COLLEGE SHORTS

Author: LISIE MEHLMAN

Employers plan to hire more grads

A senior? Still no job? Worry not. The National Association of Colleges and Employers released a report last week whose results reveal that employers expect to hire 14 percent more college graduates this year. These results are based on the polling of employers about their hiring prospects for the Class of 2006. The findings show that 60 percent of the employers polled plan to hire a larger slew of college graduates than they did last year. Luckily for Midd-kids, Northeastern companies boasted the greatest potential increase in hiring, an estimated 24.8 percent. Additionally, 20 percent of those polled reported a planned increase in starting salaries offered to employees. Unfortunately, 90 percent of those polled alluded to the increased competition facing new college graduates.

-The Daily Princetonian



School officials evaluate the role of male colleges

Until the 1960s, there was such a thing as a Yale man, a Dartmouth man and a University of Virginia man, as such institutions were male only. However, the advent of the women's movement led to a questioning of the relevance, fairness, and exclusivity and their reasons for existing. By the decade's end, nearly all these colleges became coeducational.

Today, only four all-male institutions exist that are not categorized as seminaries or share classes with women's colleges.

In recent years the public discourse regarding education has shifted from underperforming women to underperforming men, from how schools fail to support girls to how they fail to support boys. Nationwide, colleges that were not too long ago predominantly male are not boasting classes comprised of 57 percent females. These trends cause us to rethink the importance of the male-only higher academic institution.

Walter E. Massey, President of Morehouse, explained that "We've learned that there are differences in the ways that boys and girls learn and there can be some advantages in having boys and girls in separate learning environments. It may not be for everyone, but for a large segment of the population, a single-sex environment can be more productive and more fulfilling, and that's not just true for women." He also noted that men can learn better and focus more when they're not vying for the attention of the young woman in the halter top in the next seat.

- The New York Times



Cases of mumps reported in Penn.

A mumps outbreak that is currently affecting more than 1,300 people is spreading across college campuses in the Midwest and reached Pennsylvania last week. Two cases at Franklin and Marshall College in Lancaster, Pa. were confirmed last week.

Mumps is a viral disease that invades the salivary glands and other organs and no treatment exists, although it is rarely fatal. No cases have been reported yet in Philadelphia, but the University of Pennsylvania is taking measures to ensure no students become infected. The Director of Student Health Services at Penn said that all full-time students have been required to have at least one, if not two, doses of the mumps vaccine.

- The Daily Pennsylvanian