Are Career Services at a University necessary?

When I worked at New Jersey City University in Jersey City the provost, deans, vice presidents, vice president of human resources, and others decided to eliminate the only professional staff position in career services, calling it a layoff. The definition of a layoff is a lack of work, or that the position is obsolete or no longer needed. (Even though hundreds of students every semester met with a career counselor for help with various career issues). Do you agree that providing career services to students at a college or university is not necessary? * I agree, it's ok to let students pay tuition/fees and figure out career issues on their own. * I disagree, career counselors should be available to assist college students.

People who use big words...

People use words to make themselves sound more important than they really are. When I worked at NJCU a "school of business" already existed, with majors such as accounting, management, and finance. Then when the university president decided to spend millions of NJ taxpayer dollars to lease a building in downtown Jersey City, and move offices and classes for the school of business to that location, the guy who was the Dean of the school of business changed his title to "Founding Dean" of the school of business. Just because you moved your operations to a new location doesn't mean that you "founded" a new "school of business." It just means that you're in a different building. Yet everywhere it was noted that the person's title was not just "Dean" but "Founding Dean." Instead making a big deal about job titles maybe make a big deal about how your President was wasting money leading to a financial crisis, and how your university is being dissolved with the campus becoming another state university.

University administrators allow students into a building containing exposed asbestos

When I worked at New Jersey City University in Jersey City, in spring 2022 the vice president of enrollment management moved the career center (at the time, one person, me, although that's another story) into Grossnickle Hall. As you can see from the attached pictures there were broken tiles on the floor outside my office, and an entire section that that was broken but covered by a mat. I filed a complaint with the state of NJ; inspectors visited and tested the tiles for asbestos. The tests came back positive, and only then did the acting president bring in someone to repair the tiles. So for years NJCU had students coming in and out of classes in this building, and never bothered to repair the tiles. Former president Sue Henderson was too busy taking trips to China to pay attention to what existed on her own campus, and her vice presidents didn't care about the students, so this easily fixable situation went on.

A "job" as an administrator at a university

I've often wondered what some people actually do, in their jobs. Take, for example, someone with a title a title of "vice president of marketing and strategy" at a university. When this public university declares a financial crisis and announces they are $300 million in debt, what exactly was the "strategy?" Run the school into the ground? It's like these colleges are being run by crew members of the Exxon Valdez. College administrators wax poetic about their "strategies" and "visions." If they spend all their time being "thought leaders" how does a college end up being dissolved and taken over by another university? Whenever they talk about their "strategies," "missions," and other jargon, they are just covering up the fact that they don't do jack-squat in their jobs. They never taught a class or worked in student services. Then when there's a financial crisis, they say, "these things happen in business" - even when a university isn't a business - and they pretend that the people in charge had nothing to with the crisis. They should be ashamed of themselves.

University administrators wanted to spend taxpayer money on "space consultants"

When I worked at NJCU and they were in the midst of a hundred million dollar financial crisis, the vice president of administration and finance said he was going to hire "space consultants" to advise the university on the best use of the "space" in their buildings. How bizarre. The former president put the university into hundreds of millions of dollars in debt, and her vice presidents and board of trustees let it happen without saying anything, and then they're going to spend money to have someone else tell them how to best use the "space" on their own campus? Phew. This after they were begging the state of New Jersey to give them more of taxpayers' money to bail them out of the financial crisis. All the people who run this colleges with their PhD's, and they can't figure out themselves how to best utilize the buildings on their own campus?

College Administrators have B.S. jobs

Funny how when colleges and universities hire professors and staff the folks in charge of the hiring want candidates with degrees, credentials, experience, intangibles...the list goes one. Yet, these college administrator jobs don't require any real expertise in a certain area, and are often filled by the friend of another administrator, or for some sort of political or social reason. Like a Dean of the College of Professional Studies. at a university. That's a job you could have landed without any relevant experience or skills. Then when there's a financial emergency you could be involved in personnel decisions like layoffs of professors and staff, without any real knowledge of the situation. Basically you can be involved in ruining an organization and treating people like disposable objects without being qualified to make those decisions. You don't even have to be man enough to tell employees to their faces about the layoffs and why they're being done; just have HR send an email after hours.. Then a year later you can quit the job and move on. You get paid a lot of money to do nothing, other than mess up the lives of people who actually make a career out of helping students. But hey, that's the life of a college administrator.

Today's college students don't know what they're missing...

Today's college students don't know what they're missing. When I was in college there were organizations that anyone could join. Organizations like class one concerts, the college life union board, the Montclarion student newspaper, the yearbook, the literary magazine, the radio station. You didn't have to be a theater major to join Players, the acting organization. These were the types of groups that brought people together. There wouldn't be much for me to join if I was in college today. It seems like there's only special interest groups, and clubs that focus on religion, race, ethnic backgrounds, and other unique topics. I just wouldn't have been interested in being part of a Christian Fellowship, Muslim Student Association, or Jewish Student Union. There's nothing wrong with having those groups; I just don't know why they are the focus. Those are the types of organizations that separate people, not bring them together. Oh well. Whatever floats your boat I guess.