SRU co-pilots virtual campaign to connect students and employers

Slippery Rock University is one of five universities in Pennsylvania’s State System of Higher Education piloting an initiative to remotely help students find jobs and employers search for talent during the coronavirus pandemic. SRU students can search for virtual career events using their Handshake account.

April 20, 2020

SLIPPERY ROCK, Pa. — Slippery Rock University is one of five universities in Pennsylvania's State System of Higher Education piloting an initiative to remotely help students find jobs and employers search for talent during the coronavirus pandemic.

SRU's Office of Career Education and Development has joined career centers from Edinboro, California, Clarion and Indiana universities in the State System to form the PASSHE-West Virtual Recruitment Campaign. Each university will host virtual events for employers and the more than 30,000 combined students from all five institutions are invited to participate. The events are intended to create opportunities for students and employers to connect, network and share information without meeting in person as Pennsylvanians continue to abide by pandemic stay-at-home orders.

"In times like this, it's really nice to be part of the State System," said John Rindy, SRU director of career education and development. "Not only do I know my colleagues well at the other western State System schools, but our cohesiveness and esprit de corps are apparent in our ability to work together on this campaign. We forged a central message and got the campaign up and running in a matter of days and quickly netted more than 50 responses from employers."

   RINDY

According to Rindy, the response was so well received by employers that organizers had to temporarily suspend employer registration for fear that they would not have enough personnel to handle more events. There are more than 30 recruiting events organized for the remainder of April by the five-school syndicate, and with the high demand from employers they are already planning to add events in May.

Career center staffs at the five universities contacted nearly 1,000 employers throughout western Pennsylvania, offering virtual recruitment events through Zoom video-conferencing and other university technology.

"While COVID-19 is disrupting daily life all across our nation, we can see that the response to this initiative among employers indicates that rising to the occasion is important," Rindy said. "There is still a lot of interest in recruiting our students."

Additionally, there are dozens of live and recorded career development presentations available to students from the five universities.

SRU students interested in any of the PASSHE-West events, can view a list of them and enroll by logging into their Handshake account, at sru.edu/handshake, and clicking on the Events tab. Among the events are eight organized by SRU, including recruiting fairs with employers such as Cedar Point amusement park and Glade Run Lutheran Services, as well as events hosted by the other four PASSHE-West schools.

For more information, email the SRU Career Education and Development at career.education@sru.edu.

MEDIA CONTACT: Justin Zackal | 724.738.4854 | justin.zackal@sru.edu