The National Governors Associ0 ation, with the support of the Mary 0 Reynolds Babcock Foundation and 0 Duke University, is establishing a 0 center for the study of state govern0 ment. The new “academic arm” of 0 the governors’association, as the an0 nouncement of the project words it, 0 will be situated at Duke’s Institute 0 of Policy Sciences.$
The center will link governors L0 and their staffs “with the academic 0 and corporate communities that are 0 concerned with effective state gov0 ernment,” according to its executive 0 director, James Tait Jr., who has L0 served as a top aide to Govs. Reubin 0 Askew and Bob Graham of Florida.3
It is also intended, he said, to help 0 define a research agenda for the L0 study of issues in state government 0 and to provide a setting in which 0 governors, researchers, and busiL$ness leaders can exchange ideas.
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The number of jobs being offered 0 to this year’s graduating seniors is 0 half what it was a year ago at the 0 same time, the College Placement 0 Council has reported.$ /
Last year at this time, according 0 to the organization, which annually 0 studies the job market for new col0 lege graduates, the survey group of 0 185 placement offices at 160 colleges 0 and universities reported a total of 0 20,608 job offers to seniors since the 0 previous September. This year, the 0 comparable figure was 10,831 offers.0
Placement directors said they saw 0 no pattern of increased hiring to re0 flect the reported end of the national 0 recession. In fact, they noted that 0 the slump also appears to have de0 pressed starting salaries in some L0 fields. Even in engineering, a field 0 that has offered relatively plentiful 0 jobs during the recession, starting 0 salaries were up a percentage point 0 or two in some specialties and down 0 in others.0
Salaries for new engineers, none0 theless, remained the highest of any 0 discipline, with jobs in petroleum L0 engineering offering an average of 0 $31,044 to start. Computer-science 0 graduates received the highest offer 0 in the sciences: $23,172. The aver0 age starting salary for humanities 0 graduates dropped slightly this year 0 to $14,256, the council noted.0
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Meanwhile, University of Michi0 gan researchers have supplied the 0 U.S. Labor Department with lists of occupations, requiring one or more years of training, in which workers are likely to be in short supply over the next several years. The agency will use the information to set poli cies on the eligibility of temporary foreign workers for permanent U.S. citizenship, officials said.$
Occupations identified as having shortages of workers include: aero- astronautic engineer; computer pro grammer and systems analyst; pro fessional nurse; electrical and L$ electronic technician; physical L0 therapist; medical, X-ray, and surgi cal technologist; dental assistant; L and mechanical engineer.3
The researchers also identified a number of fields they said were not likely to experience shortages. L$ Among them: machine operator; L$ auto-body repairer; carpenter; railH road-maintenance worker; sheet-L$ metal worker; butcher; stonemason; and millwright. The researchers L predicted possible shortages, as the economy recovers, in these fields: di etician; financial analyist; inhalaL tion, recreation, and occupational L therapist; insurance clerk; paraleHL gal; credit analyst; health techniL cian; medical assistant; office-maL$chine repairer; accountant and L$ auditor; and data-processing-maL$ chine mechanic, among others.$$
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Corporate, alumni, and private L donors gave a record $4.86 billion to colleges last year, says the Council for Financial Aid to Education.$)
The 15-percent increase was bol stered by a few very large gifts but also reflected a general expansion in giving by individuals and corpora tions, according to the council. Foun dation gifts exceeded $1 billion for the first time; nonalumni giving L grew by 9 percent to $1.97 billion; and corporations gave an estimated $976 million, an increase of 25 per cent over the previous year’s record.
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Technical, community, and junior colleges in 41 states have more stu dents this year than last, according to the American Association of Com munity and Junior Colleges. Total enrollment in such schools nation wide was up 2.7 percent last fall, to 4,964,379, the association says.$=
States reporting the largest inL creases included Alabama, up 37 L percent; Idaho, 29 percent; Colorado and Pennsylvania, 16 percent each; and New Mexico, 14 percent. States showing declining enrollments in cluded: Nebraska, down 21 percent; Washington, 9 percent; Oregon, 7 L percent; South Dakota, 6 percent; L Virginia, 5 percent; and California and New York, 3 percent each.$
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Derek Bok, a lawyer who heads a university that runs one of the na tion’s most elite law schools, took the occasion of his annual presiL$nt’s report this month to lambast America’s legal system and the law schools that support it.
Mr. Bok, a graduate and former dean of Harvard University’s law L school and now the university’s L$resident, wrote that “there is far too much law for those who can af ford it and far too little for those who cannot."$:
“The blunt, inexcusable fact,” he continued, “is that this nation, L$hich prides itself on efficiency and justice, has developed a legal system that is the most expensive in the world, yet cannot manage to protect the rights of most of its citizens.” The Harvard president said law schools contribute to this situation by emphasizing “the capacity to L$hink like a lawyer,” which prepares students for “legal combat” but does nothing to encourage solutions to L problems other than legal ones. Law schools, he chided, should expend L more effort teaching “the gentler L arts of reconciliation and accommo dation."$,
He also charged that too many L able students are entering the field of law, a phenomenon he termed “a massive diversion of exceptional tal ent into pursuits that often add little to the growth of the economy, the pursuit of culture, or the enhance ment of the human spirit.’'--mm
