Empath, 1983 October 4

              Page 4 THE EMPATH Tuesday, October 4, 1983
Enter Information
Exeunt Industry
by Kinne R. Sutton
(Article excerpts from “In­formation
Moves Ahead o f In­dustry,
” in the Washington Post
by Kay Blemker.)
On Sunday, the 25th of
September, the Washington Post
ran an advertisement supplement
on the computer industry, with
articles on computer graphics,
paralegals, aerospace, engineer­ing,
lasers, planning a job search
and future trends.
The supplement states that
“by 1990 there will be a 50
percent growth in the jobs that
require computer skills.” Yet
how can the computer industry
be applied to a Liberal Arts
degree? The first concern is in
learning the computer “lan­guage”
and at St. Mary’s, in
the bottom of the library, is
the Computer Learning Center,
where there are nine computers
awaiting your every command.
The second concern is applying
your Liberal Arts degree in
the computer industry. The
National Computer Graphics As­sociation
states “ that Washing­ton,
D.C. is one of the best
areas for the employment of
persons in the computer skills,”
according to Marsha Hyde of
Management Search, an em­ployer
research firm in McLean,
Va. She explains that employers
will hire people that graduate
with top honors, with no ex­perience
; however, most of those
without work experience are at a
disadvantage because “money
for training has dried up.”
John Naisbin, who wrote the
best selling book “Mega
Trends,” says that “ ten broad
shifting currents are forming
in society.” The implications are
crucially important in making
a career decision and choice
of study. Naisbin observes “ that
we are moving from an in­dustrial-
base society to an in­formation-
base society. Informa­tion
workers now comprise
over 60 percent of the work
force as opposed to seven per­cent
in 1950.”
“Those in the business of
creating, processing and distri­buting
information include: pro­grammers,
teachers, stock­brokers,
managers, lawyers, doc­tors,
bankers and technicians.
The source of power is not
money in the hands of a few,
but information in the hands
of many.” The computer can
expand our options so that it
is possible to choose working
at home or at the office. Educa­tors
will create opportunities,
because education is one of the
areas in which the supply of
functionally literate entry-level
workers fall short of demand.
Multilingual globle thinkers
should look towards fields in
marketing exports, international
stocks, selling real estate in­ternationally
and production
sharing.
Jobs are not limited to
2 ) U C K U J i n ’t J 4 e ?
Although the response to the
Glamour contest was not as
great as we had anticipated, the
Empath is pleased to announce
the entrance of two contestants,
Harry Steinway and Harrietta
Duck. The editorial board of
the Empath was unable to make
an unbiased decision between
the two. So, in the spirit of true
democracy we are giving the
SMC student body a chance to
decide a major issue. Who
would you rather have represent
the college nationally, Harry
or the Duck?
Please check the appropriate
box below.
( ) Harry
[ ) The Duck
Please return your vote to
the Empath office.
manufacturing and computer
science. Included are advertise­ment,
computer graphics, word
processing, biology, business sta­tistics
and corporation reports
and publications. Many large
companies need system inter-grations
personal for trouble­shooting
different branches of
management in a business or­ganization.
Data base admini­strations
require some knowl­edge
and experience in a num­ber
of areas, including pro­gramming.
This job position is
like a Liberal Arts frame of
study. General knowledge in a
broad number of studies and
specializing in a “major,” or as
in the business world, your
“ field.”
Salaries for computer
knowledgable employees start
from $13,000 to $18,000 for
entry-level positions: they range
from $ 1 1 ,0 0 0 to $16,000 dol­lars
for technicians.
Those interested in pursuing
a career in the computer re­lated
industries should enjoy
creatively solving problems. De­termine
what your interests are
and find an occupation to
your liking. The most important
aspect is to sell yourself to the
potential employer and have a
general background of the em­ployer.
S
mug
Computer users — remember
this number: 863-7165.
That’s the number of SMUG
(St. Mary’s Users Group) Bulle­tin
Board. If you have a com­puter
— any computer — with a
telephone coupler you can call
SMUG and get on line to a
nationwide network of compu­ter
users.
The SMUG number rings at
the St. Mary’s College Book­store,
which maintains the
system and the file.
The Bulletin Board enables
you to receive and leave mes­sages,
both public and personal,
and to download any of the
public domain files now on
the board.
Anyone can call the Bulletin
Board. In its first month of
operation, calls have come from
New York, Georgia, Florida,
Oregon, Connecticut, Arkansas,
Ontario, Texas, Illinois, and
Massachusetts as well as locally.
The Bulletin Board is open
24 hours a day. Interested per­sons
can visit the St. Mary’s
College Bookstore during busi­ness
hours (which, starting Mon­day,
August 29, are 9:30 a.m.
to 8 p.m. Monday through
Friday, and 10 a.m. to 4:30
p.m. Saturdays and Sundays)
to see the system in operation.
Professor
Elected
Secretary-
Treasurer
Dr. Robert Goldsmith of St.
Mary’s College of Maryland has
been elected to a one-year
term as national secretary-trea-surer
of the History of Chemis­try
Division of the American
Chemical Society (ACS). He
won the post over Dr. Albert
Kirsch of Boston University in
the annual election held in
August.
Dr. Goldsmith is professor of
chemistry at St. Mary’s College
of Maryland. He joined the
college in 1967. He holds the
B. S. degree from Loyola
College in Maryland, the M.Ed.
from Johns Hopkins, and the
Ph. D. from the University of
Maryland.
As secretary-treasurer he is
responsible for keeping the mem­bership
list and other records,
preparing and administering Di­visional
funds, administering a-wards
offered by the Division,
preparing the HIST newsletter,
assisting the chair and chair-elect,
and working with the
Center for the History of
Chemistry at the University of
Pennsylvania.
The Division of the History
of Chemistry has members in
most of the 50 states and many
other nations. Dr. Goldsmith
has previously served the Di­vision
as a member of the ex­ecutive
board and as supervisor
of elections. For the past two
years, he has been membership
chairman.
The major award administered
by the Division is the Dexter
Award honoring outstanding
accomplishment in the history
of chemistry. The award is
sponsored by the Dexter Chem­ical
Corporation and consists
of $ 1 0 0 0 and an engraved
plaque. Nominations for this
award are solicited annually
from the international com­munity.
SMC Student Loans Increased
Because past St. Mary’s Col­lege
students are good at repay­ing
their National Direct Student
Loans on time, the College
has realized a 75 per cent in­crease
in funds available for this
year’s students and thus has
increased the number of stu­dents
receiving these loans by 50
percent.
In actual numbers, these in­creases
mean about $35,000 was
loaned to 6 6 students this fall
vs. about $20,000 to 44 students
last year.
The largest hike in avail­able
funds came from a federal
allocation for loans of $24,749
for 1983-84, up $10,393 from
last year’s monies. That in­crease,
plus the funds available
from previous loan repayments,
brought the total to about
$35,000 this year.
George Bachman, director of
financial aid at St. Mary’s,
says that St. Mary’s low default
rate is part of the reason for the
higher federal allocation. For
1982-83, Bachman says, the rate
was just under 8 percent, down
from 11 percent in 1981-82.
The average default rate among
4-year public colleges in Mary­land
in 1981-82 was 18.9%.
“ It’s important for past re­cipients
of NDSLs to know that
their payment record can affect
the amount of money available
to todays’s students,” says Bach­man.
St. Mary’s hopes its de­fault
rate will dip even lower in
the future because it has trans­ferred
its account administration
to Wachovia Services, a subsi­diary
of Wachovia National
SMC ALUMNI
REPAY LOANS
Bank in North Carolina. “ They
seem to be very efficient and
very personal,” says Bachman.
We are hopeful that their efforts
will be productive for our stu­dents.”
NDSL is one of three finan
cial aid programs involving fed
eral money that are adminis
tered directly by the college
The others are Federal Work
Study student employment
money and Supplemental Educa­tional
Opportunity Grants. Stu­dents
receiving NDSL loans pay
no interest until they leave
school, and then pay at a re­duced
rate.