College Shorts

Author: Jaime Fuller

PUBLIC SERVICE CAREERS MORE LUCRATIVE IN CRISIS

Due to the shortfall of oft-sought occupational opportunities in this time of economic crisis, many college seniors are pursuing careers in public service. Fourteen percent of this year's senior class at Harvard University applied for Teach for America, five percent more than last year's nine percent.

"There's always that push to make money and be comfortable, but the financial crisis made me think that there's a lot more in life than going to get that corporate job," said Matthew Clair, a Harvard government major who plans to teach elementary school children in Atlanta for the next two years. "It gave me a good excuse to take some more time off to do what I'm really passionate about."

Employers across the country expect to hire 22 percent fewer graduates this year, according to a recent survey by the National Association of Colleges and Employers. In the northeast, the drop is even more pronounced, with a 39 percent decrease from last year. The drop is worst in the financial sector, which expects to have 71 percent fewer jobs to offer this year.

Harvard president Drew Faust believes that this moment provides an excellent opportunity for young graduates to get involved and make a difference.

"The path to Wall Street was so clearly defined, so if you weren't sure what direction to go, this direction was filled with signposts and rewards," said Faust. "But we are seeing two historic moments converge: this extraordinary financial crisis and this outpouring of interest in the public sphere."

- The Boston Globe

MLA PROCLAIMS DEATH OF PRINT AS DEFAULT MEDIUM

The seventh edition of the MLA Handbook for Writers of Research Papers, released on March 10, states that the Modern Language Association no longer recognizes print as the default medium, and suggests that the medium of publication should be included in each works-cited entry.

The MLA has also ceased to recommend the inclusion of URLs when citing Web-based works, because they often provide little assistance to an instructor reading papers.

"Inclusion of URLs has proved to have limited value ... for they often change, can be specific to a subscriber or a session of use and can be so long and complex that typing them into a browser is cumbersome and prone to transcription errors," states the handbook. "Readers are now more likely to find resources on the Web by searching for titles and authors' names than by typing URLs."

The latest edition of the standard style guide for language and literary study is the first to be complemented by a Web component. The password-protected Web site includes the full text of the handbook and a series of 30-plus-step narratives taking undergraduates through the process of writing a paper, using a paper on Jane Austen's "Mansfield Park" as an example.

"It's a model and it shows you what an advanced undergraduate in eight or 10 pages could ideally do," said Rosemary G. Feal, executive director of the MLA. "The point that comes out immediately is, it's not a mechanical process."

- Inside Higher Ed