Central Florida Future, Vol. 27 No. 64, June 7, 1995

              Knights'pitcher, Jay Veniard heads the 1995 draft crop going in the fifth round—p. 12
Central Florida Future
Vol. 27 • No. 64
Serving the University of Central Florida since 1968
June 7, 1995
Students help to hire
Anthropology students' evaluations will assist
in selecting a new professor
by JEFF HUNT
Staff writer
A new face will be in the
Anthropology department by the
fall semester, and students will
have had a hand in the selection.
Hiring of a new associate
professor has been going on for
the last couple of weeks in the
Sociology and Anthropology Department, and the list is now down
to three.
The Department used part
of a $1500 "search" budget to fly
in their first choice, Dr. Shila
Baksi, an expert in the kinship and
linguistics of India and the Nez
Pierce Indians of North America,
to teach a class for evaluation by
Anthropology students.
The students were given a
survey with a wide range of questions on the performance of the
Washington State University
graduate including, "Do you think
she'd be an asset to UCF."
"I think so," said Chuck
Parrott, an Anthropology major.
"She's very knowledgeable in Indian affairs and presents her lecture with a little humor to spice
things up."
Dr. Allyn Stearman, chairperson of Sociology and Anthropology, believes that Baksi's
Middle Eastern experience would
expand the department's scope; the
Anthropology Department already
has faculty with considerable expertise in North America, Latin and
South America, and Asia.
"She'd bring more diversity
to campus and broaden the range of
expertise within the department,"
said Stearman.
"If s also keeping with UCF's
goal of giving the best undergraduate education."
The petite, dark haired
woman wearing a blue and gray
Sair, lectured on the traditional
marriage practices of India for an
hour before the surveys were collected by Dr. Ronald Wallace, professor of Anthropology.
"I can't quantify it, but [her
demonstration] will be significant
in determining a selection," said
Wallace.
There are two other candidates still being considered; one is
an Africanist, and the other is a
Melenesian.
The final choice will be made
within a month, Dr. Stearman said.
Smaller companies lure new graduates
by MARCO BUSCAGLIA
College Press Service	
Marty Bannon remembers
dreaming corporate dreams of
IBM and General Electric. "I always wanted to work at one of the
big boys," says Bannon, a senior
at Penn State. "It just seemed like
people would take notice of your
career more if you worked someplace they were familiar with."
But Bannon says he changed
his views after talking to some
friends and family. "It just seemed
like you had a lot more opportunities for advancement at smaller
companies, so I kind of limited
my search," says Bannon. "I
wanted to get the best job I could
for individual reasons on the
present, not in their future."
So despite being recruited
by "a few Fortune 500 companies," Bannon decided to accept a
job with a small computer consulting firm outside of Boston.
Whether Bannon knew it or
not, his conclusion that bigger isn' t
necessarily better may be part of a
larger trend among graduates. Last
year just 13 percent of Columbia
University's M.B.A. recipients
took jobs with large manufacturers, or companies with more than
1,000 employees, compared to 25
percent of graduates who did the
same in 1990, according to "Fortune" magazine. At Stanford University, only
about half of the
business
school's class of
1994 joined big
companies. In
1989, almost 70
percent did so.
And
while more col-
lege students
seem attracted
to what smaller
companies can
offer, a new survey of campus career services offices also indicates
that smaller companies have taken
an interest in hiring new grads.
According to a recent survey
by the National Association Of Colleges and Employers, 53 percent of
career offices reported an increase
in the amount of employers recruiting on campus, while 29 percent
said they're seeing the same number of employers as last year. In
both cases, campus officials said
that recruiting by smaller companies is up.
"Small and local employers that may not have been interested in graduates a few years
ago are recruiting college se
niors now," says Dawn
Oberman, director of employment information at the NACE.
"They see them as a wise investment."
Although larger corporations are returning to campus as
well, Penn State, like most
schools nationwide, can attribute an increase in the number of employers recruiting on
campus largely to smaller companies, says Jack Rayman, Penn
State's director of career development and placement services. "The
growth has clearly been with
smaller firms," Rayman says.
"They are opening up to a new
employee market."
In the
past, some
s-m a 11 e r
companies
traditionally   have
been reluctant to hire
entry-level
workers.
Instead,
they   "pirated" em-
p 1 o y e e s
away from larger corporations after they were trained, according to
Rayman. "We're trying to tell these
companies that these grads are not
only trainable, but they may already have the skills the company
needs," he says. "They get a chance
to hire skilled workers at an entry-
level salary."
Rayman says that unlike
large corporations, who may look
for specialized graduates to fulfill
individual responsibilities, smaller
companies often seek generalized
students who can perform different job duties within their employment role. "The whole emphasis
on quality management is affecting what companies are looking
for," Rayman says. "People who
are generalists in their field will be
able to help out in a lot of different
ways. They' 11 have more responsibility and more at stake in the
company."
Which is exactly why graduating students are turning to smaller
companies in the first place. After
seeing their parents get laid off after
25 years on the job, many students
are increasingly skeptical of large
corporations. "Graduates today want
early responsibility and more interesting work. They don't feel like
they should put in three or four years
of grant work before they move up
the corporate ladder," says Thomas
Oh, senior research analyst at
Hanigan Consulting Group in New
York City. "It's easy for students to
get lost in a crowd in a large corporation, especially when you're part
of a large training class. In smaller
companies, you're noticed right
away. The pressure can be greater,
but so can the recognition."
Inside
Features
Theatre UCF presents "The Foreigner." - p 10
Inside
Opinion
Should Americans have the right to die? - p 6
News
1-4
Classified
5
Opinion
6-7
Features
8-10
Sports
11-12