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Students might wait longer to get jobs BY ADAM BEAM THE GAMECOCK College students all across the nation live and die by one word: graduation. It stands as a faraway dream world when you first enter your college years, but suddenly be comes a harsh reality as it begins its final approach, and it’s not get ting any easier. “Well, the American situation is a deteriorating position in terms of getting a job, but the unemploy ment rate is moving up quite sharply since September 11,” USC economics professor John Addison said. “It was moving up before then too, and September 11 made things worse.” What that means for the American college student is more transition time between gradua tion and the work force. “There are fewer jobs available and the same number of people chasing them,” said Addison. “When a recession hits, what tends to happen is people are laid off, and employers hire less; so, there are more people chasing fewer jobs, including the new peo ple who are new on the market.” One option for graduates is to pursue graduate school as a means of waiting out the recession while at the same time increasing their credentials-a common strat egy that has caused graduate ap plications to multiply like rabbits at scnoois across tne nation. USC’s graduate school, howev er, is the exception. It has lost 1,608 students since 1999, a fact that doesn’t surprise Gordon Smith, as sociate provost and graduate school dean. Ten years ago, USC’s graduate school was the seventh largest in the nation in terms of enrollment. “I think we felt it was much larger than what it needed to be, than what we had the re sources to support, and so by de sign our programs have been re stricting enrollment, focusing on the quality of the applicant instead of looking at numbers,” he said. But with the application dead line for graduate school getting closer, Smith says there has been an increase in applications, which he assumes is in part because of the economic downturn. “In asense, it is good for us be cause we have very bright people coming back and pursuing gradu ate degrees, when if the economy was doing better they would con tinue on their jobs as before,” said SmilS. But is graduate school the place to go to play the waiting game with thaeconomy? Not so, says USC ca reer center director Larry Salters. “A tough job market is not a good reason by itself to pursue a graduate degree,” he said. “If you’re doing it to avoid the job ROW CONTINUED FROM PAGE 1 David Bomemann, student ser vices committee chairman for Student Government, said, “This lecture is a great opportunity for all students and faculty to experience a taste of how international missions work and how we as future leaders of tomorrow can help with won derful programs such as ROW.” Mathes began traveling the world to promote international health de velopment 15 years ago by estab lishing hospitals in developing coun tries. He said he began by visiting tribal chiefs on rivers to find out what kind of help was needed. Thus the program now called ROW began, and it now reaches all over Honduras, Belize, Peru and the Congo. Efforts include things like creating regional libraries, es tablishing feeding programs and building local hospitals equipped with supplies, staff and volunteers. kuw is made up ot a comDina tion of 12 full-time staff members and 500 volunteers of all ages. Volunteers give from a few weeks of their time to months volunteer ing in third world countries. “We begin every mission with a ship, staff and a crew to address the issue or problem that these third world countries have,” Mathes said. According to Mathes, ROW helps approximately 370,000 peo ple every year. Reader’s Digest editor Henry Hurt called Mathes “the most ex citing speaker I’ve ever heard.” Mathes’ speech is free and open to the USC community. Comments on this storyi’ E-mail gamecockudesk@hotmail.com market, it can hurt things. What you don’t want is a BGA and a Master’s and no experience be cause an employer will look at you and say you have a lot in your head, but have you ever done any of it?” Until last fall, the job market was looking fairly strong, with more than 140 employers coming to USC for on-campus recruiting. But with the combined forces of the recession and terrorist at tacks, USC saw a 30 percent de crease in on-campus recruiting. For example, last year’s Engineering and High Tech fair had 70 businesses attend, compared with this year’s 30 who have signed up. “We are seeing less signing bonuses and less signing offers, and most of that is probably due to the economy and the economic downturn that the country is fac ing,” Salters said. “But if a student has good grades, good computer skills, good experience, paid or not paid, and they can communicate well in an interview, they still have something good to sell, and it’s more important than ever that students present themselves well because competition is so tight.” Comments on this story?E-mail gamecockudesk@hotmail.com Bush CONTINUED FROM PAGE 1 the war while reinforcing differ ences on domestic policy. House Minority Leader Dick Gephardt’s words for terrorists were similar to Bush’s: “Make no mistake about it: We are going to hunt you down and make you pay.” But he also challenged GOP positions on Social Security, tax es and health care. And he men tioned Enron Corp., the Texas based company linked to Bush that collapsed with the life sav ings of many workers. Bush, outlining his post Afghanistan battle plans, vowed to unearth “a terrorist under world” existing in a dozen coun tries, including the Philippines, Bosnia ana Somalia. He saia na tions will be given a chance to wipe out terrorists themselves, and the United States is willing to assist their efforts. But, he warned: “If they do not act, America will.” In his strongest terms yet, Bush called North Korea, Iraq and Iran part of an “axis of evil,” warning that their pursuit of weapons of mass destruction will not be tolerated. “I will not wait on events, while dangers gather. I will not stand by, as peril draws closer,” Bush said. “The United States of America will not permit the world’s most dangerous regimes to threaten us with the world’s most destructive weapons.” The U.S. military is spending $30 million a day to fight terror ism, and more is needed, Bush said. He asked Congress to in crease Pentagon spending by nearly $50 billion. He also proposed a doubling —to $38 billion — of spending on intelligence, military, border se curity, local emergency response programs and other homeland security activities. In his remarks, Gephardt crit icized GOP positions on Social Security, taxes and health care. And he mentioned Enron Corp., the Texas-based company linked to Bush that collapsed with the life savings of many workers. • “Our values call for helping the unemployed — not just large cor porations and the most fortunate,” Gephardt said. Bush did not mention the ener gy trading company, but asked Congress to enact pension reform and require more financial dis closure. from companies. “Corporate America must he made more accountable to em ployees and shareholders and held to the highest standards of con duct,” Bush said. On domestic policy, Bush pro posed expanding the national ser vice program founded by former President Clinton to enlist Americans in community ser vice, homeland defense and oth er community activities. The t Peace Corps would double its vol unteers in five years, under Bush’s plan. He conceded the federal budget will run a deficit for the first time in four years, hut said it will be “small and short term” if Congress holds down spending. PHOTO COURTESY OF KRT CAMPUS President Bush talks to reporters as and Interim Afghan Prime Minister Hamid Karzai looks on during a press conference in the Rose Garden Monday. Karzai join the first lady in her VIP box at the State of the Union Address Tuesday. St. Thomas More Catholic Center Rev. Tim Lijewski Mass Schedule Sacrament of Penance Chaplin Saturday 4:30 pm Saturday 3:00 pm-4:00 pm Sunday 11 am, 7:30 pm or by appointment Sr. Julienne Guy OSU Director of Christian Formation Newman Club Tuesday 7:00 pm ^ 1610 Greene St. 799-5870 (Across from School of Nursing) no m mme call or purchase necessary to enter or win ELIGIBILITY Open lo legal residents ot the 50 mud States. Dtstnet ot Cotumtsta. end the US Vlym Islands who ere 16 or oukt at ot MOW. 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