History of the UF Division of Student Affairs | Page 39

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the title “Placement Officer” instead of “Director” with concern that “Director”
might offend administrative staff and faculty who already held the title.
Mayberry requested and received funding to visit and benchmark established
placement programs in the southeast: Duke University; Florida State University;
the Universities of Georgia, South Carolina, North Carolina, Virginia, Maryland;
and Georgia Technical Institute. It was from these trips and subsequent
consultations with career placement pioneers nationwide that the philosophical
groundwork was laid for the intricate program existing at UF today.
The first placement “office” was a spare desk located in an office in Tigert Hall.
The Placement Service Office then moved to Building H, the oldest temporary
building on campus located on the southwest corner of the intersection of
Union Road and Newell Drive, directly across from the University Auditorium on
the site now occupied by Turlington Hall. Although Building H was considered
a “temporary building,” it was constructed of brick and was originally built as
an electrical engineering laboratory. During World War II, Building H was the
University Post Office. The Placement Service Office moved into one-third of the
building and shared the remainder with the University News Bureau.
In its first year of operation, the total operating budget for the Placement Service
Office was less than $10,000 and 24 companies were hosted.
Seeking Credibility . . . And a Centralized
P l a c e m e n t O p e r at i o n
President Miller’s dream of a centralized placement operation providing all
students equal access to potential employers took years to build. Individual
faculty, subject area departments, and colleges were reluctant to relinquish
control over the placement of their students. The authority of the Placement
Service Office was initially limited to the College of Liberal Arts & Sciences.
Career services across campus grew over a period of years by creating a credible,
academically oriented operation.
The first step toward establishing a centralized placement operation was the
creation of an employer database. The original database consisted of more than
500 3-by-5 inch cards hand typed with the name and address of an employer;
the name, title and telephone number of the company representative; colleges

Depa rtment histor ies : C ar eer Resour ce Center