There are a lot of cynics at this university who like to offer up their useless criticisms. Their concentration increases like a distilled alcohol at The Badger Herald’s online forum. The topics I’ve written about in the past have ranged from primate experimentation to public sex, and the only thing the people that read my articles seem to agree on, judging by the online forum, is that I’m a gigantic douche.

And yet, I still feel a need to entertain you assholes.

So, to try and please you ungrateful heaps, I found a topic that connects us all, from the undiagnosed insomniacs inhabiting College Library all hours of the day, to the shiftless kids often seen writing obscenities on the backs of chairs during class, waiting out their hangovers. The topic today is jobs — or should I say the lack thereof — and what UW is doing to right the ship.

Shortly after New Years, some friends and I drove up to the Porcupine Mountains in Michigan to go camping. On the way, we stopped at a McDonald’s in Stevens Point for some breakfast.

While waiting at the drive-thru window, my buddy Kevin leaned forward and said, “You see that guy at the register?” I, and all the others in the car, leaned forward and peered through the window, past the girl loading our to-go bags, to see a young guy making change for a customer. “He went to college.”

“Great,” I said.

Watching a college graduate work alongside high school dropouts enraged me to such an extent that I became determined to blindly criticize someone at UW for dropping the ball. First, I blamed the UW administrators, which was rejected by my editor. Then, I blamed the advising staff, which was also rejected by my editor. Desperate for an answer, I continued my hunt for the guilty party, one that wouldn’t be jettisoned. That’s when I found the Office of Corporate Relations.

Of course, I thought, these are the people that should have been forming partnerships with companies long before the recession to serve as gateways for UW students into the workforce. They could have sheltered us from the effects of the recession by providing jobs directly to students through their corporate connections. If they had done their job well enough before the recession, a portion of us would be employed in meaningful careers after graduation.

Confident I had found the perpetrator, I sent an e-mail to the OCR and impatiently awaited its responses to my questions.

Days later, I opened the e-mail sent to me by Doug Bradley, assistant manager of the OCR. As I read it, the cynical smirk slowly left my face. Replacing it was the dumb look one gets when one becomes so entranced that one forgets how one’s face must look, like a 2-year-old watching Teletubbies.

Mr. Bradley’s response to my question of “In your eyes, what needs to be done by the OCR, by UW students and/or businesses to prepare for and better the economy?” was regrettably insightful and honest, leaving a bitter taste in my mouth.

He responded, “In short, some/all of the following: (1) Embrace and invest in new technology (2) Adopt a consumer mindset more than a producer mindset. Customers are a company’s most valuable asset. Dedicate effort to learning more about their needs (3) Nurture human capital (in non-cash ways if necessary) (4) Strive to create an environment that promotes learning and conservation [as] these will both be keys to success going forward.”

I was deflated. My mission to unveil the guilty party at UW, responsible for my pending unemployment, ended with the knowledgeable responses to my undeniably loaded questions. Here I was, cynical and itching to blame someone, only to find that, not only was there no one to blame at UW, but also I had become just like every babbling, uninformed idiot on The Badger Herald’s online forum who I despised.

Mr. Bradley entertained the questions of an asshole, and for that I thank him.

Mr. Bradley made me realize if businesses are contracting, there’s little anyone at UW can do about it, regardless of how much we pay in tuition or the GPAs we earn. Instead of wasting time blindly condemning UW, students who, like myself, are concerned about their fate after graduation should focus on the state and federal governments’ efforts to dig us out of this mess.

Currently, Wisconsin state legislators are working on attracting venture capital into the state of Wisconsin by providing tax incentives through Act 255 and the proposed C.O.R.E. Jobs Act. Meanwhile, Obama has created a budget for FY 2011 that is heavily focused on research and development and clean technology.

According to Mike Ivey of The Capital Times, Wisconsin has discarded 176,700 jobs since December of 2007; a total that surpasses the amount of jobs created in the last decade. The slow recovery is not the fault of Obama, Doyle or Doug Bradley. It’s a wound, like the one the break-up of Twisted Sister created, that will simply take time to heal.

But, in the meantime, it would be wise, as future employees, for all students to remain optimistic and sufficiently informed by keeping a close eye on the direction the economy may be heading. A new economy will rise from the ashes of the old, and, with it, job opportunities that never existed before. Engaging yourself in the rebuilding process may be the key to securing a financial future of your own.

Use UW as a resource to prepare yourself. If you fail to, you will have no one to blame but yourself.

David Carter ([email protected]) is a senior majoring in forestry.