LEGAL CAREERS TALK: Academic Forum 102, March 16th at 4:30 p.m.

First Steps is a speaker series organized by the Women's Center during the month of March.  Its goal is to connect students with professionals working in their fields of interest and allowing the students to find out how they can get that first job after graduation.

Attorney Donna Steslow, KU Associate Professor in the College of Business is speaking about her legal career. This is an opportunity for students interested in law, criminal justice, law enforcement, sociology or other related careers.

SAVE THE DATE: March 30, 2011 CAREER DEVELOPMENT DAY

The Department of Criminal Justice, the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences, and the Career Development Center will jointly sponsor a Career Development Day on March 30th 10 a.m. - 4 p.m. in the McFarland Student Union, Room 218.  There will be a keynote speaker and 7 panels comprised of professionals from various fields in Criminal Justice.  More details will be posted later. Students from any major are welcome.

NSA Offers 2011 Student Summer Program

From the NSA website:
"NSA's Intelligence Analysis Program offers rising college seniors the opportunity to receive training in a multi-faceted cryptologic discipline that involves research, analysis, and the presentation of findings that enable us to provide the fullest possible Signals Intelligence picture to U.S. policymakers, military commanders, and other Intelligence Community members."

This is a 12-week paid program.  Most CRJ majors would not qualify although those with strong computer and/or international backgrounds might.  Application deadline is October 31, 2010.  Details at http://tinyurl.com/nsasummer

1500 Border Patrol Positions authorized

Legislation authorizing 1500 additional U.S. Border Patrol positions was passed on August 12, 2010 by Congress.  In a time a layoffs and hiring freezes in many criminal justice agencies, this is welcome news.  The market is increasingly competitive.  For example, there were 1294 people applying for the Allentown Police Department test last summer; most likely only a few will be hired.  According to one person who took the same test years ago, there were nearly three times as many applicants this time.

Homeland Security as a Career

Dr. Logan just called my attention to an article on the Government Executive.com website that should make job seekers think twice or three times about career paths.  There are over 200,000 contractors to the Department of Homeland Security but only 188,000 federal employees.  Take a look at http://www.govexec.com/dailyfed/0210/022410e1.htm  (posted by Marc Renzema)

Drs. AnnMarie and Gary Cordner receive NIJ Grant

The doctors Cordner have received a grant of approximately $250,000 to study the management of the U.S. law enforcement workforce.  Specific issues addressed will include planning, turnover, retention, and the roles of training academies and college criminal justice programs in preparing people for police employment.  Methods will include random sample surveys of criminal justice agencies and of criminal justice educators.  Also sampled will be students from five universities.  A final part of the research will be case studies of 10 police agencies.  The grant will run for 18 months from January 2010.

Dr. Gary Cordner presenting in Washington, December 11th

Prof. Gary Cordner will be one of the presenters at the December 11th conference on "From the Academy to Retirement: A Journey Through the Policing Lifecycle" sponsored by the U.S. National Institute of Justice Office of Justice Programs.

Professor Cordner is one of several co-investigators on the National Police Research Platform, a 3-year federally-funded demonstration project aimed at developing a more in-depth understanding of the "life course" of police officers and police organizations. Longitudinal data are being collected from police recruits and new police sergeants in Chicago, Los Angeles, Houston, and Kentucky. Annual surveys are also being administered to sworn and nonsworn employees in a small sample of police agencies around the country. Police departments in Allentown, Bethlehem, Emmaus, and Catasauqua are among those participating in the study.

Substantial need by CIA for uniformed police officers; good pay; DC area.

Prof. Logan sent me this:
A couple of good links for our students and grads.
https://www.cia.gov/careers/opportunities/support-professional/security-protective-officer.html
https://www.cia.gov/careers/opportunities/support-professional/security-professional.html
https://www.cia.gov/careers/opportunities/support-professional/contract-specialist-entry-level.html
https://www.cia.gov/careers/student-opportunities/students-support.html

#9 on CNN's list of the 50 best jobs in America: Intelligence Analyst

More info at http://money.cnn.com/magazines/moneymag/bestjobs/2009/snapshots/9.html  There are already 51,000 of them.  Median pay is 82K.  (Information found by Prof. Logan)

Advice on getting a job in the "intelligence community"

Today's entry in a blog by Prof. Kristan Wheaton of Mercyhurst College's Institute of Intelligence studies has excellent advice on finding jobs in intelligence and crime analysis.  Go here.
--link contributed by Prof. Logan