The Georgetown University Career Center has compiled and released the data from surveys it took of graduating students of the Class of 2009. The report presents the class as a whole and then breaks it down by school. So, without further ado:

Georgetown University Class of 2009

The most immediate things apparent in the results, comprised of the responses of 60 percent of last year’s senior class, or 1024 of the 1716 graduates, won’t shock you: employment rates immediately after graduation were down—but not dismal—and so were starting salaries.

Fifty-seven percent of the Class of 2009’s respondents reported being employed post-graduation. By contrast, 62 percent of the Classes of 2006, 2007, and 2008 reported being employed post-graduation. Twelve percent of Class of 2009 respondents listed searching for employment as their primary activity after graduation, the highest percent recorded since 2004.

The average starting salary reported employed Class of 2009 graduates was $46,989, about six percent lower than the average starting salary reported by the Class of 2008.

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This week, the Voice sat down to talk with Chester Gillis, who was named Dean of the College at the end of last year.  We included a portion of the interview in today’s paper, but here’s the full transcript!

The Voice: How you are adjusting to this new job as Dean of the College? Do you find it particularly challenging or interesting?

Chester Gillis: Well in terms of adjusting, fortunately I had a year as interim dean to get the lay of the land. It was just a very good introduction to the position; it was very helpful. So in some ways this year, I’m doing some things for the second time, like last year, but also now I can implement a vision for the next five years. Are there challenges? There are a range of challenges. There are always a range challenges with this job. One is simply attending to multiple constituencies: the students, of course, the faculty, the alumni, the donors and the multiple stakeholders in the University from outside so it’s a very large constituency, very large, so any waverings tend to come from that, just like today. It’s just the reality.

That said, I have a superb staff here in the office, who are very knowledgeable, very experienced, and very helpful to make everything work so the leadership does the execution is happy on may levels and that makes everything possible. It’s as simple as that.

The Voice: I’ve spoken to a few students who are very excited about the proposed creation of a business minor in the college. I was wondering if you had any plans in the future for more of these cross-disciplinary majors?

Gillis: Specific ones, there are none at present. We’ll have to see how this one goes we’re working hard on it to make it happen.

The Voice: Do you have any idea of what the time frame would be?

Gillis: I don’t want to be held to saying next year. I would love to see it next year. I’d love to take my time do it right and do it quickly, but it requires a lot of coordination with the business school and the college and the provost’s office, so it’s not something you can simply fashion overnight.

We can’t even say, “Oh, we’ll just duplicate the program we already have.”  But I think once it’s done it will have a long shelf time, and if it’s successful, then it can be a model for other kinds of programs between schools.  But this is a good start and it’s an important start. We haven’t done it before, so it sets benchmark, and that’s another reason we want to do it well and do it carefully so it is successful. If it doesn’t benefit our students, if it’s not well-designed, it’s not good. If it is well-designed and it benefits students, then I’m in favor, and it could serve as a model.

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The 210th 192nd Georgetown College Commencement ceremony

Newly minted College grads were probably congratulated a few dozen times on being the 210th graduating class. It’s a nice sentiment, but, unfortunately, it’s not factually accurate. The problem is that the University’s been miscounting the number of graduating classes for at least 77 years.

Georgetown history buff Matt Stoller (COL ‘08) caught onto the fact that Commencements used to be dated from 1817, the year Georgetown first awarded degrees under the power granted to it by Congress in 1815. At some point, though, the dating of Commencement was set back to 1799, the year the first college course was established, making this year the 210th Commencement.

Stoller asked about the inconsistency and his inquiry made it all the way up to John Glavin, Director of the Gervase Programs, and John Q. Pierce, the University Registrar. Glavin verified Stoller’s guess that this year was the 192nd—not the 210th—Commencement.

Check out Glavin’s response and an estimate of when the error was made, after the jump!

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Congratulations!

Georgetown University’s College has been officially deanless since Dean Jane McAuliffe left to become the eighth President of the female liberal arts college Bryn Mawr last February. A search for her replacement lead by professor John R. Neill ensued.

Tonight, President Jack DeGioia emailed the undergraduate student body to announce that he and Provost James J. O’Donnell appointed Chester Gillis, the former chair of the Theology department who has been holding down the fort as interim dean since July, to become the College Dean “effective immediately.”

The full text of the email is after the jump.

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