As the Boston College Career Center approaches the two-year anniversary of its last official director’s departure, the pressure mounts to choose a new leader who can take the center forward. Although many students have undoubtedly used the center’s services to refine a resume or land an internship opportunity, many other undergraduates still find themselves navigating the murky waters of cover letters and job interviews by themselves. This can be attributed, in large part, to the location of the Career Center, which sits next to the St. Ignatius Church on Commonwealth Ave. and is well-removed from the paths frequently traversed by BC students. As a result, in the words of Associate Director of Employee Relations and Recruitment Lou Gaglini, the Career Center becomes a “destination” rather than a place at which students can regularly stop in on their way to or from classes or meetings.
Both Gaglini and Vice President for Student Affairs Barbara Jones recognize the problems posed by location, and it is essential that these are remembered as plans for the new student center-the ideal place for a career center, according to Jones-become more defined. In the meantime, however, the Career Center must continue its push to become more accessible to students. It has recently begun many programs that set a good precedent-hosting hours in Campion for Lynch students, in Stokes for students of the humanities, and in residence halls in conjunction with the Office of Residential Life. Off-site hours like these should certainly continue, and they are important indications that the Career Center continues to evolve even without a director.
These improvements come at a cost, however, as staff members have been working extra hours and picking up additional responsibilities in the absence of a director. Although unforeseen obstacles, such as the departure of former Vice President for Student Affairs Patrick Rombalski, do account for making the search for a new career center director longer than usual, 19 months is a strikingly long time to leave a university’s career center leaderless. Jones and Gaglini both have strong ideas about where the center needs to go in the future, and the realization of this vision will demand many changes of the center. While it is certainly important that great care is taken to pick an individual capable of implementing this vision, it is also true that changes of the scope in which Jones and Gaglini intend take time, and the rapidly changing landscape of career services, which both of them fully acknowledge, will not wait for the appointment of a new director of the BC Career Center.
