself active and mobile for when the opportunity arises. She said she believes the position is crucial and wants her team of staff and departments to wake up and serve the students. “They’re the ones that pay my salary,” LaBanc said. She said she wants to bring trust and transparency to the position and ensure that everyone has their voice heard and opinions considered. LaBanc said she considers herself a very goal-oriented person. She related a New Year’s resolution that she made a few years ago to begin running and participate in a race once a month. She ended up competing in 15 races that year. “That’s the kind of person I am: Give me a goal and I’ll do it,” LaBanc said. “I come to work every day with that motivation.”
Vol. 100 No. 298
GRAPHIC BY KELSEY DOCKERY | The Daily Mississippian
BY DANE MORETON dane.moreton@gmail.com
You’ve put in your time, and you have your diploma in hand. Now what? With the faltering economy and the use of technology displacing workers, recent graduates are finding it difficult to find gainful employment. The number of new jobs requiring a college degree is less than the number of recent graduates from universities, so more and more graduates are filling jobs for which they are academically overqualified. The number of people with bachelor’s degrees under the age of 25 who were unemployed or underemployed in 2011 was 1.5 million, or 53.6 percent. In 2000, the nation saw a low of 41 percent before the dot-com bubble bust. This has led those with degrees in physics, engineering and chemistry to take work in the food service industry and office-related jobs that do not utilize their respective education. Graduates who are new to the work force have to compete with displaced workers, as well as more experienced workers who are willing to take a pay cut for entry-level positions. Companies are more likely to hire those with more experience because they can get them cheaper. Today’s job market has more than enough experienced
and entry-level candidates for entry-level positions. John Marsalas, 23, who will graduate from the University of Mississippi this year with a B.A. in theater arts, is one of the lucky ones. He received job offers after attending a theater convention but has seen firsthand the kind of competition awaiting him. “There were a lot of people out there looking for the same job,” Marsalas said. “One place had 400 applications turned in for 28 positions. It’s very competitive.” Marsalas said with the stiff competition, it was his character that gave him the edge. An employer told him he could teach paperwork but not personality. Veronica Huffman, 22, a special education major, has decided to continue her education after going on multiple interviews and realizing the limited job opportunities. She has decided to go to graduate school for psychology. One question being posed is whether too many people are going to college. There is pressure on students to go to a fouryear university when it may not be the best option for the individual. Charles Murray, political scientist and scholar at the American Enterprise Institute, responded to this question in The Chronicle for Higher Education. “It has been empirically dem-
onstrated that doing well (B average or better) in a traditional college major in the arts and sciences requires levels of linguistic and logical/mathematical ability that only 10 to 15 percent of the nation’s youth possess,” Murray said. “That doesn’t mean that only 10 to 15 percent should get more than a high-school education. It does mean that the four-year residential program leading to a B.A. is the wrong model for a large majority of young people,” he said. Michael T. Belongia, Professor of Economics at Ole Miss, said the traditional reasons for attending college were to allow students to think analytically and enrich their lives by exposing them to the arts and other experiences that would broaden their thinking. However, if someone is attending college to simply get a job, Belongia said attending a community college would be the better choice. “They would enter the labor force in two years rather than four or five, starting salaries in many fields would be higher and the overall economic cost of the training/education would be lower,” he said. “That path, however, would not include the broader enrichment that is supposed to be part of a university education. There is no universal “best” choice that fits any high school graduate making a decision about his or her future.” Bachelor’s degree or not, Amanda Walker, a recruiting coordinator at the Ole Miss Career Center, said students seeking success on the job hunt have to learn to sell themselves and not focus on one geographic area. “You have to be widely searching,” Walker said. “You are going to have to look across the United States. You need to be prepared to go through a six- to nine-month search.” Most of the applicants she has dealt with have applied to 50 or more jobs. Walker suggests job seekers be humble. The ideal job may not be available at first, but taking one in a desired field may offer an employee the opportunity to get their foot in the door. Walker said to keep an open mind and let the opportunities work for you. The Ole Miss Career Center (www.career.olemiss.edu) offers many resources for recent graduates, including job postings and free resume and cover letter critiques. They also post jobs on Facebook and Twitter.
facility bid denied BY KELLS JOHNSON krjohns2@olemiss.edu
Though Oxford High School seems small, its population has been steadily increasing over the past few years. To accommodate this growth, the Oxford School District has proposed an expansion of schools, but progress has not been easy. As of May 1, the Oxford School District has an overall student population of 3,723. The current blueprint of the high school is barely big enough to hold the number of students it has now. Moreover, with numbers growing rapidly, there is expected to be an overcapacity in the schools within the next four years. “The space within the schools is good as of now, but will not be adequate enough for our students in the future,” Brian Harvey, Oxford School District superintendent, said. The district’s building program consists of constructing a brand new high school, in addition to more vocational programs like pre-engineering, culinary arts and health occupations. The program also looks to fix the high school’s air conditioning and roof, as well as expand and remodel the elementary school. Oxford High School recently proposed a $30 million allocation to construct the new high school facility but was unable to get the bid processed at the time because construction bids began at $37 million. Although the bid was rejected, the school board applied for an increase to the budget to meet the needs for construction. The school currently has a performance contract with Ameresco, which allows schools and companies to receive construction work without having to pay for the upfront costs. The contract allows the school to make payments on construction over the next 15 years. Harvey said if the new high school is built, students that attend the middle school will relocate and have classes at the old high school. The Oxford School Board will meet Thursday in the Lecture Center at Oxford High School to decide on rebidding and planning for the new construction.