Work-study hiring freeze explained
Campus-wide hiring freeze may be lifted in July
Sheeraz Hyder
Issue date: 2/5/10 Section: Campus News
In light of the recent dearth of work-study employment, Annette Feliciano, Assistant Vice President for Student Services, reached out to The Stute in hopes of better explaining the situation and putting to rest the rumors that have spread about the program. The ordeal began when several students returning from co-op in January were notified that they would not be receiving work-study benefits. In total, 98 students returning to campus from cooperative education jobs were affected when Stevens decided to cancel their unused Federal work-study funds. This effectively initiated a cross-Institute hiring freeze.
Federal work-study (FWS) is administered by the government and each institution receives a standard allotment. However, while the student body has grown around 20% over the past four years, the allotment has remained stagnant. This was not seen as a problem in past semesters since students did not utilize their entire allotment, allowing for more students to be on work-study. However, this past semester more students were using up the entirety of their available allotment. This caused a fast drainage of work-study funds. Thus, in November it was decided that students who hadn't filled out a payroll notice for the upcoming year would not be on the payroll for the upcoming semester. While it was considered "old news" by the Department by the start of the spring semester, returning students were shocked to find that their work-study allotment had disappeared. Feliciano acknowledged that the situation could have been handled better. "If we could fix it, we would be spending extra hours to do so," said Feliciano.
Feliciano said that work-study money will be available to students in July, and that they will have more information on next year's procedures in the spring. There will be no new hiring until next year. Currently, work-study students earn $9 an hour, but there are ongoing discussions regarding the minimum wage. Prior to this situation, work-study jobs on campus competed with jobs available on Washington Street, according to Feliciano. Due to the ailing economy, this situation has changed.
Feliciano said "While we cannot solve the work-study problem, we can alleviate it. We encourage students to come in and work with us on a one-on-one basis."
Although Feliciano does not know what will happen in the long-run, she wants students to know that they are working on the problem. She also highlighted a provision in the Jobs for Main Street Act, H.R. 2847 that was passed by the House of Representatives on December 16. This act has a Federal work-study provision, which "can potentially provide $300 million for the National Federal Work-Study program." Feliciano encourages "students to write to their senators regarding the adoption of the FWS provision." For more information, Feliciano directs students to: http://www.senate.gov/general/contact_information/senators_cfm.cfm
Federal work-study (FWS) is administered by the government and each institution receives a standard allotment. However, while the student body has grown around 20% over the past four years, the allotment has remained stagnant. This was not seen as a problem in past semesters since students did not utilize their entire allotment, allowing for more students to be on work-study. However, this past semester more students were using up the entirety of their available allotment. This caused a fast drainage of work-study funds. Thus, in November it was decided that students who hadn't filled out a payroll notice for the upcoming year would not be on the payroll for the upcoming semester. While it was considered "old news" by the Department by the start of the spring semester, returning students were shocked to find that their work-study allotment had disappeared. Feliciano acknowledged that the situation could have been handled better. "If we could fix it, we would be spending extra hours to do so," said Feliciano.
Feliciano said that work-study money will be available to students in July, and that they will have more information on next year's procedures in the spring. There will be no new hiring until next year. Currently, work-study students earn $9 an hour, but there are ongoing discussions regarding the minimum wage. Prior to this situation, work-study jobs on campus competed with jobs available on Washington Street, according to Feliciano. Due to the ailing economy, this situation has changed.
Feliciano said "While we cannot solve the work-study problem, we can alleviate it. We encourage students to come in and work with us on a one-on-one basis."
Although Feliciano does not know what will happen in the long-run, she wants students to know that they are working on the problem. She also highlighted a provision in the Jobs for Main Street Act, H.R. 2847 that was passed by the House of Representatives on December 16. This act has a Federal work-study provision, which "can potentially provide $300 million for the National Federal Work-Study program." Feliciano encourages "students to write to their senators regarding the adoption of the FWS provision." For more information, Feliciano directs students to: http://www.senate.gov/general/contact_information/senators_cfm.cfm
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