Career Resource Center Records
Scope and Content
Collection contains the administrative records of the Career Resource Center at the University of Florida. The administrative files include studies of charging alumni a fee for the Center’s services, materials on the expansion of the Center, and files of materials used to create databases and systems for the Center. Correspondence between the Center’s Director, Maurice Mayberry, and outside organizations and the UF Student Body Presidents is included. Many publications, including publications on systems used the Center, are also included. Annual Reports and Career Guides from the Center are present, as are histories of the Center and its information systems. Information on commercial placement programs and placement programs at other institutions are included.
Dates
- 1968 - 2004
Creator
- University of Florida. Career Resource Center. (Organization)
Access
University Archives collections are available for research. Portions of the collections may be restricted due to the requirements of applicable state and federal laws, including but not limited to FERPA and HIPAA, and in accordance with best practices as defined by the Society of American Archivists.
Biographical/Historical Note
The University of Florida Career Resource Center (now the Career Connections Center) opened in July 1953 as the Placement Service Office. The Office was located in Tigert Hall, and then moved to a temporary building, Building H, at the corner of Union Road and Newell Drive, across from the University Auditorium, and the current site of Turlington Hall. The Career Resources Center (CRC) moved into the J. Wayne Reitz Union in 1967.
The founding Director of the Career Resources Center was Maurice Mayberry, who served as Director from 1953-1991. He was succeeded by Wayne Wallace, Director from 1991-2011. Heather White succeed Wallace, serving as Director from 2011-2017. She was succeeded by Ja’Net Glover, who has served as Director from 2017 to the present.
Before the institution of the CRC, employers would reach out to individual faculty members for prospects among their students. The faculty member would then send the employer a list of recommended students that the employer could then contact to set up an interview. This decentralized approach was common to many universities at the time, but frustrations were mounting with the inefficiencies of the system at a time when employers needed more recruits than they could quickly get from faculty recommendations. Dr. J. Hillis Miller, University of Florida President, tasked the Dean of Student Services, Dr. Max Wise, to form a committee and solve the problems that recruiters and students were facing at the university. The result was the hiring of Mayberry and the formation of the Placement Services Office.
The transition from individual Colleges and faculty to the Placement Services Office placing students with recruiters was a long and slow process, but eventually, in 1964, the President’s Placement Committee recommended that the Placement Services Office be recognized as the centralized placement facility for the university.
The first “career day” at the University of Florida was held in the 1958-59 academic year, with 75 federal employers invited to campus to meet informally with students.
The Placement Services Office received a name change to The University Placement Center with its move into the J. Wayne Reitz Union in 1967. Its name changed again in 1971 to University of Florida Career Planning and Placement Center. In February 1975, the Center had the Cooperative Education Program added to its charge, and the Center’s name changed to the Career Resource Center. Its name changed to the Career Connections Center in 2018.
In 1983, the CRC won the Outstanding Achievement for Innovative Program in the College Placement Field from the College Placement Council for its leadership in developing computerized and office automation.
For more information on the history of the CRC, please consult the History of the Career Resource Center booklet, found in box 2, folder 15 of this collection.
Extent
2.4 Linear Feet (5 boxes)
Language of Materials
English
Abstract
Collection contains the administrative records of the Career Resource Center at the University of Florida, including reports, career guides, histories of the Center, files on the Center’s databases and systems, and correspondence and memoranda.
Arrangement
Arranged into five subseries: Subseries 1: Career Resource Center Administrative Files, 1968-1991 Subseries 2: Correspondence and Memos, 1985-1990 Subseries 3: Career Resource Center Director's Files Subseries 4: Publications, 1974-2004 Subseries 5: Seminars, Committees, and Career Placement at Outside Organizations, 1970-1994
Location
University of Florida Smathers Library Building
Acquisition Information
Transferred by Maurice Mayberry, October 2013.
Creator
- University of Florida. Career Resource Center. (Organization)
- Title
- A Guide to the Career Resource Center Records
- Status
- Completed
- Author
- Finding aid created by Sarah Coates
- Date
- February 2020 (Updated October 2022)
- Description rules
- Finding Aid Prepared Using Dacs
- Language of description
- English
- Script of description
- Latin
- Language of description note
- Description is written in English.
Revision Statements
- October 2022: Dalia Dooley; additional materials added
Repository Details
Part of the Special and Area Studies Collections, George A. Smathers Libraries, University of Florida Repository
George A. Smathers Libraries
PO Box 117005
Gainesville Florida 32611-7005 United States of America
352-273-2755
special@uflib.ufl.edu