Martin Ford was appointed director of the Hiatt Career Center last semester after the sudden resignation last March of former director Meryl Glatt-Rader. She had overseen the office for seven years.After Drexel University eliminated his position as dean of cooperative education and career services, a job he held for three years, Ford immediately applied for the opening at Brandeis.

Ford was director of career planning at Johnson State College in Vermont for 10 years. He received both his bachelor's degree in political science and his master's degree in educational administration there.

In his post at Brandeis, Ford will administer all Hiatt programs: career counseling, internships, interviews, outreach to alumni and outreach to employers and administrators.

Ford said he plans to restructure Hiatt so it can serve the community better.

"We're keeping everything," Ford said. "The difference is simply how we're going to do it."

He intends to add two new positions to the center in the near future, including a director of alumni and employee relations, who would communicate with employers and alumni to help Brandeis students find jobs. The other post would be an event coordinator. He has also started redesigning Hiatt's Web site.

Ford says the incorporation of these two positions would make the rest of Hiatt's staff more accessible to students.

Next fall, Ford plans to reassign staff according to academic disciplines so that the center can more closely cater to specific student needs. He said that Hiatt stands at the precipice of the real world, with contacts outside Brandeis through alumni and employers, and contacts inside through faculty and students.

"We need to take that spirit of Brandeis and make a higher awareness," he said.