McNeese State University - Log Yearbook (Lake Charles, LA)

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When you're ready to search for that first special job, the McNeese Placement Center can help you in Starting a New Career When nearing graduation, students should try to take advantage of the McNeese State University Placement Center. The Placement Center, which is overlooked by many students, sends invi- tations letters to corporations across the United States to help in employee recruit- ing efforts. The Placement Center offers a free re- sume service, and can provide students with free valuable career reference mate- rials and job recruiting information. A part-time job service is also offered through the Placement Office where a card file is kept on available job openings. A student can refer to this file year round for possible job options. Another service is the practice of keeping applications on file. Among these are teacher applica- tions for every parish in the state. Patricia Cloud, Placement Center sec- retary, recommends that students start a placement file at least two semesters be- fore their graduation. Included in the file should be a standard college interview form, a student resume, and forms for stu- dent evaluations by professors. “There are so few jobs,’’ Cloud said, “and so many people applying for the same position.’ A company usually schedules interviews on one day only, and grants about 12 interviews during that day, she pointed out. A number of McNeese graduates who have located jobs through the Placement Center have returned to McNeese in re- cent years as interviewers. The compa- nies they represent seem to feel it helps to keep a good rapport with the university. Matching gift funds are popular with indi- vidual companies. If an employee of a company makes a sizable donation to the Placement Office of his Alma Mater, the company often matches it. Louisiana school boards, Amoco, Arco Oil Gas, and McElroy, Quirk Co., (a local CPA firm) are a few of the companies that ac- tively seek employees from McNeese. Amoco, a major corporate interviewer, has chosen McNeese as one of only a few universities to interview possible employ- ees. Overall, McNeese students have made a favorable impression on the interview- ing companies. Most companies feel that the students are prompt, well-dressed and have good communication skills, a benefit of both the student and McNeese’s reputation as a quality univer- sity. Placement 185

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184 Academics Patricia Cloud, 17-year employee of the Place- ment Office, goes out of her way to help all student applicants. (Photo by T. Maricle) Walmart Assistant Manager Mickey Find- ley, a 1984 McNeese graduate, and Tim Nel- son (also with Wal- mart) discuss company policies with James Smythe, a business major at McNeese. (Photo by B. Mericle) Don Washington of Conoco interviews Hank Coates, an engi- neering major, for a job opening. (Photo by B. Mericle) ee eeeeeEEEEEEEeeEeEeEeEeEeEeEEEe——EEeEeEeEeEeEeE————— ia Anthony Jones, an en- gineering major, waits patiently in the lobby of the Placement Office for an interview with Conoco. (Photo by B. Mericle) egy cming Seats sos

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The University Computer Center utilizes advanced equipment for the difficult task of Keeping the Red Tape Organized The McNeese State University Aca- demic Computer Center boasts state-of- the-art equipment. The Center, located in Kirkman Hall, is responsible for interfacing between the academic users and the central system. The Academic Center controls an IBM 3776 RJE station for batch work, an IBM System 34 for interactive work in pass- through mode and also for batch work, besides numerous terminals directly at- tached to the central computer. There are three operating systems for academic use; one for faculty, one for students, and one especially for engineering students. The computer system accepts all pro- gramming languages, while offering full screen editing. Other features include built-in statistical processing and built-in text processing, called script. There are 186 Academics about 2,200 users of the computer facili- ties; consisting of about 1,900 students and about 300 faculty members. Our computer system is divided into clusters, a group of terminals with a print- er. Clusters for student use are located in the Engineering and Technology building, Kirkman Hall, the new Ranch, and the Fra- zar Library. Additional clusters in Kauf- man Hall and in the new Business Eco- nomic Center are planned. A proposal has been made to provide telephone connections from the McNeese Computer Center to users in their own homes or dorm room. However, for now the McNeese Academic Comput- er System is open for use 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. Special arrangements can be made by speaking with the faculty member in charge of the specific clusters.