A new career center for graduate students separate from the Cawley Career Center is expected to launch in July 2018, the Office of the Provost announced Sept. 27.

The new center will focus on specific graduate career and professional advancement counseling.

The decision to create a new career center came after a review of Cawley’s effectiveness. The Office of the Provost used this review to assess downfalls of career services at Georgetown University, and ultimately decided that the new career center would benefit older students who seek career services.

Vice Provost for Education Randall Bass said the separation would allow Cawley to better focus on undergraduate services.

“Many suggestions came out of the review,” Bass wrote in an email to The Hoya. “Among them was the possibility that we might do more both to better integrate all campus career services and make Cawley primarily a premiere undergraduate career center, complemented by the schools and a new center of excellence centered in the Graduate School.”

Bass said the differences between undergraduate and graduate career services needed to be addressed. He said that he hopes this new career center will be able to cater to each group of students’ needs better.

“There are both strong connections between undergraduate and graduate career services (e.g. employer relations), but also some important differences,” Bass wrote in an email to The Hoya.
“Undergraduates need full formational and vocational development support, internship support and career planning. Whereas graduate students are really focused on professional advancement and placement,” Bass wrote in an email to The Hoya.

Rima Mandwee (GRD ’18), president of the Georgetown University Graduate Student Government, said GradGov had been receiving feedback that indicated dissatisfaction with current career service offerings.

“Most graduate students at Georgetown don’t come straight from undergrad. A lot of them work for a few years and then come back, or might be looking for a career change, so it’s very different needs for graduate students,” Mandwee said in an interview with The Hoya.

Mandwee said graduate student career needs were unique because many graduate students already have jobs.

“Most graduate students already work, because you can’t live on campus and D.C. is expensive and I need to be able to afford rent, so obviously I have to work,” Mandwee said. “A lot of graduate students came from work, and it’s really hard to work and then go back to school.”

Mandwee said the separation of career services would hopefully allow the respective career centers to better allocate their resources to become more effective.

“Undergraduates are the primary focus at Georgetown at large, and every of ce that gradu- ate students go to, whether it’s ca- reer services or whatever of ce it is, they don’t have capacity to take care of undergraduates and grad- uate students, and undergrads are prioritized,” Mandwee said.