College Graduate Sues Her Alumni Career Resource Center
by: Joanna - August 03, 2009 05:16pm
Are you unemployed with a college degree? You should probably sue.
Okay well maybe not you but Trina Thompson, of New York, has decided she is going to. A friend of mine sent over this article today, Jobless Graduate Sues Her College, and I just had to tackle the topic.
Basically…Thompson is seeking to recover the $70,000 she spent on tuition, while attending Monroe College, claiming that their resource center has failed to do their job. 
Thompson received her degree in April of this year and is outraged at the lack of effort the Office of Career Advancement has spent on assisting her through-out her job search.
She states, “They have not tried hard enough to help me.” Her mother even chimed in, saying that she was "very angry at her [daughter's] situation" having "put all her faith" in her college.
Wow. I know what most of you may be thinking—“man people will sue for anything these days.” But hear me out…I kind of think Thompson might have a case here. I don’t know the specific ways in which she is claiming her alumni institution “failed her,” but I do know that it's time colleges and universities start taking responsibility for their students beyond the flipping of the graduation tassel.
Now it’s not fair of me to say that no school out there is living up to their end of the bargain, but I can say with confidence, that more often than not, the Career Resource Departments out there are failing us.
Yeah it’s a recession. I know. Tons of people looking for jobs, and not so many to go around, but isn’t that when an educational institution would have the most to offer? Alumni connections at companies, training programs to offer, advanced degrees to recommend, and so on, are just a few of the ways colleges need to step up.
I know it’s easier said than done, but in my opinion, when I signed on to my undergraduate and graduate institutions, I was also receiving a promise. I was told that I would have a community of resources and advice available to me…forever. After all, they somehow manage to find me when they need more monetary help to support the growth of the college, so why should I not be able to call on them when I need career assistance? Isn’t that all part of the “let us help you succeed in life" thing, colleges always boast about?
I’d love to hear everyone’s thoughts? Is it the college’s responsibility to make sure every alumnus who wants a job has the best chance at landing one, or is this just another case of an unemployed student looking for handouts?
*By the way if you are a college, university or school looking to supplement your career resources online with a job search functionality, please check out our job search widget here.
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I have NEVER seen "career
I have NEVER seen "career assistance" at any school that went beyond a bulletin board. While some schools somewhere may do a better job than that, it is about time higher-ed really examined the claims they make about the value of their product.
Even without recession, how valuable is that degree when you are paying student loan interest forever? And let's be serious about student loans: it is a HUGE for-profit industry the government is only a piece of with subsidized loans. Most everybody has additional debt from credit cards to commercial student loans to owing their parents. Big burdens to expect someone to carry when the 'job assistance' is faxes stapled-up in a hallway.
I say more power to her! Let's see what positive changes can be made.
I don't think it's the
I don't think it's the responsibility of the Universities/Colleges to find jobs for their graduates. It is on the other hand their responsibility to guide, assist and connect their students to alumni and other resources available, but a promise of a job is far from their responsibility. Just like everything else in this world, there are no free meal tickets. It's a dog eat dog world out there and may the prepared, hard-working, ethical, and hungry ones survive. Only the individual can choose to cry, whimper and participate in life as a victim of their circumstances or they can flip the script and choose abundance, hope, clarity and the support of their family, friends. Those adjectives of positivity can go on and on, but at the end of the day it simply comes down to a choice that we all get to make on how we view the support, access to people and information around us. I hope she loses her law suit. It looks to me like another person not taking action in her own life and looking for an easy way out.
At the very least, a
At the very least, a university should tell students how to get a job. I'm not talking about how to write a resume and/or coverletter. Many universities teach that: at least, mine did. What I'm talking about is the physical process of submitting resumes, making call-backs, networking, scheduling lunches with would-be employers, etc. These things are not taught. If a university is going to advertise its services with the outcome of better employment, then they need to make adjustments in their marketing scheme (i.e. not advertise better employment) or in their teaching regiment. If it's a dog-eat-dog world, and only the prepared survive, then perhaps universities should better prepare their students. If this woman can demonstrate a solid effort at finding a job, and at the same time demonstrate that her university failed to live up to its promises, then she should win.
Joanna, Right on. A lawsuit
Joanna,
Right on. A lawsuit is a bit over the top, but these universities have been unaccountable for way to long. Out here in Michigan, where unemployment is at 15% and those that do have jobs have made huge wage concessions, universities are still jacking up tuition rates 8-12%. I have no idea how they justify this...am I going to have a 12% better chance of landing a job this year? I don't think so.
I totally agree that
I totally agree that colleges/universities need to be taking an active role in the career placement process. I actually even believe that it should be a mandatory component to the education curriculum as a whole. Learning how to navigate the job market is just as critical a skill as nearly any other learned in higher education.
However. That being said...having recently graduated myself I have had a recent front row seat to the job search of many. My university had strained yet dedicated resources in the career services department. Granted, we were a smaller private school and this was at the graduate level as well so one would assume that resources would be a given. As this article points out that isn't always the case. In our situation there were a great deal of resources to be had but jobs were not "handed out" as I believe some expected.
People still whined.
People still failed to take advantage of them.
People still refused to do what it takes, and go above and beyond to find creative solutions to their problems.
In today's economy simply going on to a company's website and submitting an application is NOT ENOUGH! There needs to be a level of creativity and alternative thinking that goes into a person's job search. This needs to involve social networking both online and in real life. Creatively reaching out to helpful contacts. Volunteering to gain experience...the list goes on and on.
Even in the presence of good advice and a wealth of resources some individuals are unwilling to step up to the plate and take responsibility for their own actions by getting their fingers dirty and pounding the pavement.
Personally I think some of it is vernacular. It's not a service (career services that is...) it's career guidance. The individuals have to be willing to take it as such. Guidance. --> Then go DO!!!!!
In my opinion the girl that sued her school is wrong. She got a quality education without a doubt. If her career services were lacking she needed to have taken that responsibility on her own shoulders. Her education will be with her forever and that should definitely not come for free.
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