The Malone Career Center is no more at Furman. Does that mean the university has given up on helping students find jobs? Far from it. Very, very far from it.<\/p>\n
The Malone Career Center is now the Malone Center for Career Engagement.\u00a0That seemingly subtle rebranding belies the significance of the profound changes to the office\u2019s operation and vision that will begin rolling out this summer\u2014changes that Vice President for Student Life Connie Carson believes will give undergraduates professional development assistance unprecedented in the school\u2019s 191-year history and make Furman one of a handful of national leaders in a rapidly evolving and competitive race to show a return on the higher-education investment.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019ve restructured the entire office, and we\u2019ve shifted it into a higher gear. We\u2019re going to be on the leading edge in career and professional preparation,\u201d Carson said. \u201cAnd that in itself is a big deal, especially for liberal arts institutions.\u201d<\/p>\n
Traditionally, career services offices assisted students with resumes and interview skills, answered questions and perhaps pointed them to hiring companies. The new Malone Center will still do that\u2014but it will also do much more through the use of a \u201cCustomized Connections\u201d concept, variations of which have been implemented by schools like Stanford University.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe are changing our name from the Career Center to the Center for Career Engagement, and that term was adopted to reflect our new mission which is to more effectively engage students in career and professional development activities,\u201d said John Barker, assistant vice president for career and professional development.<\/p>\n
Beginning in the fall, students will be steered toward \u201cCareer Communities\u201d populated with employers, alumni and organizations based on their majors and career interests. In addition to a top-notch education, they\u2019ll be exposed to a network of real-world mentors, advisors, connections, graduate-school admissions officers and employers springing from a collaboration with the academic department on campus.<\/p>\n
That\u2019s quite a far cry from hosting a job fair for seniors. Barker is the architect of the initiative, which he saw as imperative after reading a 2014 article from Stanford and George Mason universities that outlined how the career education models for universities was changing. In response to increased scrutiny\u2014particularly on liberal arts institutions\u2014to justify the cost of a four-year degree, top schools were doubling and even tripling career center staff members and investing dollars numbering in the millions into resources to better serve the professional development needs of students and increase effective outcomes, i.e. jobs.<\/p>\n
Then the director of career services, he realized Furman was at a crossroads and it must take a decisive step in this direction.<\/p>\n
\u201cEvery year, I get calls from the media wanting to know what are your graduates doing? They sometimes question whether the investment is worth it. \u00a0There has been a lot of scrutiny on outcomes of a college education in recent years,\u201d Barker said. \u201cThat\u2019s when I started having conversations with our VP, Connie Carson, saying this is what\u2019s going on nationwide on the career center landscape. Top schools are evolving to better meet the needs of their students, and if we want to remain as one of the leading institutions in terms of career preparation we are going to need to adapt.\u201d<\/p>\n
Carson listened, agreed and carried the torch to Elizabeth Davis, shortly after Davis became Furman\u2019s 12th<\/sup> president in 2014. She also agreed, and Barker went to work.<\/p>\n He was elevated to his current position, and a new position\u2014director of career engagement\u2014was approved and filled last month by Lauren Payne. Two future positions have been proposed to further support the new model and will be considered based on need.<\/p>\n Barker says that their new operational model recognizes that everyone on campus can and should have a positive effect on students\u2019 lives, both personally and professionally, and the entire university should be operating as one with that goal in mind. Creating a campus \u201decosystem\u201d of professional preparation is one of the primary goals of the new Customized Connections model.<\/p>\n The idea is that rather than working as a stand-alone resource housed in the student affairs division, the Malone Center for Career Engagement will collaborate with departments across campus to better engage students in new \u201cacademic-career integration\u201d initiatives. To that end, a dotted-line reporting channel between The Center for Career Engagement and George Shields, the vice president for academic affairs and provost, was created.<\/p>\n \u201cThe rationale there was if we have that connection between my office and academic affairs it then becomes easier to sell across campus and get buy-in from different constituent groups,\u201d Barker said. \u201cI think this happens at most college campuses: You\u2019ve got student life on one side, academic affairs on the other side, and a lot of times the philosophy is never the twain shall meet. At Furman, we\u2019re breaking down those walls, and the ultimate beneficiaries\u2014and I always come full circle with this\u2014will be our students and our alums.\u201d<\/p>\n Since the fall, Barker has been meeting with department heads, the provost, deans, faculty members, and others to inform them of the changes and gather input while also talking to personnel at Stanford, Wake Forest, George Mason, Carleton, Richmond, Rollins and others. From this research Furman\u2019s unique model was crafted. \u201cBy the time fall term gets here, we\u2019ll have some pretty defined career communities that we\u2019re going to start building together,\u201d Barker said. \u201cWe\u2019re excited about all of this.\u201d<\/p>\n Payne comes to Furman from the University of San Diego, where she was the associate director of the career development center. She was attracted to the revolutionary vision of the Customized Connections model as well as the larger goals of The Furman Advantage, which was launched last year.<\/p>\n \u201cMy big role is going to be building these career communities as part of that model. We\u2019re going to, over the next few years, be building very industry-specific career communities,\u201d Payne said. \u201cIt\u2019s really well aligned with The Furman Advantage as far as trying to create additional resources for these students so it\u2019s not just a career center. We\u2019re building a community of mentors, whether those mentors are alumni or faculty, parents, community members.\u201d<\/p>\n