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TUESDAY December 5, 2006 Vol. 114, No. 74 | Athens, Georgia » w Sunny. High 57 | Low 28 ONLINE: www.redandblack.com An independent student newspaper serving the University of Georgia community ESTABLISHED 1893, INDEPENDENT 1980 SADDLE UP! >- Equestrian team mem ber develops passion for horses. SPORTS, PAGE 7 lob market promising for grads Employers hiring more than in past By BRIAN HUGHES bhughes@randb.com Attention December gradu ates: Don’t make reservations for your parents’ basement quite yet. The job market for college graduates in the upcoming year is booming, according to the National Association of Colleges and Employers. Employers are expected to hire 17.4 percent more new col lege graduates in 2006-07 than they did in 2005-06, according to a NACE survey. Jeff Humphreys, director of the Selig Center for Economic Growth at the University, said it was a good year for students to be graduating related to poten tial jobs. The increase in available jobs isn’t merely a trickle-down effect from a blossoming economy, he said. “It reflects the trend of better prospects for higher educated individuals,” Humphreys explained. The majority of newly created jobs favor people with advanced educations, he said, adding that most of these jobs fall within the service industry. In comparison, the manufac turing and construction indus tries, which traditionally hire lower educated people, have a “bleak future,” he said. Prospects appear particularly favorable for college graduates seeking employment in the South. Employers in the region expect to hire nearly 26 percent more graduates in 2006-07 than the previous year, according to jobweb.com, an online career development center for college graduates. Business-, engineering- and computer-related degrees are the most coveted majors for employers, according to the Web site. Graduates may not want to stray too far from Athens, either. Humphreys projected Georgia to have one of the top 10 job creation rates in the nation for the upcoming year. This trend is mirrored by the WHY GRADS SHOULDN’T FRET ► Employers are expected to hire 17.4 percent more new college grad uates in 2006-07 than they did in 2005-06. >- Employers in the region expect to hire nearly 26 percent more gradu ates in 2006-07 than the previous year. >- The majority of newly created jobs favor people with advanced educa tions. number of companies who attended the career fair on cam pus this fall, said Scott Williams, > See MARKET. Page 3 ANDY MCFEE | The Red & Black A Platoon Leader Benjamin Burch stands in front of his platoon at the ROTC’s Field Training Exercise in Ft. Gordon, Augusta. Photo Editor Andy McFee joined the ROTC on their four-day training adventure. Check out the photo story on Page 4. MIS major enrollment continues to decline By PEARMAN PARKER pparker@randb.com It’s a major in which graduates generally have three or four job offers and starting- salaries near $50,000. And yet, the number of students pursuing degrees in management information systems has plummeted in recent years. Only 113 students are in the MIS program in Terry College of Business. According to MIS department head Richard Watson, there were 500 MIS majors as recently as five years ago. “It’s a strange situation where we went from very large numbers of students in the major, and now we’ve got the case of high demand (from employers) and not enough students,” Watson said. Students with MIS degrees become appli cation programmers, systems analysts and information analysts, according to the MIS Web site. These jobs incorporate “using what com puter science does to solve business prob lems,” Sabrina Stein, a graduate student in business administration from Aurora, Colo., said. Many of the majors go on to managerial spots. Watson said he thinks the decline in stu dent enrollment is due to a fear of outsourc ing. A lot of students thought all informational technology jobs were being sent to other countries, said Stein. However, this is not true. “They’re the type of jobs that can’t be out sourced,” said Stein, who graduates in May. “There is always a need onsite for working face-to-face with clients,” said Paul Krasilnick, a senior from Acworth. “You real ly need people on the site.” Outsourcing can be a problem because employees often are unable to interact with the customers on a daily basis, Stein said. MIS jobs are “way more integrated” and “not so computer related,” Stein said. “They’re a lot more thought provoking.” “You have to know enough about com puters to solve problems,” Watson said. “And to be able to speak the language of busi ness.” As demand for expertise in MIS has risen in the business world, students haven’t returned to the major. Watson hopes to fix this. This August, he started a campaign to raise awareness about the major and recruit new students. He has advertised through >- See MIS, Page 3 Class has bright ideas for energy conservation By KATHERINE TIPPINS For The Red & Black As the temperature dips, students may be taking extra steps to keep their energy bills down. A group of public relations students is working with University officials to keep the University’s bills under con trol. Students in Advertising/Public Relations 5950/7950 created UGA Unplugged, an initiative to bring ener gy conservation awareness to campus. Group leaders said the University blew its energy budget last year by $6 mil lion. “This is a capstone course where we took the principles that we learned in our other public relations classes and put them to use in a real world set ting,” said Quiana Shepard, a graduate student in public relations from Raleigh, N.C. Their client is Tom Adams, chair man of the University’s Energy Conservation committee. “Actual class time was more like meetings you would have at work. The instructor acted as a CEO, the gradu ate students as managers, and the undergraduates as entry-level employees,” said Hariqbal Basi, a senior from Dunwoody. “For the first two months, we came up with things like the logo, timeline and what would make stu dents care about saving energy, said Caitlin Askins, a senior from Franklin, Tenn. “This is the final PR class, so every one is either a senior or a grad student. When the graduate in your group gives you an assignment, such as writing a pitch letter, you’re expected to know how to do it,” said Askins. The course involved a lot of out-of- class work. UGA Unplugged cam paigned at several on-campus events such as Dawgs After Dark, Grady College Tailgate and the Homecoming Block Party. “As a whole, the class spent 984 hours working outside the classroom. That’s equivalent to a person working a full-time 40 hours a week for half a year” said Kate Christian, a senior from >- See LIGHTBULB, Page 3 Winning not focus for marathon man Professor wins Atlanta race over Thanksgiving, runs every day By SAM STEINBERG ssteinber@randb.com For international affairs professor Maurits van der Veen, making strides in physical races is just as important as mak ing strides in elec toral races. Last month, van der Veen won the Atlanta Marathon — the third he has run — with a time of 2 hours, 33 minutes and 58 seconds. The 39-year-old Netherlands native won a blanket for his efforts. Van der Veen said he runs in small marathons that do not attract profes sional runners, but winning is not the entire focus for the 6-foot-3, 175-pound scholar. “I like to run,” Van der said. “I am still ambitious enough that I like to run well. It gets harder as you get older to match your pre vious performanc es, but I think I can get close enough.” Van der Veen is sending a copy of articles chronicling his victory in the Atlanta Marathon back to his parents in the Netherlands. He lists his running accomplishments on his Web site along ► See MARATHON, Page 7 Veen VAN DER VEEN Reaching the Newsroom On the Web redandblack.com News (706) 433-3037 Variety (706) 433-3041 Sports (706) 433-3040 Opinions (706) 433-3043 Photo (706) 433-3046 Poll: How do you feel about Georgia going to the Chick-fil-A Bowl? Photo stories: ROTC slideshow under the multimedia section Rise of Taj page 5 Can Van Wilder’s sidekick pull off a movie of his own? Read our review of the latest National Lampoon gem. Basketball page 9 Former starter Dave Bliss returns to the forefront after seeing a drop in playing time. See how he’s improving his numbers. Index UGA Today 2 Wire 2 Opinions 8 Variety 5 Crossword 5 Sports 7 Sudoku 9