Vassar, like educational institutions across the country, is still racing to develop creative ways to reconfigure budget allocations and nurse sizeable endowment losses. Students, administrators and faculty members are struggling to reach a consensus on which areas the College can afford to downsize. However, in the midst of serious budget limitations, we find an opportunity for a meaningful evaluation of the performance of certain offices and student services. Indeed, some restructuring of Vassar’s hefty bureaucracy might not only cut costs—it might also be beneficial to students.
The Miscellany News believes that one significant opportunity would be the creation of a comprehensive Career Center, a facility that would absorb several existing offices into a single efficient and effective student service.
The offices responsible for graduate school counseling and career-related services are crucial to students, particularly in an increasingly competitive job market. Like college counseling at the high school level, highly efficient and effective career and graduate counseling can prove essential at the college level. Post-college counseling is arguably the single most crucial student service, given the long-term impact that it can have on students’ professional lives and opportunities. But unlike most of our peer institutions—including Williams, Amherst, Swarthmore and Hamilton Colleges—Vassar has multiple career and graduate-related offices scattered throughout the first floor of Main Building. The Career Development Office (CDO), the Office of Fellowships and Pre-Health, Student Employment and Field Work all have different offices and separate staffs.
Their missions are interrelated—to guide Vassar students in determining their post-college lives, building résumés and delivering valuable work experience. In practice, many students find that the relationships between these offices are poorly articulated. Students are bounced from one office to another, only to be sent to a Web site rather than to an experienced counselor. And not only are the objectives of each office sometimes unclear, but it seems that there is minimal inter-office communication between the staff members. If a student wants to pursue an internship relevant to the pre-law track, should the student seek counsel from the offices of Fellowships and Pre-Professional Advising, Career Development or Field Work? If a student is interested in pre-medical opportunities, should the student visit the CDO, Fellowships and Grants, or their major advisor, who isn’t directly associated with any of the aforementioned career advising offices? For many students, the answers are unclear and the system murky.
We believe that many of these problems could be solved by the physical and bureaucratic consolidation of separate offices. Not only would each counselor be in close proximity to one another, but the delegation of services within the physical space of the building would create a more intuitive separation of each individual’s expertise while simultaneously calling attention to the overarching goal of pre-career and career counseling. Certain administrators involved in the dialogue believe that minor renovations of Main’s floor plan would allow this physical combination of offices. Considering the amount spent each year on the current inefficient system, this one-time investment in infrastructure would pay for itself.
Equally important in our increasingly digital age, a streamlined Career Center would also lend itself to a merging of office Web sites. Such a comprehensive Web site would further simplify the advising system—with a URL as straightforward as careers.vassar.edu—and would be more accessible for both current students and for prospective students when choosing an undergraduate program that will allow them to be competitive in the job market. Williams, for instance, employs the use of such a Web site through which students can research résumé building and internship options, as well as explore descriptions of career possibilities relevant to all majors, more specifically pre-law, pre-business and pre-med. Included in the information regarding potential career paths is a list of grants, scholarships and programs related to that particular area of interest. Vassar’s current Web system, by contrast, scatters this sort of information across five different office sites. There is no overarching aesthetic or organizational logic, despite the obvious connections between the functions of the different Web sites.
In 2005, a team of evaluators from fellow liberal arts colleges, including administrators from Bates and Bowdoin Colleges and Wesleyan University, visited Vassar to assess the broader functionality of the career offices structures as well as the efficiency of each individual office. The group encouraged the offices of Career Development, Field Work, and Fellowships and Pre-Health to centralize the databases of job and internship opportunities for students. From this suggestion came the use of eRecruiting, through which all offices post all career-related opportunities from on-campus student employment to entry-level career positions. Though The Miscellany News recognizes these collaborative efforts as a step in the right direction, we also believe that we need much deeper structural changes. Indeed, a comprehensive Career Center would represent a change in ethos—the creation of a place where marketable skills and ‘real world’ sensibilities are emphasized and celebrated.
Achieving a streamlined office structure would require the College to closely evaluate and break down the role of each employee, reconstructing this Career Center from the ground up. Each office currently requires its own administrative support, while a cohesive group of administrative assistants in a comprehensive Career Center would reduce unnecessary personnel and operational expenses. A single office would inevitably reduce operational costs—everything from computers and phone lines to individual stationery could be cut from office expenses.
The Miscellany News encourages administrators to think creatively and innovatively about restructuring the office system, particularly in light of the economy. Our proposed Career Center would need to absorb and integrate the goals and philosophies of each office, and any future discussions should consider the valid concerns relating to how consolidation could compromise these values. Currently, these career-related offices are divided between two major bureaucratic divisions: the Dean of the College division and the Dean of the Faculty Division. Given the student-centered nature of career services and graduate counseling, we feel that these services are best associated with the Dean of the College.
The loss of personnel that would result from bureaucratic streamlining is difficult in an intimate community like Vassar. We certainly believe that staff reductions from voluntary retirement and natural attrition should be evaluated first before cutting positions. This rule has guided the College thus far during the recession. But the global economy remains uncertain. It would be naïve to assume that this policy can remain in place, especially given that nearly two-thirds of the College’s operating budget goes toward professional compensation. We must face the very real, albeit regrettable, reality that positions might need to be shed. With this in mind, the combination of these career-related offices may provide a model for the reasonable reduction of administrative support.
If the College is to uphold its commitment to academic excellence and financial aid, we must ensure the long-term financial stability of the institution. Looking long-term, though, the financial crisis could be an opportunity to restructure the College’s outmoded and bloated office structure. The integration of Vassar’s many career-services into a single Career Center is one vision for a more efficient administrative system that would be cost-effective and ultimately offer a more comprehensive service. Such a change would still pose difficult questions, such as the feasibility of physical renovations as well as the consequences of transforming the bureaucratic apparatus for current employees. However, the reality of the financial crisis has forced the administration to re-evaluate the College’s annual expenditures. A Career Center, which would absorb five currently independent offices, is an example of a creative solution that could both reduce costs and ultimately enhance student life.
—The Staff Editorial reflects the opinion of at least two-thirds of the 19-member Editorial Board.
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