The career fair is a three-day event where once a semester employers from across the Midwest come to Velzy Commons to meet students and offer internships, co-ops or jobs.

 “It provides an opportunity for students to meet with potential employers and, while that may be obvious, I think it’s less obvious that it provides opportunities for internships and co-ops. And even less obvious but, in my opinion, more important is that it provides younger students an opportunity to begin thinking about expanding themselves and realize the importance of internships and how they connect to employment,” Chair of Faculty Senate Charles Cornette said.

However, students looking for internships and jobs at the career fair next fall will have a different experience than previous semesters. Usually the career fair is divided into different fields of employment for each day of the event. Engineering and agriculture are usually hosted on the first two days and criminal justice and other fields are on the third day. 

Last Tuesday, Chancellor Dennis Shields motioned at faculty senate for the career fair to be shortened from the standard three days to one day. Faculty senate then voted to pass the motion. Next semester the career fair will be held in the Williams Field House.

“The administration had been having discussions over the pros and cons of moving to a one day career fair. Over the years several students have expressed frustration over some days of the career fair not applying to them,” Cornette said. “I think, personally, another pro is that students will be less likely to have scheduling confusion because all fields will be represented on the one day.”

To compensate the loss of time available for the career fair, the day of the career fair next fall will have classes cancelled from noon to 5 p.m. that Monday. 

“I can see more students going to it if it’s on one day because they expect over 300 companies coming. They expect a hundred more than last year,” Faculty Senate Secretary Regina Pauly said. “A few professors were concerned about missing Monday lab. But otherwise, there wasn’t much discussion.”

Currently the one day career fair is tentatively scheduled to occur September 23, meaning that laboratory periods would be cancelled Monday September 9 for Labor Day as well as on Monday September 23 for the career fair. 

“I think it is a valid concern and we will need to do a cost-benefit analysis. It is a very pressing concern for our laboratory classes, especially at the 1000 level,” Cornette said. “We can certainly make adjustments after this because the event is in the fall. If things need to be altered they can.”

Besides laboratory periods being missed, another concern regarding the event is the logistics of safely getting all the employers and students into and out of the field house.

“My main concern is that if things go as expected, will it create a crowded situation? And will that impact the effect of the career fair in general?” Cornette said.

This concern is shared by some students as well.

“There’s going to be so many lines. I didn’t get to every one [employer booth] I wanted to last time,” senior electrical engineering major Asa Simon said.

The possibility of the career fair being a crowded event is a result of the main set of reasons that Chancellor Shields and the Faculty Senate approved the change, the first being the increased number of employers that are expected to come to the career fair.

“He [Chancellor Shields] believes that we don’t get as many people [employers] coming because not everyone can do a three-day career fair, and he also feels that if we cancel class then there’s more options to put in more people from different companies,” Pauly said.

More employers at the career fair obviously means more opportunities for students to apply for internships but the second reason for shortening the career fair was to increase revenue from the event.

“The money from career day goes to fund senior projects. In the past they’ve got $230,000 from the career fair, but now they are able to get even more,” Pauly said.

The career fair and its effect on campus is complicated, especially now that a new format for the event is being tested.

 “We’ll need to see how this goes and see if we need alternate solutions,” Cornette said. “I do not see faculty senate talking about this again. I hope faculty senate discusses it after the career fair is over to do a cost-benefit analysis.”

The coming career fair for next semester is still in the early stages of planning and more information will become available over the summer.