KANSAN.COM / THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 24, 2010 / NEWS
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BROWN (CONTINUED FROM 1A)
let somebody else move forward." Brown said. "I was convinced that I was never going to progress on pure, unadulterated democratic partisanship."
Mike Gunnoe/KANSAN
A crowd of more than 100 people attended the Willie Brown's speech at the Dole Institute of Politics Tuesday evening. Brown told the audience of his experiences as a politician in California.
By building a coalition between the two parties, Brown gained the trust of his fellow assembly members. At election time, Brown won the speaker position with the support of 28 Republicans and 23 Democrats.
Brown retained his position of speaker for 15 years, the longest term served by anyone in the state of California. His career as Speaker ended only because of the imposition of term limits
under new California law, the Speaker of the California State Assembly can now hold his or her position for only 15 months, at most.
"When they put term limits on the ballot, it became clear that I would be done in politics," Brown said.
But, soon, Brown learned that the incumbent mayor of
San Francisco wasn't considered to be a strong candidate. Originally, he had no interest in local government. In fact, Brown said, much of his work in the Assembly had caused him to move away from any prospect of working in local government.
"I only wanted to be Speaker; that's all I ever wanted to be," Brown said. "But then I ran for mayor, and discovered I should have been mayor all my life."
Brown said he realized that as mayor, he could do wonderful things. He said that he took the city of San Francisco, a city he said was dormant, and turned it around economically and politically, making it an attractive and desirable place to live.
George Dungan, a senior from Lincoln, Neb., said he appreciated Brown's comments and his openness with the audience.
At the end of the evening, Brown stressed the importance of the involvement of youth in public service. Brown said that the calling to work in the field was important in his life, and that it should be important in the lives of youth.
"I thought he was an inspiration," Dungan said. "He was candid and refreshing — it was wonderful how candid he was."
elevate their potential for public service at the same level they do for medical, engineering, or any other revered profession." Brown said.
"Students really ought to
— Edited by Megan Heacock
LAWRENCE
Hotel fire causes $5,000 in damages
Preliminary damages resulting from a fire at the Oread Hotel Monday are estimated at $5,000, according to a report released by the Lawrence Douglas County Fire and Medical.
According to the report, the fire was caused by a "spontaneous combustion from linens that had absorbed cooking oil and were placed in a confined laundry basket."
Emergency vehicles responded to several fire alarms at the Oread Hotel, 1200 Oread Ave., around midnight Monday morning.
Hotel guests were briefly evacuated from the building before they were allowed back into the hotel lobby where they waited for the smoke to clear and the fire alarms to stop sounding. Among those evacuated were players and staff for the Oklahoma men's basketball team, which was in town for the game against Kansas
Monday night.
Jozsef Szkendrei, Oklahoma strength and conditioning coach, waited in the hotel lobby and watched over a canvas bag full of players' cell phones that had been turned in to him earlier in the night. Oklahoma players waited in the Bird Dog Bar on the main floor.
Jimmy John's workers, who occupy the same building as the Oread Hotel, were also told to leave their shop briefly as emergency personnel investigated the situation.
Chase Dahnke, a Jimmy John's worker, said the store was out of commission for only about five minutes before employees were able to go back to making sandwiches.
The restaurant's delivery service was halted for the night because its drivers could not get around the surrounding fire trucks.
— Jesse Rangel and Aly Van Dyke
IOBS (CONTINUED FROM 1A)
Bell said he expected the job market to pick up again within the next year or two because demand for engineers was still increasing. He said although companies were not making as many job offers now, they would have to hire more engineers later to make up for the current deficit. He said that companies were starting to get more projects and that in three or four years they would be scrambling to hire enough engineers to work on them.
"What's going to happen is that when we come out of this, next year or the year after that, not only are they going to be at a higher level, they've got to fill this hole that they're created," Bell said.
Joe Curran, a December 2009 graduate, was hired as a field engineer for Schlumberger, a Lawrence-based company that provides services to all major oil
companies, through the career fair. He said finding a job was both easier and harder than expected.
"When I came into the program, most graduates would get five to six offers." Curran said. "I think the case with engineers, even though they're in demand, getting one offer that looks pretty good and taking it has kind of been the case for a lot of people."
The Engineering Career Center surveys graduates six months after graduation in an attempt to record how many are employed. Out of 271 May 2009 engineering graduates, 80 percent said they were employed or in graduate school. That is down 15 percent from 2005, when 94 percent of the 255 graduates said they were employed or continuing their education. About 75 percent of graduates responded to the surveys.
Bell said the oil industry was
doing well right now, which made it an exception to the general drop in the job market. This is good for the school's mechanical and civil
engineering students, who made up 41 percent of the 271 May 2009 graduates who responded to the survey.
The school offers 10 majors, and the number of students graduating with those majors
to seven in 2009. The number of computer engineering majors went from 33 to nine during those years - a 73 percent decrease.
"You never know in this economy.I'm just trying to cast a wide net and see what happens."
changed dramatically between 2005 and 2009. The number of aerospace engineering graduates increased from 12 graduates in 2005 to 26 in 2009. The largest increase was in the number of engineering physics majors, which increased from one in 2005
DAVIS MORGAN Newton senior
Bell said the school was at capacity for the total number of students and was turning out as many graduates as possible. He said engineering schools were not able
to meet the industry demand for engineers.
"I think we have more job offers than we have students," Bell said.
Nonetheless, engineering students who are trying to find jobs or internships are worried about their employment prospects.
Davis Morgan, a senior from Newton, said he went to the career fair to find an internship but wasn't sure of his prospects.
"You never know in this economy," Morgan said. "I'm just trying to cast a wide net and see what happens."
Evan Rose, a senior from Hutchinson, said he didn't expect to find a job at the career fair. He said he wanted to make contacts among the recruiters.
"It's a gateway, a way to get in with companies instead of just applying blindly online," Rose said.
Many of the recruiters at the career fair were University alumni. Linda Sims, a 1979 graduate and the U.S. basestocks sales manager for ExxonMobil, said her company hired a lot of engineering graduates from the University. She said the man who hired her as a graduate
was also a Kansas graduate.
"We've had really good luck hiring Jayvah engineers." Sims said.
Bell said he hoped engineering students who were concerned about the job market would put more effort into preparing for their job searches.
He said that students should make sure their grades reflected that they were good students and that they should also have internships.
"I think if they do these things, they'll have good opportunities," Bell said.
Hines said she planned to talk to 13 companies at the career fair and hoped she would find a job through talking to the recruiters.
"I'm keeping my fingers crossed." Hines said. "I've prayed about it — I guess I'm hopeful."
Edited by Megan Heacock