Opinion2 | March 30, 2010 The RambleR | www.therambler.org

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The RamblerShauna Banks, editor-in-chiefBarry Grubbs, opinion editor Eliana Mijangos, sports editorMeisa Keivani Najafabadi, photo editorStephanie Mejia arts & entertainment editorJonathan Resendez, multimedia editorRachel Peel, community editorMelissa Bates, campus editorErica Estrada, graphic designer/cartoonistWendy Moore, faculty adviserDr. Kay Colley, faculty liaison

“We are not afraid to follow the truth ... wherever it may lead.”

— Thomas Jefferson

Where would you want to go to study abroad and why?

“I would choose Italy, because I like the food and I think the language is pretty fascinating.”

-Amber Smith, freshman, undecided

“I’ve been to Spain before and it’s a nice country with a lot of history.”

- Jonathan Blake,senior, graphic design

“I’d like to go to Italy because it is a beautiful country and has a lot of history.”- Victoria Browning,freshman, English

“I would study abroad in Austrailia, but they have really big bugs though so that would not be good.”

- Catherine Bryant,senior, education

“I’d either go to England or anywhere in Europe. Italy would be awesome.”- Rachel Daniel,

senior, kinesiology

“I would like to study abroad in Austrailia because it would be amazing, and I think the accent is awesome.”

- Zuhair Inayat,junior, exercise science

Students often complain about the high cost and ris-ing rates for tuition, books and fees.

But when it is all said and done, they may not be getting the most for their money because they ignore some of the vital programs and services that fees help to pay for.

Career Services may be the most important and most overlooked resource students have.

As we approach spring graduation, some students may have become more aware of Wesleyan’s Career Services department than at any time in their college experiences.

Sadly, some students will graduate unprepared for the next step. If you are a senior and you aren’t think-ing about the looming job search and your career after college, you might be play-ing catch-up.

Career Services, located in the north wing of the Brown-Lupton Student Center, has a small staff and a big job, but the likely rea-son they don’t make more of a difference in the lives of our students is the fact that some just do not know they exist.

Obviously they are intro-duced to all freshmen and transfer students and they are making an effort to ad-vertise their services, but the average student may not realize the important ways they can benefit until they are ordering their gradua-tion invitations.

By then they have wasted some valuable time that

should have been spent pre-paring for their careers.

Career fairs, interviewing techniques, resume assis-tance and help with on and off-campus employment are just a few of the resourc-es offered to Wesleyan stu-dents and the best part is, they have already been paid for—by students.

In spite of that fact, we are not taking full advantage of these services.

According to the center’s director, Sherri Mata, statis-tical reports show that only about 200 students attend-ed the last career fair.

That is a very small num-ber considering the record size of the spring graduat-ing class. 

The staff is much smaller than that of the Texas Wes-leyan School of Law and serves many more students, but they make an effort to assist all students willing to seek them out.

Those students who take advantage of the resume counseling, internship pro-grams and job search assis-tance offered by Career Ser-vices are more likely to have success after graduation.

It may be too late for some seniors to realize the full value of their tuition dollars.

Some of the services of-fered are likely as valuable as the work done in the classroom during our time in college. Those students not graduating in May still have time to prepare them-selves if they are willing to take advantage of some-thing valuable right under their noses.

Staff Editorial

Students should take advantage of campus services

Career fair leaves students hanging

With graduation approaching, job searching has become stressful. Career Services’ Career Fair was set up just in time to relieve some of that stress.

Unfortunately it was a lot less ben-eficial to me and my career goals than I thought it would be. Career Services did their best, and called on all agen-cies willing to participate.

This event’s organizers drowned me with email invitations and reminders, but the fair itself failed to meet my expectations. There was a lack of big name corporations and most of the businesses that were involved were outside of my career path.

The traffic was light coming in and out of the Sid Richardson build-ing, and a lot of the people walking through were not Wesleyan students.

I think it’s great that others were able to take advantage of the oppor-

tunity, but I expected more Wesleyan students to be involved.

These opportunities are created for us to participate in so we can make professional connections. I was disap-pointed in the lack of student involve-ment.

After dressing up, perfecting a re-sume and showing up to the career fair, I have to say I was disappointed in the fact that none of the businesses I was interested in were taking resumes. I’m confused.

What is the point of a career fair if I’m just going to be referred back to company websites?

Yes, I walked out with a bag full of business cards and pamphlets, but for the little information I received I could have easily saved myself the two hours of walking around trying to find something within my interest.

It didn’t seem like the companies were recruiting as much as they were marketing. They just wanted to pass out their stuff and keep the line mov-ing.

I didn’t receive a single handshake from any of the companies, and it seems that they weren’t too interested in convincing me that they wanted me

to be interested in them. There appeared to be a lack of inter-

est from students as well as from the businesses present that day. The event reeled in only 200 students; surely more than 200 students graduating in May are looking for jobs.

There were multiple tables for cer-tain professions. Three tables were set up for police departments; even from as far away as Austin. We live in Fort Worth.

I understand we have a pretty large criminal justice program, but is there such a high demand to be an officer?

There were many careers that were not represented at all, such as technol-ogy, education and medical.

Since most companies just referred students to their websites, the whole concept of the career fair seemed de-personalized. That is what we’ve been doing on our own already.

I do not think Career Services is at fault for my lack of a positive experi-ence.

I feel the whole experience would have been much better if there was more participation present from the students, as well as from the partici-pating companies.

Fake degrees no substitute for hard work

A few weeks ago, I was perusing my Facebook feed reading the multitude of ar-ticles from the 60 plus news stations and newspapers I like when I saw a post about a website called Phonydi-ploma.com.

My first reaction to this website selling fake high school and college diplo-mas was to repost it with a joke about how I’ve wasted the past three years of my life working toward a de-gree. To be honest, I really thought this website was a joke.

A few weeks later, the im-pact of a site like this hit

me, and I couldn’t believe it was real.

I went back to the site and read the introduc-tion. After read-ing the informa-tion, examining

everything on the site and viewing examples, I nearly broke down in tears.

This website, which is self-proclaimed as the web’s leading diploma company, provides fake high school and college diplomas, fake transcripts, fake certifi-cates and even fake report cards.

The reason this upset me so much is because I have worked very hard and very long to get to where I am.

I was shocked to think someone could pass off one of these fake diplomas or certificates as equal to my real high school and college

diplomas or the real certifi-cates I’ve received.

The website touts many reasons for purchasing a counterfeit degree, such as boosting self-esteem, replacing lost originals, building a social media pro-file and impressing friends at reunions.

I’m not much of a show off and I don’t know anyone who would bring his college diploma or certificate of achievement to a reunion.

I’ve got enough self es-teem boosters in my life; I don’t need some forgery to provide the lift.

If I wanted to add a di-ploma or certificate to my social media profile, I would do what is required to achieve that diploma or certificate.

I consider purchasing such a document unethical, to say the least.

During my research on this topic, I discovered this website is not the only one.

On this particular phony diploma website, there is a list of more than 50 other websites of the same type. I am sure there are hundreds more out there.

I’ve been at Wesleyan since fall 2009 and I gradu-ated from Tarrant County College with my associates in spring 2010.

I’ve worked very hard, now to find out there are some people who don’t want to go through the same amount of work but they want the prize. It an-gers me to no end.

I am sure every student graduating in May will agree with me.

There is no way a docu-ment from a diploma mill such as this one can be as significant as mine.

Library schedule must expand to serve needs of all students

Pulling an all-nighter study-ing for an exam or final?

Maybe you’re even writing a big research paper that is worth close to half of your final grade.

Well wouldn’t the library be the perfect place to do that? There is only one little problem — the Library clos-es before midnight.

The Eunice & James L. West Library opens at 7:30 a.m. and closes at 10 p.m.

As a college student, I know procrastination is one of my biggest problems. I will wait until the last minute

to get things done.

It’s just a habit I haven’t been able to shake.

Not having access to the library after

10 p.m. really puts a wrench in the works.

The library’s hours don’t only affect me, they affect a lot of college students’ aca-demic successes.

Some students don’t have their own computers. If a student doesn’t have one or access to someone else’s, how are they going to finish a paper or assignment?

I am a college athlete. Having games, both in and out of town, and practices that end late, make it dif-ficult to get a good meal in; forget trying to cram in

rushing to the library to fin-ish up a paper before it clos-es at 10 p.m.

Knowing that I only have a little time before I am forced out of the library is a real problem for me.

Even if I get there with an hour to spare, I am looking at the clock like a count-down to lift off. It’s distract-ing and hard to concentrate on the task at hand — what-ever assignment I have due tomorrow.

Although some may not consider the library closing so early a big deal, I think it would really help those who don’t have access to personal computers or who just don’t have traditional hours avail-able for study and home-work.

It would be an advantage for the students if the li-brary’s hours were extended.

Angie RuizPhotographer ayruiz@mail.txwes.edu

Melissa BatesCampus editormdbates@mail.txwes.edu

Erika FerrellStaff writererferrell@mail.txwes.edu

Library staff have heard the students’ voice their concerns and are trying a trial run of extended library hours. See more in the story on Page 1.

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