
                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: SUNDAY, July 30, 1995                   TAG: 9507310085
SECTION: VIRGINIA                    PAGE: C-3   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: CHARLOTTESVILLE                                LENGTH: Medium

UVA JOINS 20 SCHOOLS IN ONLINE JOB NETWORK

Graduates of the University of Virginia may soon have a leg up on others entering the work force because of a computerized network that links them directly with corporate recruiters.

Virginia has joined 20 other schools as an online member of Southeastern-Atlantic Coast Career Network, a joint effort of schools in the Southeastern and Atlantic Coast athletic conferences.

The network, to begin Tuesday, will allow corporate recruiters to punch the qualifications they seek into a computer, then identify likely candidates for the positions at the participating universities.

Career centers at the schools will forward to the companies the resumes of candidates whose qualifications match.

``The consortium of schools that we have here are really the largest and most prestigious schools in the Southeast,'' said Jim Neumeister, a technical resources intern at UVa's career center.

Neumeister, 23, already had UVa students online with his own ``electronic career center,'' which he unveiled earlier this year. The expanded network will give recruiters an additional place to discover UVa candidates.

``Where someone might be looking for students at one particular school, they might say, `Wow, they offer this major at UVa, why don't we take a look at their students,''' Neumeister said.

In the future, schools in the network also will be able to have their job candidates sit down for an interview using videoconferencing technology.

``We see this as a major breakthrough in this profession,'' said John Hannabach, director of career services for Georgia Tech. ``I think smaller employers that might not be able to come to the campus because it isn't cost-effective will have the capability to look at our students now.''

Virginia is not yet capable of making use of videoconferencing, however, because telephone lines that can transmit conversations and high-speed digital data simultaneously have not been installed in Charlottesville.

Sprint/Centel-Virginia, which operates the local phone service in the area, originally planned to have the lines put in by the first quarter of 1996, but that date apparently has been pushed back.

``We're looking right now at some time in '96,'' said Sprint/Centel-Virginia spokesman A.T. Anderson.

by CNB