NJIT is one of 28 New Jersey colleges and universities that have teamed up to offer the region's first online jobs database aimed at helping higher education institutions attract and retain a diverse work force. The New Jersey Higher Education Recruitment Consortium, which is free to job seekers, was launched on Nov. 15 and allows job seekers to search the full range of positions at colleges and universities. >>

“Wear and Corrosion of Metals and Alloys" is the topic of a one-day course to be presented by the ASM International Materials Advantage Society on Nov. 5, 8 a.m.-1 p.m. in Faculty Memorial Hall, Rm. 413. Free parking is available. Contact: Dr. Roumiana S. Petrova, Dept. of Physics, 973-642-4076 or via e-mail: Petrova@njit.edu. >>

Graduation Day arrives tomorrow for 155 academic boot campers who have completed the six-week Educational Opportunity Program at NJIT. The students, all of whom will now be formally admitted into NJIT’s incoming freshman class, spent six weeks living in residence halls and attending classes in math and science. >>

It’s an academic boot camp designed to take high school students from the state’s poorest school districts and transform them into bright college students who will one day work as engineers, scientists and other professionals. During their six-week stay at NJIT, the 160 students live in the residence halls and adhere to strict rules. The summer boot camp, run by NJIT’s Educational Opportunity Program (EOP), helps the students, most of who are minorities, make an easy transition from high school to college. “The program is demanding, no doubt about it,” says Laurence Howell, executive director of EOP. “But it gives the students the intensive academic prepping they need to make the transition from high school to a rigorous university such as NJIT.” >>

When Maria Karim graduated from Elizabeth High School at 18, she already had a baby boy. She was nonetheless determined to attend college. She applied and was accepted into the Educational Opportunity Program at NJIT, a program that helps minority students – both financially and academically – become engineers. Karim will not only graduate from NJIT on May 26 with a computer engineering degree: she will graduate at the top of her class. >>

NJIT President Robert A. Altenkirch addressed the more than 200 students, faculty and guests who attended the 33rd Annual Educational Opportunity Program (EOP) Awards Ceremony on April 28, 2005. Maria F. Karim, who will receive a bachelor of science in computer engineering next month, cited the program's commitment to helping disadvantaged students achieve their goals. EOP is a state and university-funded program that offers academic, financial, career and counseling support to under-represented students. >>

Will New Jersey’s public higher education network be able to sustain the necessary workforce for the state to remain economically competitive and provide the educational opportunity and services residents have come to enjoy? Robert A. Altenkirch posed this question in an op-ed article that was published in the Star-Ledger on April 11, 2005. An investment in higher education has quantifiable impact, said Altenkirch, but unfortunately, for the state and its public institutions, higher education has not been able to position itself to be a priority, as witnessed by the steady decline in real state funding over the past decade. “We are reaching the point at which higher education must either become a state funding priority, or the cost of state universities may exceed the reach of many students and the quality of the programs will suffer, driving students to programs in other states at great cost to New Jersey’s economic prospects,” he said. >>

Philip Goode, PhD, distinguished professor of physics at New Jersey Institute of Technology (NJIT) and director of the Big Bear Solar Observatory, will discuss his research suggesting that climate changes on earth correlate with changes in the sun’s output during a April 6 lecture sponsored by NJIT. >>