Browsing by Author "McBride, James L."

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    Effects of uniform guidelines on employee selection procedures in college placement offices
    McBride, James L. (Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University, 1982)
    Beginning with the Civil Rights Act of 1964, Congress and the courts have legislated and adjudicated laws in an effort to eliminate discrimination in employment opportunities on the grounds of race, color, sex, religion, or national origin. In 1978, the Uniform Guidelines on Employee Selection Procedures were jointly issued by several federal administrative agencies and have included within their framework the types of employment selection practices operating in many contemporary college and university placement offices. These regulations have serious implications for college placement offices in which interview selection and referral practices fail to assist all students in fair and equitable ways. This study investigated from two perspectives the problems for college placement personnel that are associated with these guidelines. First, legal research methodology was implemented to trace the historical and topical development of relevant legislative and case law. The findings of the legal research indicated that the federal government and the courts had mandated, rather consistently, two controlling standards that pertain to individual and class civil rights. Those standards are equality and neutrality. Failure of an entity to comply with either of these standards, except in listed instances, had been judged discriminatory under civil rights law. Based on existing litigations, judgments against college placement offices could be proscriptive, corrective, and/or compensatory in effect. Furthermore, there exists the potential for loss of governmental funding, the extent of which remains undetermined. Secondly, the findings of the survey research indicated that a majority of college placement offices sampled (60.9%) were operating student interview selection and referral systems within the compliance standards of the Uniform Guidelines. Almost categorically, placement officers supported student interview systems that were void of prohibitive selection criteria (sex, race, color, or national origin). On the other hand, the Uniform officers void of religion, placement officers indicated more discriminatory trends where neutral selection criteria (academic majors, grade point averages, or degree levels) were concerned. Additionally 25.93 of the respondent institutions indicated that they had either changed, or were planning to change their interview selection procedures to be more in compliance with the law. The survey research also led to significant findings among several demographic characteristics related to college placement offices, their personnel, and the Uniform Guidelines. Those characteristics included: college placement officers’ familiarity with and primary sources of information about the regulations; certain perceived resource needs; the adequacy of placement office staffing; and, governmental auditing of interview selection and referral procedures. In combination these research findings indicated several factors which college placement personnel need to be aware of in order to bring their operations into legal compliance.
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    Student Satisfaction with the Cooperative Education Program at Virginia Tech
    Riess, Janet T. (Virginia Tech, 1997-04-16)
    The Cooperative Education component of Career Services at Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University is undergoing a Business Process Re-engineering to develop the "Best Cooperative Education" program. The components considered in this process are the employers, the students, the staff, and the University faculty. To determine what the students think of the present program and what they might want from an ideal program, a survey was developed and sent to all students currently enrolled in the program and the program participants who graduated in 1996. Participants were surveyed on three different areas: conducting a job search, assessing their experience on the job, and program administration. In addition, they were given the opportunity to comment on why they chose to participate in co-op, what the benefits were for participation, and what changes they would like to see in the program. Results of the survey showed that the main reason for choosing to participate in the program was to gain experience of all kinds. This experience included the "real world," the corporate culture, interpersonal skills, making contacts, having a better sense of self-worth, verifying choice of a major, and making links between classroom learning and on the job experience. Earning money to finance their education was a distant second choice. Increases in the mean responses of questions about the jobs being meaningful, challenging, utilizing skills and abilities, helping in classroom learning, involving well-defined projects, providing a variety of tasks and activities, allowing independent actions, and helping with classroom learning showed that as the students completed more work terms, they more strongly agreed that their job provided these attributes. They believed their colleagues at work were concerned about their professional growth and development and two-thirds would go to work for the company if given an opportunity. Telephone interviews are becoming more popular and should be included in skills-building sessions with prospective co-op students, according to the respondents. While most students found their jobs through Career Services and a co-op job fair, several departments provided the services in-house for their own students. Suggestions for improving the program clearly revealed that the students expect help and support through the whole process--finding the job, preparing to go to the workplace, and throughout their remaining undergraduate experience whether they are at school or at work. The students' preferences for program services may be difficult to provide within the current department culture where the goal is to do more with less. Career Services may need to make some decisions about how to spend their resources.