After 20 years at Career Services, Director Minerva Reed will step down at the end of the academic year.
Dean of the College Nancy Malkiel distributed an email to administrators, department chairs and other University officials announcing that "Minerva H. Reed is taking her career in new directions and will step down as director of career services effective June 30, 1998," she wrote.
Malkiel asked the recipients of the email to "help in identifying the next leader of this important University office" and solicited their suggestions regarding a list of attached candidates.
Progressive move
Reed will "be taking a position with Progressive Management Associates, Inc., a New York based consulting firm that advises companies, nonprofit organizations and government agencies on strategies for managing a changing workplace," Malkiel wrote.
Firm president Lawrence Otis Graham '83 and Reed will work together in consulting as well as in Graham's congressional campaign, in which Reed will serve as his adviser on employment and education issues.
"It was an opportunity that presented itself that I couldn't refuse," Reed said of her new job. She accepted the job a few weeks ago, she added.
Malkiel and Reed had been "discussing (Reed's) plans for some time," Malkiel said.
She also said that there was no pressure from the University on Reed to leave. "University jobs are not ones that people always hold in perpetuity. It is not unusual for one to imagine a new direction," Malkiel said.
Over the past year, USG president David Ascher '99 has been working with Reed to improve Career Services, he said.
"(Career Services) is in the wrong location . . . we are hoping the University will move it to Clio hall. There are also not enough staff people. It is hard to get the personal attention students would like," he said. Ascher also cited insufficient funding as the cause of understaffing, an inadequate number of binders, as well as other problems with the office.
"It is hard to distinguish whose fault things are. Minerva did a good job with the resources given to her but our Career Services is miserably underfunded," he said.
Reed attributed the funding problems at Career Services to general budget cuts "across the board" at the University.
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Reed said that she fully intends to continue her work with Ascher until the end of her term at the University.
The search is on
With Reed's resignation, the search for a new director has begun. The University is "advertising a search. We're casting a net as widely as we can," Malkiel said.
Reed did not want to comment on her vision for the future of Career Services because "I'm just beginning to switch gears and it's all so new . . . and there are a lot of things that require a lot of care in terms of analysis," she said.
However, the University's invitation of "nominations and applications for Director of the Office of Career Services" contained four paragraphs outlining the ideal new director. Among other qualities outlined in the email,"Princeton seeks a leader with the creativity and strategic vision to reassess continuing programs and activities."