friday, October 23, 1981
daily nebraskan
page 3
Occupations go down in history
By Charles Flowerday
Undergraduate history majors seeking employment as
high school teachers frequently find a job placement de
pends on their willingness to move to a smaller town, said
Patrice Berger, chief adviser in the UNL history depart
ment. "What is a person prepared to do?" Berger said. "It's a
question of trade-offs."
Some find living in small towns very desirable, Berger
said. But he said he wanted those graduating with a certifi
cation to teach history to realize that the market is highly
competitive. The job prospects for graduates willing to
leave Lincoln or Omaha to teach are "decent,' he said.
A dual enrollment in the College of Arts and Sciences
and Teachers College has become an increasingly popular
route for many history majors, Berger said.
He encourages students to study history.
"It provides them with a vital perspective on the past,
on their own culture and history," Berger said. "It equips
them to better appreciate their position in society."
However, students with more than a bachelor's degree
will probably find that a Ph.D. in history is not a reward
ing avenue, he said. There are not many jobs for college
professors of history.
We continue to run a graduate program, but it's a very
difficult employment situation," Berger said. "I'm very
reluctant to encourage people to get a PhD. If the big
schools - Harvard, Columbia, Stanford - are cutting
back, we are in a bind, an even more difficult situation."
Other fields
The history discipline is not as specifically job-related
as other disciplines, Berger said. Many history majors go
on to graduate school in law, business administration or
journalism, he said.
History majors preparing for law school generally feel
their training was adequate and helpful, Berger said.
Two remaining areas in which history areas are likely
to find employment are museum work and general ad
ministrative work, Berger said.
Historians interested in perservation or archival work
might find themselves employed by the State Historical
Society, for example, he said. Unfortunately, these jobs
are also relatively limited.
"Archival work is as competitive as the (high school)
teaching market, and it might become more competitive
depending on what happens to public money," Berger
said.
Union Board hunting
for plaza sign design
The Nebraska Union Board is still looking for
creative designs for the plaza sign that will be in
front of the Nebraska Union.
Operations committee Chairman LaVern Heggem
said all ideas are being accepted. The person creating
the design will receive $25, and the design will be
permanently displayed on Memorial Plaza.
Ideas and questions about the contest should be
directed to either Frank Kuhn or Heggem through
the Nebraska Union Office. The contest ends Nov.
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The key to opening up this field may lie with President
Ronald Reagan's new emphasis on volunteerism, Berger
said. If private contributions can keep public historical in
stitutions financed, then job opportunities will continue.
If not, the picture probably will become more bleak, he
said.
Administrative positions
The liberal arts training history majors receive makes
them particularly well-suited to deal with administrative
tasks, Berger said. The largest number of departmental
graduates not in law school are in administrative positions,
he explained.
"Quite a few are in various media," he said. These peo
ple usually supplement their journalism training with
another major in history, he said.
The department has recently started an internship pro
gram which allows seniors to get credit for work done in
approved settings, such as the State Historical Society or
the Nebraska Legislature, Berger said. By supplementing
the work with an individual reading program, the depart
ment hopes to provide seniors with the information they
need to make a career decision, he said.
Berger said college has increasingly become a profes
sional training ground, all the more reason to stress the
importance of a liberal arts education.
'The humanities and arts form an integral part of our
lives," Berger said. He said students should acquaint them
selves with the skills and abilities needed to appreciate as
many different parts of human knowledge as po'sible.
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