With the demand for higher-education jobs increasing, colleges
and universities in Southern California have united to recruit and
retain the best employees.
On Sept. 29 the Southern California Higher Education Recruitment
Consortium (HERC) was officially launched at UCLA. The Web site is
the first of its kind for the region.
The partnership of 23 schools consists of the University of
California, community colleges ““ such as Santa Barbara City
College ““ and private schools, such as Pepperdine.
“HERC member campuses … employ close to 80,000 faculty,
staff, administrative and executive employees,” said UCLA
Chancellor Albert Carnesale. “In the next five years, HERC
member campuses expect to hire more than 50,000 employees. … In
the next 10 years, Southern California HERC campuses will hire
100,000 new employees,” he said.
HERC campuses share a combined budget of $10.6 billion,
displaying the economic clout of campuses in the region.
Openings online span “full-time and part-time, short-term
and long-term,” said Steve Hewgley, assistant provost of
Pepperdine University. In addition to instructor and research
positions, there are also openings for jobs ranging from
accountants to librarians to counselors.
The consortium will allow for member campuses to employ the most
qualified applicants. “Matching up the right people with the
right job is the best for the university,” Carnesale
said.
“It is crucial for our mission to have high-quality
people,” he said.
David Miller, acting senior vice chancellor of Academic Affairs
at the University of California, San Diego, sees HERC as a
“real partnership.”
Modeled after Northern California HERC, UC San Diego took the
lead in creating a consortium for Southern California. “Our
people immediately saw the benefit of this Web site as a
resource,” Miller said.
The Web site can help graduate students looking for research
positions. Janet Tomiyama is currently a graduate student in the
psychology department.
After six long, tenuous months, Tomiyama finally found a
research position at UCLA before the Web site was created. “I
think HERC is a wonderful resource and wish it was around three
years ago when I graduated from undergrad,” she said.
“I think HERC is great because we don’t have to be
scared of the job search anymore. The site makes it so easy. We as
students are used to using the Internet. This is the perfect
project to target graduates like us,” she said.
For the first time ever in Southern California, all the
necessary information needed for higher-education job searches can
be found in one easytouse, centralized location,
according to HERC officials. Previously, one would have to search
for employment opportunities at each campus separately.
The Web site includes information beyond job openings.
Competitive rates, benefits and housing available in the area are
also displayed.
Currently, the Web site lists approximately 1,500 jobs. Since it
went live earlier this year, 5,000 jobs have been posted, HERC
officials said.
HERC uses advanced technology to make job searching simple, yet
effective, creators of the Web site said.
Those applying for jobs can create and save a custom
user-profile listing their preferences and qualifications using the
“myJobs” feature. From there, HERC will match the
user’s information with openings available in the colleges
and send an e-mail alert to the user.
Because member campuses pay for HERC’s operation fees, the
Web site’s services are free.
HERC will also have two avenues to market itself: internally and
externally.
Internally, HERC will be promoted within each of the 23
partnering universities. Externally, HERC will also reach out to
those not involved with the partnership.
The partnership is also working to promote a diverse pool of
candidates. It has formed relationships with a variety of diversity
Web sites, such as IMDiversity.com.
The goal is to “get the HERC name out to organizations
focused on recruiting diverse candidates,” Miller said.
In the future, there are plans to add more colleges to the
partnership. Kristie Howard, co-director of Southern California
HERC, hopes the partnership can expand to “as many Southern
California universities and colleges as possible,” she said.
Also, merging Web site information with Northern California HERC is
a possibility.
To visit HERC, go to http://www.socalherc.org