Dear William and Mary Students:
16,000 angry people. 1,900 happy people. And that's BEFORE the Sex Show news got out. People who will be screening resumes, scheduling interviews, making decisions about who gets hired and who gets fired. In the workplace? There are no outsiders. There are only the employed and the unemployed. 16,000 to 1,900. Does the name "Custer" mean anything to the Students?
New college grads have to prove themselves. We were all new college grads. We've been there. We thought we were brilliant and original for the overplayed stunts we "invented." The problem with the cross isn't the cross itself. It's a symptom of a much larger problem at that school. It's manifested by sophomoric cartoons and insane Sex Shows in the thinly-veiled guise of "academics."
I can tell stories about W&M grads who coasted into the workplace with the belief that they were *special* and that they were "owed' something. That they could continue living like they're in college and the world would humour them. They waited tables for 10 years and suffered when they had no money and no insurance to cover the latest illness. I can give you names.
Guys - those 16,000 people aren't buying it. The Cross. The Cartoon. And to bring down the house - The Sex Show. How does this prove that you have the maturity and good sense to succeed in my office? I want someone insightful, mature and productive. Not a practical joker who thinks he can bluster his way into the corner office right out of college.
This isn't going to blow over. This time they really have gone over the top. Proof? Headlines. They wouldn't run it on Fox, CNN, or other channels if it wasn't lurid enough to get people's attention. To make them angry and sell advertising space. This is the advertisement you're getting in the world. "Hire a W&M grad. They'll schedule your next corporate event at the Chicken Ranch." Google 'William and Mary" in the news? See what you get. It's sports and controversy. The only news about academic excellence lately is from the propoganda machine called "William and Mary News."
I learned a good lesson at the American Heart Association. "It's not enought to avoid impropriety. You have to avoid the appearance of impropriety."
Do you really want "William and Mary" on your resume to be something you have to overcome?
Todd Skiles
Senior Program Manager
Regional Cyber Security Program
U.S. Department of State
To which I add:
To the students...let me add some perspective from my own industry. Show business being what it is today (much more accessible as a career than it was in my day), I get calls from people (adults) in the Whatever Office who would like for me to meet with a W&M senior who is interested in an "entry level" position that will lead to a job in some aspect of production.
The number of W&M grads in show business who could give you an entry level position is very small. There are a lot of actors who (a) probably don't have time to have lunch with you, assuming you are able to get past their entourage in the first place and (b) don't have a lot of pull with the "entry level" positions, which are almost always controlled by producers and showrunners. (That would be me.) I know of two producers who are William and Mary grads. Myself and my former playwriting classmate, Sheryl Anderson. If you will look, you will notice we have both signed the petition that you keep declaring unimportant.
There are very few "entry level" positions in show business. There is always a long line for them, made up of friends, relatives, currently unemployed writers, actors, etc. etc. In other words, a lot of people in line ahead of "someone I don't know who went to my alma mater." As of right now, you would have to convince me that I should meet with you IN SPITE OF the fact that you graduated from William and Mary
If you can't see how those two people could translate into a problem for you, then the standards of admission are clearly not what they were in my day.
The Evil Hollywoodites might be loud and flamboyant, but the people who do the bulk of the heavy lifting in show business are people like me, who are spouses and parents with traditional values, and who pay A LOT of attention to what is going on at the colleges, since we start thinking about where we're going to send our children about ten minutes after they are born.
There is no way my husband and I would have let our seventeen year old daughter apply to William and Mary this year. Even if we weren't upset about the Wren Cross and horrified by the Sex Show, we wouldn't pay for her go to a school whose reputation is plunging further every week. That would simply be a dumb investment. The alumni are upset because we are watching the value of our diplomas plumet. Apparently you "indifferent" students don't understand that the same is happening with yours.
Karen Hall
Writer/Producer/Showrunner
Class of 1978
And another...
I interviewed a large number of candidates for a summer clerkship position in my local government law office this morning at a "public interest job fair." I had one bright, smart William & Mary alumna who graduated several years ago come for an interview. As a fellow W&M grad, I said, "How about that controversy over the cross in the Wren Chapel?" She remarked, "Everyone this morning has asked me about that!" What she said then is not important for the point I intend to make.
My point is this: When an interviewer sees William & Mary on a resume today, they think of the Wren Cross debacle. They think less of the College. In an interview that can only last 20 minutes maximum to stay on schedule, everyone took the time to ask about the cross controversy. Given the statistics cited by Todd -- 1,900 happy people (mostly on campus, I might add) and 16,000 unhappy people (mostly in the real world, I would add) -- what are the odds that the people asking the questions agreed with Gene Nichol's position on this issue? (Likely about 8:1 against, right?)
Answer this question: If this particular candidate answered the question by supporting Gene Nichol's position(I am not saying she did), what are the chances that the person in a position to hire her agreed with her? Did this controversy increase or decrease her chance of being hired?
Also significantly, this is a wonderful lady who graduated during the glory years of Tim Sullivan. She was not there A.G. (after Gene). Yet, her chances at a job today are being negatively affected by what people think about her alma mater. Unfair? Yes. Real world? Yes.
Another timely "real world" example.
Andrew McRoberts
Goochland County Attorney
Class of '87
5 comments:
Todd, you make some valid points. Twice last week, I discovered that our alma mater's newly-retooled reputation had already worked its way into the realm of corporate interviews.
Professor Catron is correct to note that the outside world now has questions about W&M's honor and integrity. And we alumni have Gene Nichols' singularly myopic and imperious behavior to thank.
You made one major mistake in your blog. You may be correct about the 16,000 angry people, but if those people were not angry there would be 1,900 alienated people. This is far worse than 16,000 angry people.
Apparently you missed the entire point of the post.
1,900 alienated people does not trump 16,000 angry people, who are also feeling very alienated, and are providing a lot of the funding for the school -- or, at least, they were until this happened.
And the point of the post is that the 1,900 "alienated" people will soon be trying to get jobs from the 16,000+++ angry people.
I also have to wonder why the 1,900 people (last time I looked, one of them was Donald Duck) chose to go to a school with a cross in the chapel, given the fact that they feel so alienated by the cross. There is no shortage of schools affiliated with other religions, and schools where God is nowhere in sight. And anyone who can get into William and Mary should have no trouble getting into a non-offensive school.
I fail to see out 1900 alienated people outweight 16,000 alienated people? Are those 1900 somehow "more" special? Perhaps some of us are "more equal than others?" Is that what you're implying?
Second, how do prostitutes and dildos make people feel more welcome? For the VAST vast majority of people, it makes them feel *less* welcome.
Looks to me like there are over 16,000 people who are capable of thinking for themselves and standing up for the First Amendment. Back when I was at W&M, there were professors who used to encourage students to think for themselves. To me, the picture looks so very different at W&M now, where 1,900 people, including Donald Duck, have agreed to blindly follow a master of Orwellian doublespeak. Who would want to hire one of them? Folks used to be able to reasonably expect W&M grads to LEAD. Folks at the Alma Mater of a Nation, it looks like your nation is trying to help you out here and give a little something back, ie, your HERITAGE. And maybe that is just what W&M needs.
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