Planning for the Present — and the Future
Career Services, Educational Resource Center to collaborate on support services
As the application deadline for the Class of 2013 nears, many prospective students are looking at the campus with an eye to what their life would be like at Boston University. Their parents, however, often have a different focus.
“Career services and academic support services are areas we know prospective families look at,” says Laurie Pohl, vice president for enrollment and student affairs. “They’re asking, ‘What are you going to do to help my son or daughter be well-situated for life after BU?’”
A new support effort is intended to help both students and parents answer that question early in their college careers. Pohl, along with Robert A. Brown, BU’s president, Kenneth Elmore, the dean of students, and Denise Mooney, associate vice president for enrollment and student affairs and associate dean of students, have set a long-term strategy that calls for a greater integration of the Office of Career Services and the Educational Resource Center (ERC). The intention, Mooney says, is to help students better coordinate their academic program and their professional plans and encourage them to set goals early in their college experience.
“When students take themselves to the ERC, there’s often not more to it than, ‘I’m struggling in biology and I want a tutor,’” Mooney says. “But if you have an opportunity to talk with someone about long-term goals and how biology fits into that, it’s a great opportunity to broaden that discussion a bit more. If you take these chances to engage students about how their immediate concern fits into a broader picture, you’ll provide a better service.”
The long-term plans include a new staffing structure that encourages more collaboration between the two offices and a new location that is more centrally located — currently, the ERC is on the fourth floor of the George Sherman Union and Career Services is at 19 Deerfield St. in Kenmore Square. A search for a new director of Career Services is under way as well, as current director Richard Leger has announced his plan to retire.
However, Pohl and Mooney say, there is plenty that can be accomplished in the short term by working more closely with other student services areas, such as individual schools and colleges and Alumni Relations, on outreach programs. The group is also encouraging more communication between the two offices, as well as with other career services offices on campus.
Pohl says they also plan to reassess the recruitment structure available to employers and students to make sure that opportunities are available across school and college lines.
“Now, many people don’t think about career services until the end of their junior year,” Pohl says. “I think we could raise awareness earlier in their careers, so they’re not saying, ‘I wish I’d done an internship. I wish I’d spent my last summer differently.’ We want them to be prepared to make their mark on local communities and the world.”
Jessica Ullian can be reached at jullian@bu.edu.
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