The addition of Dowling Hall has dramatically improved the accessibility of Student Services on the Tufts campus. The move of the Career Services Department to the new building has helped to consolidate the operations of this student service, enhancing the resources of individual offices and fostering cooperation between them.
In the past, when students sought advice about career opportunities, they had to travel to a little yellow house located on the outer edge of campus to meet with a career counselor. Next, the now-student, future-employee would have to walk to the basement of Tisch Library to access the career resource library and recruiting offices to conduct further searches about their preferred occupation. The separation of the department offices presented difficulties for both students and the Career Services staff.
"In the past we used to scramble around between the two places," Career Services Director Jean Papalia said. "Now that we're centrally located all in one place, it's given us a lot more opportunities."
One of these opportunities, and perhaps the biggest change that accompanied Career Services' move to Dowling, is the new resource library. "When we were in Tisch, all of our resources were located in just one very small little room. Now we have a big space with books about academic resources, recruiting information, and financial aid - and the information is all together," Papalia said.
The valuable resources in the library have helped make it a highly frequented on-campus spot. "The library is packed during the day and even during the evening with students conducting job searches," Papalia said.
Students are echoing Papalia's sentiments. "Last year I wouldn't have bothered taking advantage of some of these resources," said one junior. "Now that it's centralized in Dowling, it's a lot easier."
Students who previously utilized the resources available at Career Services have also noticed many improvements. "The resources at Career Services have become much more accessible to students this year, and there has been a much more concerted effort on the part of the staff to advertise these resources," said Jessica Gloor, a senior who regularly works with Career Services.
Gloor has used many of these resources to help with her own career search, including binders on graduate school opportunities, online search engines for jobs, and the Tufts Career Advisory Network (Tufts CAN) online.
Tufts CAN is an online database of Tufts alumni, parents, and friends who voluntarily provided insider information about their career fields. "The Internet has clearly made job hunting much easier than it was in the past," Papalia said. "This website allows students to look up alumni in their chosen fields in order to gain information and direction."
This resource was enhanced by the move to Dowling, as Career Services now has the space to hold programs that give students the chance to meet with many alumni in a professional, spacious presentation room purpose-built for the task.
"One of the biggest advantages of being housed in Dowling is that we now have the freedom to hold many more workshops and programs relating to the resources we have available," Papalia said.
