A few weeks ago, a lady looking for a dinosaur called up the Student Employment Office. In charge of a local fashion show, she wanted to hire someone to appear in a dinosaur suit "for atmosphere." A suitable person was supplied the same day her call was received.

Regular Jobs Important

Being able to fill such unusual requests plays only a small part in the operations of an office which supervises some 1200 students working on regular part-time jobs and supplies many more with short-term "casual" jobs. Although these casual jobs are usually the more interesting and unusual ones, it is the regular kind which are the more important and which account for the close connection between the Student Employment Office and the College's Financial Aid program.

Any student may apply for work through the Office, located in Weld Hall. The regular part-time jobs within the University, however, are assigned through a priority list, based on financial need. The student without any real financial need but with a temporarily empty wallet is the one most likely to hit upon the unusual jobs, although even on the priority list such other considerations as physical condition, special talents, previous experience, and class schedule do play a small part.

Freshman Check-Up

The Employment Office reserves very special treatment for freshmen desiring regular work. Since they are allowed to work only in dining halls, libraries, dormitories, and two or three offices at the University, they naturally receive first consideration for these positions. But special treatment extends beyond this. About once a week, the Office makes an informal check on all the freshmen. This is usually done by a casual telephone talk, a chance conversation, or maybe even by a short note. And occasionally the student himself will come to the Office to report on his job.

All this checking is not merely to compile a set of records. More basically, it is the Employment Bureau's way of getting to know the students with whom it deals. The secretary of the Office, Miss Gladys M. Fales, mantains that she gets to know all of the regular employees after a few months. Often, she even knows about their courses, extra-curricular activities, and personal problems, realizing that all these items will affect a worker's performance both in his job and in the College.

This personal interest does not stop after freshman year, although the check system generally does. By that time the Office generally knows what jobs will suit a student best, and it can offer a wide assortment to any regular worker.

Individual departments, for instance, often hire students to do typing and research. Math, Physics, and Gen Ed courses offer many positions for student graders to relieve some of the pressure from busy professors and section men. Lab assistants are needed in most of the science courses. At the Observatory a small group of students--some under Government contract--does computing. "Animal men" are used in the biology and Psycho-Acoustic labs for the care and feeding of laboratory animals, while others are employed as electronics technicians to build and maintain amplifiers and other equipment.

With the current shortage of secretaries, many faculty members and administrative officers are hiring parttime student secretaries, as well. Although skeptical at first, the employers have discovered that these secretaries are often better at typing, taking dictation, and arranging appointments than professional ones. Many use their secretaries four hours an afternoon, five days a week--a long, but lucrative, work week for students.

The HAA also employs a large number of undergraduates each year, both on a regular and "casual" basis. The positions available include ticket sellers and collectors, groundskeepers, and medical secretaries to keep a record of injuries.

The Employment Office does not limit its activities to the University. Miss Fales, for instance, says she knows of about 100 undergraduates who have regular jobs elsewhere, mostly in stores and offices around the Square.

Most outside jobs, however, are of the "casual" variety. These are given out on a first come, first served basis, regardless of financial need. They include such varied occupations as baby sitting, dishwashing, housecleaning, and general chore work. The Office can also provide student lecturers, singers, entertainers, and even dance bands. It also locates translators, tutors, and coaches.

More Training Programs

The Office has always cooperated with the Summer Employment Bureau in seeing that needy students get interesting and profitable summer work. At present industries have for many years offered summer training jobs to juniors and seniors, in the hope of being able to hire them after graduation. Few companies, however, have offered jobs to freshmen and sophomores until this year. Yet the competition has become so intense in the search for qualified college graduates, particularly in the sciences, that many corporations are offering jobs to underclassmen to interest them in the training programs. Consequently the Summer Employment Office will this year for the first time keep a file of such industrial positions, and will also seek other summer factory jobs.