Every year, the SMU Hegi Family Career Development Center hosts a Spring Recruiting Expo designed to bring employers to campus and assist students in obtaining internships and jobs.
The Expo highlights companies such as Brinker International, Ernst and Young LLP and JP Morgan Chase.
Ed Board admires the purpose of the Expo and feels that it serves to adequately help some SMU students secure employment.
However, Ed Board emphasizes that the Expo only serves some of the student community and that some majors outside of the business school are left in the dark, as the majority of companies seek students with degrees in accounting, finance or engineering.
Over 75 companies were represented at the Expo, and Ed Board feels the majority of those companies were business school exclusive.
Ed Board finds it perplexing that a self-proclaimed “liberal arts school” appears to, at times, support business majors a bit more than other areas of study.
The business school possesses newly renovated buildings and computer labs, while older buildings such as Dallas Hall have decrepit desks and dusty floors.
Clements Hall holds desks with graffiti proclaiming “Joe was here, 1986” and “1978 is the year of love!” Some chairs found in Heroy Hall appear to be as old as the artifacts on display.
Ed Board recognizes the dominance of the business school may be a result of donations from SMU’s prestigious and financially sound Cox alumni and the overall positive reputation of the business school.
However, Ed Board encourages the SMU community to support liberal arts majors, as well, and hopes that a wider variety of companies attend next year’s Expo.
Ed Board feels the need to encourage non-business majors to be proactive in their internship and job search, since few jobs exist that specifically search for “a liberal arts major who made an ‘A’ in ancient philosophy.”
Ed Board acknowledges that liberal arts classes encourage general life skills, not specific on-the-job tasks, and students not seeking a job as a financial analyst or accountant may have to work harder to get a job after graduation.
Ed Board hopes liberal arts students will begin their job search early and make SMU proud by securing a post-graduation job – even with a liberal arts degree on their resume.