Good morning! Dick Whitford (Acting Associate Director of Employment Service, OPM), thank you so much for that kind and gracious introduction.

I also want to thank the National Association of Schools of Public Affairs and Administration (NASPAA) and the National Association of Colleges and Employers (NACE), our partners in developing this conference. And I truly do appreciate the support from the sponsoring agencies that are here. I very much enjoyed the opportunity ever so briefly this morning of looking at the displays out there. This conference could not have happened without you, and we appreciate your partnerships.

I believe that all of you are truly visionaries. This National Career Services Conference could not possibly be more timely.

Who could have imagined nine months ago when OPMs Employment Service first began planning to bring federal agencies and college campuses together the dramatic and very tragic events of the last two weeks?

Who could have predicted the resurgence of patriotism in our nation among young Americans? OPMs headquarters building sits across from George Washington University and hanging on the doorway of one of the fraternity houses is a giant American flag and a banner that reads "Our Nation stands united." We hear similar stories from universities and colleges from coast to coast.

Who could have envisioned the thousands of calls from students on campuses across the country who are eagerly looking to us to help connect them to the federal government so they can serve their country?

Certainly not the terrorists who turned civilian aircraft into missiles of destruction aimed at innocent Americans on September 11^th.

They sought to divide us as Americans, to break our spirit and send us cowering in fear.

But the terrorists miscalculated badly. They failed to understand the true American character. The character, incidentally, that says neither terrorist threats nor tornadoes will keep me away from a conference that will help me find my students employment. You are all to be congratulated for being here. Thank you.

Instead of dividing America, they have brought us closer uniting us by our shared experience and igniting us with a common purpose.

Instead of sending us cowering in fear, they strengthened our resolve and deepened our appreciation of freedom.

When I was with the Citizenship Project at Heritage Foundation, I had the privilege of traveling all over this country and explaining to quite a few college students that there was a dear price paid for our freedom and that there was still a price to be paid. Unfortunately, Americans are learning that lesson today. But I am so encouraged by the young people out there and how they are answering that called.

This is, after all, America. And from our earliest days, Americans have understood "That freedom can be retained only by the eternal vigilance which has always been its price"

From our founding, America has been blessed with men and women of courage and character who are willing to serve, willing to pay that price for freedom. Leaders like George Washington. As our first President took the oath of office, he recalled being "first honored with a call into service of my country on the eve of an arduous struggle for our liberties."

That same call is answered in the 21^st Century by countless unsung heroes who every day are engaged in the prosaic but sustaining work of government.

On the eve of this new struggle for our liberties even as the planes were falling from the sky, even as their federal office buildings were being officially closed thousands of federal government employees stayed at their desks. They worked the phones, they processed the needed paperwork, and they made necessary decisions to keep the government of the United States running.

The overwhelming majority of federal workers surveyed have said that the attacks on the Pentagon and the World Trade Center have strengthened their commitment to public service, not shaken it. Their exceptional response during this emergency has helped raise public awareness of the integrity, dedication, strength and courage of our federal workforce.

Watching federal relief workers from FEMA, from SBA, from the Corps of Engineers on the scene at ground zero people helping to bring order to the chaos and to put back together shattered lives has awakened a new interest in public service among young Americans.

Idealism and youth go hand in hand. Our young people have seen that there is no more important work no more noble calling if they want to make a difference in the world right now, than the work of government.

So I believe we have come to this place at a critical time to focus on connecting these eager young people to jobs where their skills are so badly and so desperately needed right now.

It is clear, for example, that we need more air marshals. We had only a couple of dozen two weeks ago and more than 2,000 flights in the air at the time of the attack. In fact, the FAAs emergency need is so great and so pressing that we gave them 10 extra seats at this conference. They are here today. Please make sure you talk with them.

But they are not alone. The FBI needs investigators; the CIA needs intelligence officers. DoD must replace the workers they lost even as they are undergoing a full-scale mobilization. There are pressing needs at Treasury, at Justice and the list goes on.

At the Federal Reserve Board, administrators and systems analysts keep the banking system and money supply stable. Along Americas 7,600 miles of border and 12,000 miles of coastline, the U.S. Border Patrol and Coast Guard keep an eye out for hostile visitors.

The agents of the U.S. Customs Service make sure shipments coming into the United States are safe. The people at the Food and Drug Administration ensure a quality blood supply while the people at the Centers for Disease Control alertly watch for signs of any new epidemic. The Environmental Protection Agency monitors our air and water and is assessing the cleanup in New York City.

Are you getting the picture? We need doctors. We need lawyers. We need researchers. We need analysts. We need scientists. We need teachers. We need people who will rise to the occasion and respond to the need for public service now.

So what has our response at OPM been? We have added hiring flexibilities to cut through red tape and fill job vacancies on an emergency basis. We are calling people out of retirement to again tap their skills, and we are making sure that they are not penalized for answering the call.

But Ladies and Gentlemen, we have a need for new talent, new energy, and new creativity to do the work of government in the 21^st Century.

Before the terrorists struck, there was growing talk on Capitol Hill, by the General Accounting Office, even in the media of a "Human Capital Crisis." They pointed to our aging Federal workforce, noting that by the end of 2005, one out of every three current Federal employees will be eligible for optional retirement.

Of course, we know that not every federal employee who is eligible to retire will do so. Many stay on after they reach retirement eligibility because they want to continue to make a contribution. As I mentioned, our retirees are responding enthusiastically to the call for service almost 2,000 contacted us by phone and e-mail last week alone about coming back to work. To me, thats truly exciting.

Still, if just half of those who are eligible retire, that is almost a quarter of a million workers. But while we may be losing a great deal of experience, there is a silver lining in this trend. We have a President with an advanced degree in management, the first ever. He understands that people are the key to any successful organization. It is true in the private sector. It is true in government as well.

To deal with the personnel challenge, the President has asked every federal agency to engage in workforce planning a process to identify human capital needs, assess how current and future staff will meet those needs, and create strategies to close the gaps. We are being pro-active. And at OPM we are beginning to see that we have an incredible "Human Capital Opportunity" developing.

I asked our staff not to use the phrase "Human Capital Crisis." It is an opportunity. We are not in a hunkered down, chaotic mode, not knowing what to do. It is a tremendous opportunity.

We are using this opportunity to restructure our agencies and departments, to make them flatter so they better serve our customers the citizens of the United States. We are also restructuring to help us better focus on results. And it is an opportunity to bring on board a broad range of diverse, new talent.

So, I have a message for the hundreds of Career Services professionals who have joined us today. I do not think it is an overstatement. I do not think it is overdramatic. I mean it sincerely: "Your country needs you." We need you to be our partners in bringing the best and the brightest into public service. We need you to put federal recruiters right up there with the Fortune 500 recruiters on your campuses. We want your top candidates; and let me warn you, our top jobs are going to be just that competitive.

We are looking for go-getters with fresh ideas who are eager to make a contribution. The education level of the federal workforce is increasing; 40% have bachelors degrees or higher. So the college market is the major supplier of new recruits for government jobs.

And you are strategically positioned within some of the finest institutions of higher learning in this country to help us identify these new recruits, to help us connect to them, and to steer them into the many jobs in the U.S. government where they can make a positive difference.

Remember, I was Dean of a School of Government. It did not take me long to figure out that the Career Services folks were some of the most important people on campus. You have to be the direct pipeline; you connect students to jobs.

I did a little restructuring of my own at Regent and I upgraded our Career Services department and separated it from student recruitment. We worked side by side, virtually every day so much so that Career Services was helping redesign our curriculum. You are the ones who know what skills employers are looking for. With the cost of tuition these days, every academic department, every curriculum committee, ought to be listening to you.

When I was at Regent University, one of the things that I heard constantly as we tried to place students in government jobs is that the skill area most lacking and this will come as no surprise to you was in area of communication, written and oral. We were told over and over that if you can provide me students who can write well and who can speak, we can employ them. Career Services people understand that, because you are trying to place these young people in jobs. I think you should play a vital role on your college campuses with helping to shape the curriculum.

As prospective employers, we need to be listening at this end too. You all from the agencies, please pay attention. These people understand what students are looking for in the job market.

When we have been trying to strategize about how to attract young people, we have found that it is a different generation, with different aspirations and needs. In other words, this is not your fathers Oldsmobile.

As the central personnel management agency for the government, the Office of Personnel Management is going to be an active partner in this effort to connect to students. We are taking the lead on government-wide improvements that will make the federal government a better and more attractive employer in todays competitive job market.

We recognize that many of the people we need the people we want to come to work for us may work for several employers during their lifetime. It is not because the job market is too unstable to be able to depend on long careers with a single company. Rather, the young people today truly value change and the chance to try new endeavors, to try their skills in new arenas.

They are looking for challenging jobs with opportunity for professional growth and lifelong learning. They want their personal contributions recognized with immediate rewards (translated, they care about the paycheck they take home, not some long-term promise of better days in their golden years). The federal government does recognize that we expect our employees to be knowledge workers, using their talents and brains to deliver results the American people want and expect. And we need to reward them for doing so.

Incidentally, we are working on strategic compensation reform now, to balance the Governments compensation environment, reward high-performing employees, and improve our ability to compete in "hot" labor markets. In the meantime, we are encouraging agencies to use the flexibilities they have, including now this is one you need to take back student loan repayment, an incentive I know is of great interest to students coming out of college today.

Todays young people have grown up in the computer age. They expect information to be instantly accessible, and they certainly are not going to wait around for six months to find out if they have a job.

We are streamlining procedures and using technologies to make the federal governments systems for attracting, selecting, and managing people doing the governments work more nimble. FedEx can track a package, tell you where it is and when it is going to be delivered; the federal government ought to be able to track a job application.

The first contact many students have with the Federal Government as an employer is through USAJobs. We are taking this website from a bulletin board listing of vacancies to an interactive on-line recruiting tool.

And we are moving away from the government jargon into plain English (for example, listing salaries, not just GS levels) and adding marketing-oriented descriptions to help sell our jobs. We have already added a link that suggests how some federal job categories match up with various popular majors.

And of course, as you are getting your students hooked in, do not forget the Virtual Job Fair that has been set up on the Internet in conjunction with this particular conference. Accessible from the USAJobs website, it includes direct links to all of the agencies who have sponsored this conference and who are here today. You will have an opportunity to learn more about these tools later this afternoon.

That is the big picture. Each of the individual agencies represented here today can tell you about their own special needs and opportunities and I know they will if they have not already.

One thing is very clear: As a community of human resource professionals, who have jobs to fill in service to this nation, and as college and university career services professionals, who are facilitating the entrance of well-prepared individuals into the American workforce, we need to work very closely together. We need each other to be successful.

This conference marks a new beginning for that mutually beneficial relationship. Whether you are from the colleges looking to place your students in rewarding, fulfilling jobs, or from the agencies where the hiring decisions are actually made, I encourage you to take advantage of the great networking opportunities at this conference.

The people you meet and the contacts you make this week will prove invaluable in helping you carry out your important work. Cultivate these relationships. It does not stop when you leave this conference. You must follow up.

Theodore Roosevelt, addressing the Naval War College more than 100 years ago, observed:

"Every man among us is more fit to meet the duties and responsibilities of citizenship because of the perils over which, in the past, the nation has triumphed; because of the blood and sweat and tears, and labor and the anguish, through which, in the days that have gone, our forefathers moved on to triumph."

These words really do take on added meaning for us today with the still fresh images of the blood shed by the innocent victims of the September 11^th attack, of the sweat and the labor of the rescue workers toiling valiantly to find the missing among the ruins (many giving their own lives in the struggle), of the tears and the anguish of family members and friends and indeed, of the entire nation and of the entire civilized world.

Half a century ago, the young men and women of what has come to be known as the "Greatest Generation" answered the call to save the world from the evil military machines of fascist dictators.

Ladies and gentlemen, a new generation is being called to greatness.

It is a different time, a different kind of war than that fought by our parents and grandparents in World War II, or in any war we have known. At this juncture in our nations history, when liberty and freedom are on the line, we cannot afford to have anything less than the most capable and talented citizens working for our country.

Thank you so very much for being here today, and for everything that you will do when you return to your offices and campuses. I would ask you to take the message back: We feel confident, those of us who are in government service, that this generation will answer that call to greatness. Thank you very much.