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INVESTIGATIVE REPORT
Liberal arts education prepares alumni for life
By Neal Brown
Is.- . .*•
With diverse career choices and
destinations of alumni career paths
after graduation some of the co
sponsors for the UNC Asheville
Career Center Destination Survey
are considering the development
of a new survey to better under
stand alumni job trends.
UNC Asheville surveys alumni
five, 10 and 15 years after gradua
tion because students have not had
a chance to establish themselves,
according to Kevan f'razier, asso
ciate vice chancellor for alumni
relations and alumni affairs.
“The most important thing is to
ask the survey questions to people
further out after they have graduat
ed,” f-'razier said. "We want to
know what is happening five to 10
to 15 years after they are out."
The career center, alumni office
and the office of institutional
research co-sponsor the C.C.D..S.,
which is an annual survey sent out
since May of 2(K)5, according to
fiileen Huecher, the career center
director. The survey is fairly new
and so the statistics are not quite
ready for the current 2006-2(K)7.
The survey is handed out at
graduation practice, then goes out
again at six, nine and 12 months
after graduation, according to
Buecher. It is done through mail
and through an online process. It is
very effective and accurate,
though it is administered early
after graduation.
"We collect it in the first year out
because there needs to be account
ability that the education and the
services we provide are preparing
students for the job market,"
Buecher said. “It's very varied,
and I think it is a refiection of the
diversity in our students' career
goals and career paths."
Alumni have gotten jobs within
their field soon after graduation
and are confident UNC Asheville
prepared them well for life after
graduation, according to John
,N(x)r, economics and political sci
ence alumnus.
"I have a job within my field. I
work for the President of the North
Carolina University system doing
public policy related work,” Noor
said. "Having worked with gradu
ates from Penn, Harvard and Yale,
I feel very confident that UNCA’s
liberal arts education prepared me
for my job, and any job that I will
have in the future.”
Even alumni who have not yet
gotten jobs within their field feel
UNC Asheville prepared them for
the working world as best as it
could, according to Talia Ogle, lit
erature alumna and former volley
ball player.
"I don't have a job related to
what 1 studied, but I have a job
related to my experience at
UNCA,” Ogle said. “I don’t think
anything can really prepare one for
the real world besides having to be
on their own without parental or
outside monetary support.
However, 1 feel like UNCA is a
great school and 1 was as best pre
pared as could be expected.”
The alumni office is interested in
demographic information, whether
or not alumni are employed, and if
they have jobs within a field relat
ed to their major. A survey done in
conjunction with the one already
performed would be very success
ful, according to Frazier.
“It would be successful and we
want it to be successful because
we just need to have a better
understanding of what our gradu
ates are doing years later to be sure
that we as an institution are doing
all that we need to do when they
are students," Frazier said.
It is also important to look at
U
5?
/ don’t have a job related to
what I studied, hut I have a
job related to my experience
at UNCA.
Talia Ogle
L'\(^ A.shcvillc Alumna
other schools’ models of surveying
alumni, and this type of survey is
done nation wide, according to
Buecher.
“That’s standard across the
nation. It’s actually one of our
standards, and if we didn't do it I'd
be in conflict with our principles
of professional conduct,” Buecher
said.
Western Carolina's Career
Center does not conduct a survey
of alumni, but other offices on
campus do, according to Mike
Despeaux, career services coordi
nator.
“Its just not something we’ve
done," Despeaux said. “We are
always trying to assess what we do
and are trying to get better. We are
increasing our collaboration with
alumni services and affairs and we
are doing more .so now than ever
before.”
Surveys, the time frame in which
they are done, and the way they
are administered are different at
every institution, according to
Buecher.
“It should be done. I think
there’s accountability. I’ve been in
the field 17, 18 years, and my first
two bosses drummed it in my head
to do surveys.”
The office of assessment con
ducts WCU’s alumni survey,
according to Melissa Wargo, direc
tor of the Office of Assessment.
“We administer two types of
I' Neal Brows
Debbie McDowell, UNC Asheville Career Center’s office manager, sits at her desk in the Career Center,
located in Highsmith Student Union. The Career Center helps place students in jobs after they graduate.
alumni surveys,” Wargo said.
“One, the Graduating Senior
Survey, is administered upon grad
uation, and the other, the WCU
Alumni Survey, is administered to
alumni at one and five years out.”
WCU administers these surveys
on this time frame because it is
important to know what alumni are
doing long term as well as short
term after they have graduated,
according to Wargo.
“We chose those because we
wanted the perspectives of a new
alumnus one year out, because
they can most readily assess the
impact of a WCU degree on their
skills and abilities in entry level
positions,” Wargo said. “We chose
an alumnus, 5 years out because
they could assess the long term
impact of their WCU education,
but not be so far removed that the
curriculum would be entirely dif
ferent, thus making whatever they
say inapplicable.”
The survey response rate is pret
ty good at WCU, according to
Wargo.
“Our 2007 Alumni Survey has
not been fully tabulated, but early
indications are that we will have a
response rate of 20 to 25 percent,”
said Wargo. “We are extremely
pleased with this response rate,
which is above what many institu
tions of our type report national
ly.”
UNC Asheville’s survey is fairly;
new, so while the statistics ait;
valid, they are not fully complete.;
according to Buecher.
Though the new survey is still in
the works it is definitely a priority
of the Alumni Affairs Office,
according to Frazier.
“For doing a newer long term
survey we haven’t even begun to
do the work at all, we’ve just
begun the conversations,” Frazier
said. “It’s a priority for the year,
and that may mean we don’t do it
this academic year but we are
doing the planning and prep work
to make it happen next year or in
the future.”
Housing
i"
Although this is an election year, no
liK'al candidate has visited Pisgah View to
hear the opinions of residents over the
future ot public housing, according to
White.
"That’s one of the problems we’ve had,"
White said. "We’ve had a lot of people in
this community who claim that they're
interested on our behalf, but they don't
consult us. They come and tell us what
they think is best for us.”
It they did visit, candidates would hear
resident’s concerns about Pisgah View
being turned into condominiums that cur
rent residents could not afford to live in, or
a golf course they could not afford to play
on, according to White.
"Before 1 came here, 1 was homeless,”
White said. ",So, you know, it would be
nice to have town houses and condos, and
some shops and stuff, but the reality is that
I need a place to live. So as long as 1 have
a .sate, warm place to live, that's my main
priority. The other stuff is political,"
Mixed-income redevelopment trans
forms public housing projects into a vari
ety of housing types, such as rental, home-
ownership, private, subsidized and public
housing, according to the U.S.
Department of Housing and Urban
Development. New communities are built
for residents with a wide range of incomes
and are desiped to fit into the surround
ing community, according to HUD.
Redevelopment is largely funded by
Hope VI, a federal program whose
budget has been cut by 14 percent over
the last five years, according to Bell.
The housing authority expects to get
Hope VI funding within the next few
years to begin redevelopment, which is
crucial to the future of Asheville public
housing, he said.
“If it doesn’t happen within the next five
years, then public housing won’t look like
it does ttxlay," Bell said. “We won’t be
able to afford to keep them open.”
Jan Davis, a first-term city councilman
CONTINUED FROM PAGE I
U
A.S long as I have a safe, warm
place to live, that’s my main pri
ority. The other stuff is political.
Bob White
Resident,
Pisgah View Apaitnients
TRfcY Bouvier - Staff Photographer
Pisgah View Apartments resident Bob
White relaxes in his community garden.
who is running for reelection this year,
said he agreed redevelopment is the right
direction for Asheville to be moving.
“Mixed-income housing is one of the
best ways of empowering people and
breaking the hopelessness of a stratified
low wealth community,” Davis said.
Davis is working with Mayor Terry
Bellamy and HACA on the creation of a
Hope VI model. The current model of
public housing has unacceptable rates of
unemployment, gang activity, prostitution
and drug activity, according to Davis.
I am encouraged by the administrative
staff of the housing authority’s compas
sion and desire to break the failed experi
ment of public housing," Davis said.
When the East Riverside redevelopment
began 40 years ago, some citizens were
upset over the city’s use of eminent
domain to seize their properties, but most
Asheville residents were in favor of the
redevelopment, according to Seavella.
“We had numerous meetings at night
with the residents of the neighborhoods.'
Seavella said. “There were several people
you could always count on to be there, the
most outspoken ones. We still had to move
on with the program, but we tried to doit
as humanely as possible.”
As long as redevelopment continues to
foster a greater sense of community, like
the garden has done so far, it would be
beneficial, according to James Cassels, a
38-year-old carpenter who has lived at
Pisgah View for three months.
“It sounds like a good idea,” he said.
“There just needs to be a lot more commu
nity togetherness and awareness about
everything that’s going on.”
Correction:
In the article “Civil union discussion turns into debate,” the group sponsoring the
forum “Civil Unions, Gay Marriage and Homophobia: A Problem of Moraf and
Spiritual Development?” was misidentified in last week’s issue of The Blue Banner.
Multicultural Student Programs sponstored the event.
Policy
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States Senate to stop illegal drug trade, as
being unfair and ineffective.
“The war on drugs is a destructive,
unwinnable campaign that hurts much
more than it helps,” Rosenberg said.
In 2005. there were an estimated
1.846,400 arrests for drug abuse viola
tions in the United States, according to
information from the Federal Bureau of
Investigation's Uniform Crime Reports.
This number has been on the rise since
1980. according to the study.
The report akso showed that more than 80
percent of drug law violation arrests were
for possession, and since 1996 the number
of arrests involving marijuana exceeded
that for other types of drugs.
"At the moment, the United States has
more pri.soners in custody than any other
nation on Earth, and the majority of them
are nonviolent drug offenders," Rosenberg
said. "The best approach we could take to
drugs is to minimize the harm they do to the
u.sers and minimize violence from the deal
ers and manufacturers.”
SSDP is open to all students on cam
pus. according to Eshelman and
Rosenberg. The group meets every
CONTINUED FROM PAGE 1
Tuesday at 5 p.m. in the Highsmith din
ing area.
"I hear people complaining about anti
drug laws all the time, but few people
actuyiy want to get involved because
they re either afraid or lazy, and that’s
Tri I c f i r-» r- 1 » . .
frustrating to me,” Eshelman said. “I
know a lot of good, capable students who
have been kicked out of the residence
halls or expelled from the university
because they’ve been caught with mari
juana."
The group’s faculty sponsor is Mark
ibney, political science professor
Gibney said he agrees with SDS that the
current drug laws are ineffective.
U.S. drug policy is insane,”
Greenfest
CONTINUED FROM
PAGE 1
said. “I don't think it is possible" m
, .
devise a system that is more racist
more
expensive and more socially counter
productive than the one that we have ”
according to Eshelman.
fh.f T f productive group, and one
S H ‘nterested in joining,”
Shitama, senior student. “UNC
Asheville should have more political stu
dent groups that take a stand ”
The residence halls also partic
ipated in Green Games, a compe
tition to see which dorm can,
eliminate the most electricity
during the week. The winnmS,
dorm this year was Governor s
Village, who will receive a
chocolate fountain party as their
reward for reducing energy
usage, according to Breckon.
“I was a little more cautious,
about shutting off the lights, an
turned off my stereo and stuff h ®
that,” Breckon said.
SGA hopes a majority of sW
dents will think more about tnei
energy consumption as a resu .
of Greenfest, according
Quick.
■‘I hope that students will ^
more motivated to change thei
way of living to be more environ
mentally friendly,” Quick said-
just hope that students will
more aware of how their action^
affect environmental quality an
hope that they will do si
things.”
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