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The Blue Banner I 4.4,2012
News
Graduate job market looking positive, employers say
Ted Kendrick
tkendric@unca.edu - Staff Writer
Attendees of the UNC
Asheville Career Center’s re
cent annual job fair expressed
hope for students soon entering
the job force.
“I think maybe recently, very
recently, the job market has
started to improve,” said Becky
Shipkosky, assistant editor at
Lark Books.
The UNCA Career Center
hosted their annual job fair in
the Kimmel Arena on March
20. Attendees included State
Farm, Wells Fargo, the Nan-
tahala Outdoor Center, the
Asheville Police Department
and Waffle House, among oth
ers.
College graduates are experi
encing an 11 percent unemploy
ment rate, according to a Pew
Fiscal Analysis Initiative Study
published last month. About
one in every 10 graduates will
experience a prolonged unem
ployment for at least a year.
This percentage is much higher
than those with only a high
school diploma, which has a 26
percent unemployment rate.
Lark Brooks hired Shipko
sky, a graduate of the Univer
sity of Texas, in the spring of
2008.
“I actually found my job be
fore I graduated,” Shipkosky
Photo by Rkki Emmones - Staff Photographer
U.S. National Whitewater Rafting Center representative Doug Fogartie talks with attendees at
the UNCA Career Center's annual job fair. Employers said they are hopeful for new graduates.
said. “I got really lucky, I think,
because it was just as every
thing was falling apart.”
Doug Fogartie, a graduate
from UNC Charlotte, works
as the U.S. National White-
water Center’s mobile mar
keting coordinator and was
promoted from within.
“I’ve been with the White
water Center since 2007.1 was
a raft guide for the summer and
on the weekends during school.
There was a position available
upon graduation,” Fogartie
said.
Fogartie said he thinks the
job market is looking better
this year.
“It’s looking positive,” For-
gatie said. “Still kind of tough
to get a job right now, but this
is why we’re so great because
we can give you a summer job,
and then when you have that
job, you can find another job. If
you’re a current employee and
a job opens up, they like to hire
from within.”
Nina Hall, the community
engagement specialist of
UNCA’s National Environ
mental Modeling and Analy
sis Center, has seen NEMAC
hire interns for permanent po
sitions.
“We have three UNCA grads
who used to be interns,” Hall
said “Two of them that we had
hired after they graduated. We
just have a small group, so we
don’t hire all the time.”
Proving one’s skills as an in
tern illustrates professionalism
to employers. Hall said.
“We get a project in and we
know they can do this work be
cause they have done it in the
past, so you know exactly who
to go to,” Hall said.
Bridget Hines, employment
coordinator at the Nantahala
Outdoor Center, applied her
degree in other unrelated job
opportunities.
“My degree wasn’t in HR,”
Hines said. “It was in multime
dia art. I’ve never worked in it.
I worked at a couple of differ
ent things. I was a kindergarten
teacher, and then I started work
ing in domestic violence, doing
social work. I got tired of it, so
I decided to be a waitress and
I waitressed at the Nantahala
Outdoor Center. I worked there
for a couple of years and when
the HR director asked me if I
see JOBS on page 5
Campus accreditation reviewed with few complications
Jackie Starkey
jstarkey@unca.edu
Asst. News Editor
The Southern Association of
Colleges and School commit
tee completed UNC Asheville’s
on-site campus review on
Thursday and presented posi
tive feedback on the univer
sity’s reaccreditation.
“Thursday we completed the
next step in the process,” said
Bruce Larson, professor of
economics and chair of UN
CA’s Southern Association of
Colleges and Schools execu
tive committee. “The visiting
team strongly appreciated what
was done with the QEP and we
met all but one of the 100 stan
dards.”
The one standard UNCA
failed to meet, standard 3.5.4.,
requires at least 25 percent of
course hours in each major
taught by staff or faculty hold
ing terminal degrees, such as a
doctorate. Larson said only one
department on campus failed to
meet this criteria for the stan
dard.
“It’s like getting a 99 on an
exam,” Larson said.
The university administra
tion has five months to rectify
the failed standard by creating
a response and submitting it to
SACS, at which time a decision
will be made as to whether or
not the university will be reac
credited, according to Larson.
"They said it was well-written and a
good topic for a liberal arts campus like
ours. The students said they loved (the
QEP). They used the word love, not like."
Mary Lynn Manns
Associate accounting professor and QEP chair
“My complete expectation is
that we will create a response
complementary to reaffirma
tion,” Larson said.
UNCA’s Quality Enhance
ment Plan, Inquiry ARC, was
also well received by the SACS
review board, according to
Mary Lynn Manns, associate
professor of management and
accounting and QEP chair.
“They said it was well-written
and a good topic for a liberal
arts campus like ours,” Manns
said. “The students said they
loved (the QEP). They used the
word love, not like.”
Manns said she too expects
the SACS to decide to reac
credit UNCA following the
positive statements of the on
site review board.
The ultimate decision on re
accreditation as a university
will be made by the SACS gov
erning body in December.
“I wouldn’t want to compare
this reaffirmation (with the
last). The SACS team approach
has greatly changed,” Larson
said.
UNCA’s last accreditation
process, which took place dur
ing the 2001-2002 school year,
presented the university with
see QEP on page 5