Subject: Hiring Practices for Summer Interns

While recruiting on campus recently I became aware that a decision was made  at the Program level to not interview this fall for 2001 summer interns.
In  talking with students and faculty at The University of Texas and University  of Oklahoma, it became clear that there is concern over the feasibility of an  internship with Enron, as other top firms will be recruiting this fall for  summer 2001 interns.
I have communicated my concerns to Lexi Elliott and her  manager, Shelley Jones, and was told by both that the decision to delay  interviews for summer interns was made at a Program level based on Enron's  staffing.
When I asked about the competitive data available regarding the  practice of other firms on summer intern interviews, I was even more  concerned to discover that neither Lexi nor Shelley had that data.
It would  seem critical to know what the competition is doing in terms of summer intern  interview schedules in order to understand the risk that could be created for  Enron by not interviewing this fall for these important feeder positions for  our Analyst and Associates programs.
I have had conversations over the last two weeks with Lexi and Shelley, with  no resolution.
When they could not provide the competitive data to either  confirm or eliminate my concerns, I volunteered to have James Scribner, a   Senior Director on my team, obtain this market information.
Lexi and Shelley  either did not have the time to gather this data, or were not sure how to do  so.
They were pleased to have some help in getting our hands on this  critical information.
I now have information at hand with regard to firms  that will be recruiting at UT and OU this fall for summer intern positions.
And based on this information, I believe that Enron is at risk for not hiring  top students as interns for the summer of 2001 if we do not interview for  these positions this fall.
While my research only touches on two of the schools at which Enron recruits,  I want to raise concern over this as a potential problem at many, if not all  campuses that we have targeted for recruiting.
As administrators of the  program, you rely on the involvement of senior members of the company to  carry the Enron message to campus.
I believe that we also have an obligation  to make this a two-way messaging system.
I strongly believe that we must  address this potential risk for Enron extremely quickly, as teams will be on  campuses across the country to conduct interviews in a matter of days.
I  suspect that many Enron participants in the recruiting process are unaware of  the Program's decision regarding the timing of interviews for summer  internships.
In working with Rick Causey and Mike McConnell, executive  sponsors for UT and OU, respectively, they are as concerned as I about the  decision on interviewing summer interns.
I have copied both of them on this  note to the two of you.
Please let me know how this can be resolved.
With the help of James Scribner  and others, we have already compiled a list of students at UT and OU that  should be targeted for summer internships.
I will offer as much of my time  as is feasible to work with staff members of the Program to devise creative  ways to turn this around.