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For 33 years, the University of Wisconsin Oshkosh has been rolling out the welcome mat for hundreds of prospective university employees and employers who descend upon the campus from all corners of the United States.

This year’s Oshkosh Placement Exchange (OPE) will keep the tradition alive, as more than 550 student affairs job candidates from 40 states and 150 college and university employers set up camp at Gruenhagen Conference Center for one of the largest higher education job placement exchanges in the United States.

“Over the past two years, we have been represented at many events in the promotion of OPE, and the fruits of our labor are reflected in our candidate and employer registration numbers,” said Marc Nylen, OPE co-chair and director of Gruenhagen Conference Center.

Nylen and his team of Gruenhagen hosts anticipate about 1,200 OPE guests on campus for the exchange, which runs from March 1 to March 4.

Like Gruenhagen’s summer Experimental Aircraft Association AirVenture fly-in guests, OPE’s hundreds of guests generate a community within a community for UW Oshkosh. However, this influx is directly tied to higher educational institutions’ needs for new employees to help manage residence halls, oversee Greek life programs and grow and serve their university and college enrollments around the United States. Employees are introduced to job openings in “Student Activities, Programming and Leadership Development,” to name a few categories.

Nylen and OPE Guest Reservations Manager Andy Schumacher said there have been many employee candidates whom Gruenhagen staff have seen ascend through university and college ranks to become leaders at their institutions – careers that may have begun in entry-level positions advertised at OPE years ago.

“They will return as a candidate to pursue a full-time hall director position,” Nylen said. “Then down the road, perhaps four to seven years later, they will register as a candidate to pursue a mid-level position in the field of students affairs.  We have many people who have followed this path throughout our history.”

“You bump into people saying, ‘It’s good seeing you guys here; I got my job through OPE, and I’ll be back again next year when I complete my degree,’” Schumacher said.

OPE is only one of a few events of its size and scope in the nation and one the less-publicly-known, but no less vibrant, events in Oshkosh, Wisconsin’s Event City.

Many university and college employers involved in OPE are on the hunt for entry-level and graduate-assistant residence hall positions. However, occasionally, institution representatives traveling to Oshkosh post master’s degree positions.

Nylen said his Gruenhagen staff’s efforts to promote OPE via their “Oshkosh Placement Exchange On the Road” series has paid off, given the strong numbers for this year’s four-day event.

“Through this series we send OPE Ambassadors, by invitation, to colleges and universities throughout the United States to actively promote our placement exchange,” he said. “…We have a very concerted and orchestrated approach to marketing and public relations, and the ‘OPE On the Road’ series is unique to our exchange. No other placement exchange has this type of promotion, and thus we are uniquely differentiated in this respect.”

This year, organizers will specifically spotlight one of its most inclusive, diverse and innovative programs, one launched in a small Oshkosh hotel room during OPE of 1992.

OPE will recognize and celebrate the 20th Anniversary of the Minority and Friends Network, a social group designed to bring together candidates of color and veteran professionals in higher education.

Learn more:

Oshkosh Placement Exchange