WEDNESDAY, APRIL 28, 1999

Police descend on CSULB

By Tom Harshbarger

On-Line Forty-Niner

The cast of characters read like alphabet soup: DEA, FBI, ATF, CHP and LAPD. No, it was not a multiple agency task force, it was the Criminal Justice Student Association Career Day held Tuesday in front of the Social Science/Public Affairs Building.

Recruiters from several Southern California police and sheriff departments, numerous federal and state enforcement agencies and private security firms were on hand to provide information and applications to interested students.

Companies such as Sears and Macy's department stores were looking for security personnel.

"This is an event that's put on by [the CJSA]," said Harv Morley, professor of criminal justice and CJSA faculty sponsor. "The students are the ones who worked on this for close to six and a half months."

The event drew steady crowds as more than a dozen black-and white squad cars were parked on lower campus and music, provided by radio station STAR FM, blared.

Student organizers said they were pleased their hard work paid off.

"There were 15 to 20 students working on this since winter break," said Joseph Jun, a CJSA member. "We've had to send out flyers, letters and make calls.

"It's going really well. We've got 10 to 15 more agencies than we did last year," he said.

Altogether, 53 agencies participated, Morley said. Even the Department of Motor Vehicles had its own investigators on-hand, who are in charge of preventing employee and consumer fraud as well as busting counterfeiters and auto thieves.

A student does not have to be a criminal justice major to qualify for certain positions, either.

The FBI was looking for chemists and biologists for forensic work as well as linguists and others.

Becoming a probation officer may be an alternative for a psychology or sociology major.