NOW
Saturday - May 10, 2003
Misfits, Malcontents and Liberal Arts Majors
My best friend has two degrees. A
bachelors in English and a B.A. in Art. For a living he drives a V.W.
around the Sacramento area delivering blueprints for an architecture firm.
(You probably thought I was going to say he delivers pizzas.) He’s actually
pretty happy in that he has free time to do what he really wants, which is
paint.
We have a lot of similar people working
at the SDSU physical plant. People who prefer to earn a simple living and
aren’t driven to fight their way up a corporate ladder. Greg majored in
Psychology; William majored in English, Parnell in Physical Education, Randy
in Music and of course I majored in Social Science. Once during college, an
Air Force recruiter called and told me I’d better enlist right away. He
said deferments for Liberal Arts majors were being eliminated because they
were basically, in his words, “pretty worthless”.
These days at SDSU, the hottest major is
Business Administration. Just about every student worker we get intends to
go into some form of business management. I’ve had some tell me that on
graduation they won’t accept an entry-level salary below 60 grand a year. I
guess I’m out of touch or maybe that Air Force recruiter was right. On the
other hand, the other day I was talking to a guy who was a Systems Analyst
major and is also unemployed. He was lamenting the poor job market and
while looking around my office he said, “Who would have ever thought this
would be considered a good job”. I suppose I should have been insulted but
I let it slide. Still, I don’t think a liberal arts major would have been so
rude. We’re a polite bunch of under achievers!
Franny
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