Nationwide push begins for public service careers
By Nikki Rohrbaugh | April 26, 2002With the nation's capital only a two-hour drive away and a University founded by a former president, many students find themselves drawn to governmental jobs after graduation. To encourage students to consider federal jobs when they graduate, 351 university and college presidents launched a new program Monday entitled "A Call to Serve: Leaders in Education Allied for Public Service." The program is designed to attract more skilled, young people to government positions. At a time when 53 percent of the federal workforce will qualify for retirement within the next two years and 71 percent of the government's senior managers will be eligible to retire within the next four years, there seems to be a demand for this kind of program. While the University has not officially signed on to the program, Ladd Flock, director of University Career Services, said that the University has numerous resources available to help students find government jobs. "We've gotten lots of resource information" on government jobs, said Ellen Tucker, career resource manager at University Career Services. Flock pointed out that government jobs are available even to people with no political background. "You don't have to be a political science, government or foreign affairs major," Flock said.
