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GRADUATION GUIDE
Find out everything you need to know about the commencement ceremony and graduation traditions, and see a list of the entire Class of 2009. INSIDE
THE STUDENT VOICE SINCE 1904
THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSA
THURSDAY, MAY 7, 2009
VOLUME 120 ISSUE 151
Chris Wenske, Overland Park senior and CLAS major, posts flyers promoting a band signed to Jondo Records, a record label he recently started. Wenske, like many others set to graduate from the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences, faces an uphill battle landing a job with his degree, as he will likely have to explain how his major and skills make him more valuable for a job than other candidates with specific degrees from other schools with a more defined focus.
RACHEL BURCHFIELD
rburchfield@kansan.com
Renee Whaley has a daily routine. She wakes up, takes a shower and sits down in front of the computer. She logs onto the Lawrence Journal-World Web site and looks for jobs in Lawrence. Then she skims CareerBuilder and Monster.
If a job looks promising, she edits her resume to fit the particular job. Then
she'll work on cover letters. Then
she'll fill out some applications.
"I get asked," Will my kid be able to find a job with a history major?' and the answer is yes."
That advice to Whaley, a 2008 graduate in philosophy, may be just as valuable to the more than 2,500
The routine often wears her out.
"It really is exhausting toward the end of the day," Whaley said. "I didn't do anything, but it's so mentally frustrating that toward the end of the day I'll end up in tears. My husband will say, "You need to calm down."
students who are set to graduate this month with their own liberal arts degrees.
With a tight job market, it may take several months or longer to find a job. Plus, average salaries for liberal arts
degrees have fallen slightly in the past few months. Students graduating with liberal arts degrees in 2009 can expect to earn on average $36,445 annually, about $300 less than what it was for the class of
"I get asked, 'Will my kid be able to find a job with a history major?' and the answer is yes," said Joseph Steinmetz, dean of the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences. "Somebody who has a more general, rounded background and is prepared for changes are those who are likely to find employment and are the ones likely to have the background to impress employers when they have to shift careers."
2008, according to the National Association of Colleges and Employers. By comparison, the average starting salary for all bachelor's degree graduates is $49,353 per year.
Steinmetz and others believe questions about the value of a liberal arts degree should be focused on the long term and include concerns about whether the degree will help graduates do work they enjoy and
pay career and financial rewards during their lives.
Recruiters say a liberal arts degree offers job possibilities in dozens of fields. A recent survey of business leaders by the Association of American Colleges and Universities found that 69 percent rated the skills gained through a liberal arts education as "very important."
"They have analytical skills — the idea that a liberal arts graduate is going to have a well-rounded education, and is able to generalize
— which makes them a good candidate for quite a few jobs," said Liz Caldwell, University Career Center recruitment coordinator. "In talking to recruiters, these are things that they're looking for."
SEE CLAS ON PAGE 6A
AVERAGE 2009 STARTING SALARIES BY THE NUMBERS
Business Majors: $47,641
Accounting Majors: $48,334
Business Administration/Management Degrees: $45,887
Finance Majors: $49,794
Marketing Majors: $43,334
ALL BACHELOR'S DEGREE GRADUATES:
Computer Science Majors: $56,128
Engineering Majors: $58,525
Chemical Engineering Majors: $65,466
Civil Engineering Majors: $50,785
Electrical Engineering Majors: $57,404
Mechanical Engineering Majors: $58,648
Engineering Majors:
Liberal Arts Majors:
$36,445
*Source: National Association of Colleges and Employers
City to purchase biodiesel and electric buses
Lawrence Transit System goes green
BY MIKE BONTRAGER mbontrager@kansan.com
The Lawrence Transit System will be implementing greener technologies in their new line of buses. The City Commission approved the Fuels Task Force's recommendation to implement four biodiesel and two electric/biodiesel buses at the City commission meeting April 28.
No buses were purchased last year because of the uncertainty about whether the sales tax to fund the transit system would pass. City staff is now working to find a manufacturer to provide the vehicles with the needed specifications.
Casey Toomay, interim public transit administrator, said
SCIENCE
BY KEVIN HARDY khardy@kansan.com
SEE TRANSIT ON PAGE 4A
The animals are part of the museum's ichthyology (fish) and herpetology (amphibians and reptiles) wet collections: animals stored in jars preserved in alcohol. The collection also includes some mammals, birds, crabs, snails and insects. Some of the specimens date back to the 1880s.
Beyond the display cases and exhibits of the KU Natural History Museum's main floors lie about 1.5 million fish, reptiles and amphibians — all carefully preserved in glass jars that line the floor-to-ceiling shelves.
Ryan McGeeneey/KANSAN
Andrew Bentley, ichthyology collection manager at the museum, said the specimens come from KU students and staff researching in the field and members of the public. Researchers euthanize the animals and place them in formaldehyde, which hardens the body and stops the
than 8 million specimens, but at any given time, less than one percent of them are on display. A lot of the remainder is kept in the wet collection, housed in a four-story annex behind the museum. Museum employees admit that many students probably don't realize the collections exist.
Andrew Bentley, ichthyology collection manager for the Natural History Museum, manages more than 1.5 million specimens in the museum's wet collection, which includes fish, reptiles and amphibians.
index
The museum houses more
Museum collections are not just for show
ENVIRONMENT
SEE SCIENCE ON PAGE 4A
CLARIFICATION
In Part 2 of the "Shot of Reality" series about alcohol use on campus, Whitney Bloom, Buhler sophomore, should not have been
Classifieds...8B Opinion...9A
Crossword...8A Sports...1B
Horoscopes...8A Sudoku...8A
included as a source by the reporter, Adam Samson.
The information was received from a third party and not directly from her. The University Dally Kansan regrets the error.
All contents, unless stated otherwise, © 2009 The University Daily Kansan
GOVERNOR FROM MAINE APPROVES GAY MARRIAGE
Cliffhanger process of becoming fifth state to legalize same-sex marriage ends today. POLITICS I 4A
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