Employment: How Dow Did

Dow Chemical Co. produces some 800 items from measles vaccine to brake fluid. It also produces the napalm used in Viet Nam—a fact that has set off near riots on several college campuses as 'antiwar demonstrators tried to prevent Dow job recruiters from interviewing students. But when weary company men who faced the "Dow Shalt Not Kill" signs returned from hiring trips to headquarters in Midland, Mich., they were in for a surprise. Comparing notes last week, they found that more students across the land expressed interest in working for Dow than in any previous year.

Between Sept. 1 and March 1, altogether 9,595 students were interviewed on campuses, 900 more than the year before. College placement officers suggest that publicity generated by demonstrations may have actually boosted interest in the company. Many students obviously went to see the Dow representatives simply to defy the demonstrators with whom they disagreed, or to support Dow's right to make its pitch like any other corporation. "Perhaps the notoriety we acquired helped in some cases," says Dow's chief recruiter Dr. Ramon F. Rolf. But he still worries about missing "the real bright, sensitive individual who sees a mob and doesn't feel like fighting his way through."