Guestbook Entry: NACE 50th Anniversary

It's Your Turn!

Add your memories of, thoughts on, and predictions for NACE and the profession.

Lea-Ann Morton & Michelle Adams, Director & Assistant Director of Career Opportunities Center, University of Missouri-Rolla (UMR) wrote:

In preparation for the 2004 NACE National Meeting & Exposition, Michelle and I were carefully reviewing our flight schedule, agenda for the conference, hotel reservations, etc. While sitting at the airport in St. Louis, Missouri, we began to get a little curious about our upcoming flight - there was no plane in sight and the attendant did not want to see our boarding passes. In addition, there were only four passengers sitting in the lobby area (including the two of us!), and the attendant made the announcement of "Passengers on flight number XXX, please gather your materials and walk down the stairwell and across the tarmac to your plane." Well, Michelle and I could not help but laugh at what we thought was a joke... it was not. We gathered our items, walked down the stairs, crossed the tarmac, and greeted the pilot just outside of the plane before climbing the stairs to enter. I had a small briefcase with me that I planned to put in the overhead compartment, the kind pilot informed me that there was no overhead compartment and I needed to load my briefcase in the back of the plane with the luggage. At this point I should have known to walk back across the tarmac, up the stairwell, find my car and drive to hours back to Rolla. With Michelle's encouragement I decided to board the plane, a little reluctantly. Upon boarding the plane, I discovered that I could not stand up straight (and I am only 5'10"), there indeed was no overhead compartments, no bathrooms, and only one seat on each side the isle. Oh my!!! The pilot boarded and began to give us instructions on how to buckle our seatbelts, explained it would be about a two hour flight, and welcome aboard. As he was finishing I asked if I could move seats (twelve seats available and only four people on board), he kindly gave approval with the encouragement of staying on my side of the plane. Oh my!!! So, I moved to the back where a larger seat was available so that I could sleep during the flight. Michelle and I were constantly giving each other confirmation that we had made the right decision, all would be well, and laughing to keep ourselves calm - a very nervous laugh to say the least. Well, I closed my eyes and tried to start relaxing as I listened to the propellers wind up, the rattling of the plane was actually calming (the same effect of driving toddlers in the car), and I started to drift when suddenly I heard chickens clucking! Yes, chickens. I quickly jumped to my feet, hit my head on the ceiling of the plane, and caught Michelle's eyes as she too had heard the chickens. Indeed, chickens were in the cargo pit of the plane being transported to another location. Michelle and I could not believe our ears - chickens on the plane... and my briefcase along with our suitcase full of suites for the conference were back there. Oh my!!! Our thoughts were that we hoped our clothes would not be covered in chicken litter...
Needless to say, after a few moments of panic, a few good laughs, a few regrets and second guessing, we made it to the conference in one piece and chicken litter free!

Martha E. Troia, Director of Career Development of Niagara University wrote:

I owe a huge debt of gratitude to the staff and members of NACE for serving as sources of information from the time when I first entered the career services profession to the present. I was hired as the director of career development in 1993, but had no experience in the field other than a career counseling course in my graduate program. I was encouraged by my supervisor to become active in your organization, at that time known as the College Placement Council, to gain knowledge and understanding of the profession. I poured through the journals and learned a great deal; however, what helped me the most in gaining more understanding of college career services was attending the national meeting, which, at that time was held every three years. The keynote speakers and the workshops that were offered were exactly what I needed to help me develop programs and services that would benefit students at my university. On top of that, I met many wonderfully collaborative seasoned career services professionals who were eager to share their advice and ideas with me. I've attended many, many NACE conferences since then, and I continue to look forward to them as an opportunity to renew acquaintances with career services and human resources colleagues and to learn more about the current and future issues of our profession. I'm also indebted to many of the NACE staff who I've contacted or consulted with over the years to discuss particular issues or problems. To a person, they are professional, knowledgeable, and eager to assist in whatever way they can, specifically Marilyn Mackes, Camille Luckabaugh and Claudia Allen. And I would especially like to single out Shelly Kaplan, who served as NACE's general counsel for many years, for sharing with me her knowledge of legal issues relevant to college career services when I had the pleasure of sitting in on her informative conference workshops or when I had an immediate legal issue to discuss with her by telephone; but, most importantly, I would like to thank her for allowing me to get to know her as a generous and caring friend. This 50th anniversary conference will, sadly, be my last as I will be retiring in May 2007. It has been an honor to be a member of NACE these past 13 years, and I have every confidence that it will continue to serve career services and human resources professionals for another 50 years of excellence. Happy Anniversary!

Sylvia E. Camacho, Director, Career Services and Cooperative Education of Suffolk County Community College - Selden wrote:

Happy 50th Anniversary NACE! I, too, was wondering about CCDM as that was an experience that truly introduced me to some outstanding people who made things happen. Serving on the board and being a young Hispanic female challenged me to take a more active role in my career. In addition, this experience with Andre and Alva allowed me to further my education and continue in the field of career development. Now, twenty-seven years later, I glad to serve as a role model to other minorities. So thank you CCDM and NACE for all that you are and will be for the future.

André G. Beaumont, Executive Director of of CPS (College Placement Services, Inc. - later renamed Council on Career Development for Minoritie wrote:

I was very pleased to see your web site proclaiming the fiftieth anniversary of NACE and its predecessor organizations. As a former member of ECPO and MAPA, it was good to see how we have evolved.

The “Timeline” section on your website noted the 1965 passage of the Civil Rights Act. What an opportunity for NACE to claim its involvement in that significant part of our nation’s history! Regretfully, there was no mention on the timeline nor in the NACE history section of the website that CPC played a significant role in a phase of the Civil Rights movement. What I’m referring to is the role of CPC in the founding, intimate involvement with, and steadfast support of CPS (College Placement Services, Inc. - later renamed Council on Career Development for Minorities – CCDM).

Early in 1965 two people involved with the Ford Foundation came up with an idea that was the genesis of CPS. Julius A. Thomas, Vice President of the National Urban League and a consultant to the foundation on minority affairs recommended that the foundation consider funding a project that would initiate and/or upgrade career services for graduates from the historically black colleges and universities (of which there were over ninety) whose graduates, in that era, were primarily entering careers described as: “preaching, teaching or healing” and few, if any, entered the business or corporate world. One of the new project directors at the foundation was Bill Gormley, previously Director of Placement at Syracuse University and a member of MAPA. Bill found Julius’ recommendation worth pursuing and since the Ford Foundation was launching many initiatives to foster the advancement of minorities, he was quickly authorized to pursue possible programmatic means of fulfilling the objectives proposed by Julius.

Bill approached Bob Herrick at CPC to find out if the organization might be interested in such a program. Bob was enthusiastic about this idea and approached the CPC Board who approved and authorized the formation of a committee to prepare a proposal for the Ford Foundation. The proposal was endorsed by the foundation. However, its attorneys found a problem: CPC was a 501{c}4 non-profit corporation under IRS regulations and the foundation, as a 501{c}3 corporation, could only make grants to non-profits similarly designated or to individuals. Herrick and CPC hired a high-powered Washington, DC law firm that specialized in IRS matters and within a matter of months they created a 501{c}3 non-profit corporation entitled College Placement Services, Inc. (CPS). The Ford Foundation then made an initial grant of $310,000 to the new entity.

A Board of Directors composed primarily of CPC Board members was formed. The first President was Raymond Stockard of the University of Rhode Island, a former CPC Board President. Offices were rented for CPS at 65 East Elizabeth Avenue in Bethlehem (CPC was located at 35 East Elizabeth Avenue). CPC staff purchased furniture, office equipment, supplies etc. I was hired as Executive Director after being interviewed – among others – by Herrick, Warren Kauffman, Stockard and other board members and I moved to Bethlehem to begin running the program in September 1965.

The CPS logotype was created as a variation of the CPC logo. The letters “C” and “P” were identical and the “S” was positioned exactly as the “C” in the CPC logo. The latter letters were enclosed in an oblong whereas the CPS logo was encased in a triangle. When we later shared the same office facilities the logos were intertwined in the lobby signs.

From September 1965 through December 1984 – 19 years and three months - CPS was literally part of CPC. The Council provided accounting services, duplicating services, mail room services and editorial services. Bob Herrick served on the CPS Board until he retired and Jesse Smith succeeded him. CPC Presidents like Will Kidwell of San Diego State University, John Brooks of North Texas State University and Alva Cooper of Hunter College, New York served on our Board and the latter two became Chairpersons of CPS. Most members of the CPS Board were either employer or college members of the regional associations.

When Bethlehem Steel added seven floors to 65 East Elizabeth Avenue to create needed office space early in the 1970s, CPC and CPS leased one floor and our offices were physically merged. We later moved together to the building on Highland Avenue (where NACE is now located) and maintained our close working relationship.

During the course of its years in Bethlehem CPS developed and managed most of its programs: we trained scores of members from the regional associations to serve on consultative teams for institutions with large minority enrollments – these included those with large Hispanic and American Indian enrollments as well as African-Americans; we trained several hundred new career counselors for these institutions; with corporate help we issued grants to minority colleges so they could provide new or improved facilities for their career services; in conjunction with the U.S. Office of Education and under the provisions of Title III of the Higher Education Act we coordinated the awarding of several million dollars in grants to institutions serving large minority enrollments – these grants provided start-up funds to initiate or expand career services; we prepared a motion
picture “Do They Really Want Me?” which was given to minority institutions to address minority student concerns about the viability of careers with corporations; with support from the Educational Testing Service we conducted workshops for faculty members from minority serving institutions to train their students to be more test aware and ready when taking graduate school admissions tests like the GMAT, LSAT, MEDCAT; we facilitated summer exchange programs for career service counselors from minority institutions to spend a month working in well-established career service programs; we ran training programs for support staff from career services at minority institutions.

Our staff in Bethlehem was small: myself, an associate director, an editorial/research assistant and two clerical support persons. We benefited from the help of loaned executives from corporations who supported our work. During the years we coordinated the Title III grants we had a subsidiary office in Atlanta staffed by a program coordinator and a support person. Most important, we had a network of trained career service personnel and employer members from all the regional college placement associations who volunteered their time to serve in our many projects. Expenses were paid to college and university personnel while employers paid their own way. .

I’ve omitted some of our accomplishments and omitted many details for the sake of brevity but you can undoubtedly see how these various efforts redounded to the benefit of CPC and the regional associations. And this is without mentioning the ultimate beneficiaries of our work: the thousands of minority students and graduates we reached and whose career paths were enhanced. This was the intent of the Ford Foundation when they approached CPC and eventually funded CPS.

As you know, CPS changed its name to The Council on Career Development for Minorities (CCDM), remained in Bethlehem for a few years and then moved to Dallas in January of 1985 as our emphasis evolved to service for colleges and universities in the West and Southwest. I retired from the organization in June of 1987. Today, CCDM is still in Dallas but is a shadow of its former self

It is therefore fitting for NACE to proclaim its role in the creation of CPS/CCDM and be proud of its accomplishments. But for a technicality in the IRS regulations, CPS would have never existed and all that I have described in this letter would have been done under the aegis of CPC/NACE.

Please accept my sincere good wishes as you celebrate this fiftieth anniversary year, André G. Beaumont

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