Financial contributions should not sway Career Center’s mission to aid students in career search

If you visit the UCLA Career Center website, you will see Bank of America as the featured employer in its Employer Showcase program.

Given that the Career Center is only featuring Bank of America and its recruiting statements in the Employer Showcase, a reasonable assumption would be that the center believes Bank of America to be among the best options for students hunting down internships.

But this would not be entirely correct.

Companies who donate substantial sums to the Career Center are offered services such as promotions and advertisements from the center. Yet, the Career Center states that its promotions are made regardless of a company’s economic, philosophical or political practices.

This places the Career Center in a precarious position in which they promote companies on campus, but not necessarily on the grounds that they are the best potential employer for students. If the center truly wants to succeed in its mission to support students, it should weaken its financial ties with outside companies who want to advertise excessively on campus and instead feature companies based on what opportunities they provide students.

The Career Center needs to be clear that its promotions are simply advertisements for those companies and not endorsements reflective of what the center thinks about those companies.

The center is financially dependent on career fairs, benefactors and partners to cover a significant portion of costs that are not met by current funding from the university.

Companies can donate starting at $1,001 at different levels in the Benefactor & Partners program including partner, senior partner, executive partner, benefactor, distinguished benefactor and grand benefactor.

By being at least a partner, companies can participate in the Employer Showcase program, which allows a company to have a banner and biography on the Career Center website.

Companies presented in the Employer Showcase have significant involvement with the Career Center, said associate director Brian Guerrero. Company involvement extends from financial contributions to workshops for students, creating a good working relationship between the companies and Career Center, Guerrero said.

However, UCLA Career Center Director Kathy Sims said that the companies featured in the Employer Showcase do not represent UCLA or the Career Center, and that UCLA and the Career Center do not directly support the showcased companies.

This relationship creates a conflict between the center’s financial mission and its mission to serve students, but, at the end of the day, the issue boils down to the ever-important issue of finance.

All the costs of the Career Center are not covered by UCLA funding, so a substantial portion of their revenue must be found in Career Fairs and the Benefactor & Partners program, Sims said.

The Career Center needs additional funding from UCLA to limit the influence of financial patrons.

By offering alternative treatment such as preferred placement and multiple tables or booths at career fairs, the center puts smaller businesses and companies that pay the standard rate at a disadvantage, despite the wealth of opportunities they may be able to offer students.

At January’s Engineering Career Fair, 120 companies paid the standard fee of $625, which entails one table for two recruiters. If a company wanted “prime-front” positioning and two more recruiters, an additional $100 would be required. If a company wanted two tables for six recruiters, the total fee would come to $1,250.

Since a major function of career fairs is to maximize employment opportunities for students and alumni, focusing student attention to a few select companies limits exposure to the rest of the opportunities present at the other companies.

Ultimately, the attendees of the career fairs are the ones affected, as they are unable to maximize on all the opportunities present by the companies.

The center should standardize the amount of exposure each company receives by imposing one universal fee and eliminating additional services such as “prime-front” positioning and extra tables.

In addition, services for patrons should focus on opportunities to hold workshops and events outside of shared events with other companies rather than frivolous benefits like custom graphic work in the form of advertisements.

The Employer Showcase program should be redesigned so as to not promote one company, but should be a section featuring biographies of all partners and benefactors.

Although it is not necessarily a bad thing to turn a profit from companies wanting to have a presence on campus, standardizing practices across the board would provide a better service to students.

Financial contributions are needed to maintain the Career Center, but the center should not be indebted or extensively linked to those companies.

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