The Undergraduate Council of Students explored how to help students network with alums for jobs and internships as part of a conversation with CareerLAB Director Andrew Simmons at the UCS general body meeting Wednesday.
Several Council members criticized BRUNet, an online platform meant to help students connect with alums in their desired career fields.
BRUNet is “very messy,” said Ross Julian ’15, Corporation liaison. “A lot of my time is spent sifting through things I have no interest in.”
Too few alums participate in BRUNet, said Maahika Srinivasan ’15, chair of the UCS Academics and Administrative Affairs Committee, noting that only three alums in India are listed on BRUNet.
“We don’t believe BRUNet is the best tool,” Simmons said. “We’re looking to improve it.”
Several Council members said the University should offer more chances to engage with young alums.
“It would be nice to have a base of alumni who are recent grads advise students,” said Sam Gilman ’15, UCS vice president. “Younger alumni have been through recruiting processes that are much more similar to the ones people are going through now.”
Recent alums are good resources because they “recall the transition of going from college to the career field better,” said UCS general body member Stacy Bartlett ’14.
“Younger alumni might also have a better idea of how to look for a job with the technologies that exist,” such as email interviews and LinkedIn, said UCS President Todd Harris ’14.5.
Granting students access to funding for internships emerged as another topic of discussion.
CareerLAB recevies more applications for funding than it has in past years, Simmons said, but “We’re giving out more money than we used to.”
The timing of the University’s funding process is problematic, since many internships notify students of their acceptances past the funding application deadline, Harris said.
CareerLAB should host panel discussions featuring students explaining how they funded past internships, said Sazzy Gourley ’16, chair of the UCS Academics and Administrative Affairs Committee.
The Council also explored how to boost attendance at student events with the creators of an online events calendar called Ventfull, Pete Simpson ’14 and Joe Stein ’16, a Herald web producer.
When campaigning for the vice presidency last spring, Gilman called streamlining the events calendar to increase attendance a key priority, The Herald reported at the time.
Ventfull is meant to be a “student portal to hook onto the school’s existing system” of Morning Mail, Simpson said.
Students can use Ventfill to filter events by category, including social, organization, performance, music, sports and academic, Simpson said. Students can also “upvote” events to give them a higher “excitement” ranking and sign up for notifications about events that relate to their interests, he said.
Ventfull will ideally be released next semester, Simpson said.
Gilman praised Ventfull as “one of the best platforms I’ve heard of.”
Sam Rubinstein ’17, UCS general body member, said he was worried that “the upvoting process will make more people go to events that are already big on campus and decrease turnout in smaller events.”
“My concern is adding another source of information,” said Elena Saltzman ’16, another UCS general body member. “We already have so many.”
The Council confirmed Harris and Gilman in their leadership positions in its semiannual vote of confidence.
Harris said the annual UCS Fall Poll had the highest respondent rate in recent years, with 2,109 students completing the poll and 2,704 students answering some questions. About 750 fewer students took the poll last year, and around 1,000 fewer in 2011, Harris said.
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