Newspapers / North Carolina Wesleyan University … / Oct. 3, 1986, edition 1 / Page 3
Part of North Carolina Wesleyan University Student Newspaper / About this page
This page has errors
The date, title, or page description is wrong
This page has harmful content
This page contains sensitive or offensive material
■'r:- { (jijuo^ OCTOBER 3,1986 — THE DECREE — PAGE 3 Stress of college prompts suicides Nature of work changing By SUSAN W. MORRIS The National Alliance of Business reports in its recent publication Employment Policies: Looking to the Year 2000, that between now and the year 20000, major changes predicted for the workplace "wUl cause pervasive mismatches between workplace needs and workplace capabilities." Of the predicted changes in the nature of jobs, one is of utmost importance to today's students. New technology will change the nature of the way work will be performed. The work of year 2000 will not necessarily be high-tech but will require an increasingly higher level of thinking skills — reading, writing, speaking, listen ing, problem solving, and mathe matics. It is quite possible that the rapidity with which the work changes will take place will create an educational-training gap be tween the work changes and the workers' abilities to perform new jobs. It is equally apparant that those workers who are not prepared to keep up with the changes will not be in the workforce. Educational institutions and employers will be expected to keep up with the educational and training needs of the workforce. However, it is unreasonable to expect these two parties to carry the lion's share of responsibility toward this end. The students of today must prepare themselves for tomorrow by refining their ability to leam — to think. What students leam today may be vastly different from what they will leam tomorrow. The constant must be that they know how to leam. College students' suicides usually can be traced to students' inability to cope with academic and family problems, and their problems coping often are exacerbated by drug use, a five-year study of collegiate suicides has found. And a study published last week in the New England Journal of Medicine asserted that TV movies about suicide can them selves lead other teenagers to commit suicide. "Suicide," says Dr. Evelyn Gauthier, a psychologist at the University of Michigan and a part of the five-year study of suicides at Southem Illinois, Chicago, and all the Big 10 schools, "is all too often seen as a problem-solver. Some students in the midst of an intol erable situation can see no other way." College juniors and graduate students are at the highest risk of suicide, the study found. The juniors — especially men — face the stress of achievement tests and career decisions, Gauthier says. Grad students, in turn, are under intense academic pressure to succeed, but don’t have the advantage of "social anchors" like marriage, children, and secure jobs to help them cope with it, she adds. Louisiana State University med school Prof. Frank Wolf in 1984 found first year med students seem to have the highest level of stress among all levels of collegians. Of the 77 students who com mitted suicides at the 12 mid- western campuses through the five years of the study, 32 percent were grad students. Thirteen percent were freshmen, the study — which was formally presented at the recent American Psychological Association convention — found. September and March seem to be the peak suicide seasons on campus, the researchers say. None of the researchers in volved in the study, described as the first extensive scientific look at suicide on the college level, was sure why. But drugs did seem to be involved in many of the recorded instances. "Use of chemicals is one of many dimensions which increase suicide potentiality," reports Michi gan State's JoAnn McFall, one of the psychologists involved in the study. "Chemically dependent" stu dents, she says, "exhibit decreasing coping skills, impaired judgement, and increasing isolation, which combine to potentiate suicidal tendencies." Book gives good tips on working Jobs for English Majors and Other Smart People by John L. Munschauer, Peterson's Guides, Princeton, NJ, 164 pp., $7.95 at local bookstores, available on loan from the Office of Co-op/Career Planning, Room 139. By SUSAN MORRIS This is one of the most valuable career resource books of the year. No, it does not list job titles nor occupational indices. Instead, Munschauer explains how you can locate employment which will satisfy your own personal and professional goals. According to the author, students need to understand that there is no such thing as "liberal artsing." To begin a job search by asking, "What can I do with my major?" is to begin with the wrong question. Munschauer explains that college degrees don't create work — employer needs do. The questions that students need to ask are: (1) "What needs to be done?" (2) "What is my ability to do it?" and (3) "What profit (satisfaction) is to be derived from doing it?" Jobs for English Majors out lines resource guides, rese^h strategies, and marketing tech-, niques which will assist all students in answering these questions, which in turn will lead to personally satisfying employment. If you are among the persons described in the title, you need to read this book. F orce Make It Work D istance SENIORS WANTED FOR MANAGEMENT TRAINEE POSITIONS Planters Bank Recruiter on cam pus in January — Completed cre dential files required. Sign-Up Deadline — December 12 Rose's Recruiter on campus in November — Completed credential files required. Sign-Up Deadline — October 20 Majors In The Following Areas Needed: Computer Science, Marketing, In dustrial Relations. Forty (40) co-op positions for the upcoming spring semester will be available with Nor thern Telecom. Resumes and com pleted credential packages should be turned into the Cooperative Edu cation Office by October 17, Room 139, Braswell Administration Build ing. Perdue Recruiter on campus in January — Completed credential files required. Sign-Up Deadline — December 12 Recommended Readings: Sweaty Palms: The Neglected Art of Being Interviewed by Anthony Medley. Job Search Strategy for College Grads by Susan Bernard and Gretchen Thompson. Office of Cooperative Education/Career Planning Rooms 139 and 141 Office Hours 8 a.m. - 5 p.m. Evening Hours By Appointment
North Carolina Wesleyan University Student Newspaper
Standardized title groups preceding, succeeding, and alternate titles together.
Oct. 3, 1986, edition 1
3
Click "Submit" to request a review of this page. NCDHC staff will check .
0 / 75