Bradley T. Hughes is a graduate student in the UO Department of Psychology. His project "Occupational Prestige: The Status Component of Socioeconomic Status" seeks to collect and validate a new index of occupational prestige for the specific occupations (1000+) and broader job families (22) included in the government’s O*NET classification system. Work already completed suggests support for the validity of the new index and evidence that high prestige occupations require high levels of the skills emphasized in a liberal arts education.