With tightening belts and higher tuition, for many college students working isn’t merely an option. It’s a necessity.
As America continues to face a financial crisis, the futures of work-study and on-campus jobs are hazy.
On-campus jobs have yet to see effects from the economic downturn.
Emily Wilber, assistant director of the University of Nebraska-Lincoln's Career Services, noted slightly diminished numbers of paid student positions. For example, jobs within the College of Architecture have decreased from 164 to 151. However, the decrease wasn't necessarily a result of down-scaling.
“It might just be due to (student) scheduling conflicts. We don’t have a way to find the exact reason for the difference,” Wilber said.
Wilber said of down-scaling, “There hasn’t been a formal declaration or anything. There may have been individual departs who have found that they needed to reduce their student staffing, but I am not aware of any particular department which did so on a wide-scale basis.”
Off-campus jobs organized through Career Services have also seen little change from previous years.
Yet everything is subject to change. This year, the Federal Work-Study program will receive its first financial increase in 12 years as part of the new stimulus package.
The program licenses students in need to accept on-campus jobs as part of their financial aid package. Work-study recipients’ wages are split 70-20-10 among the federal government, university and university department, respectively, making them more desirable employees.
Craig Munier, director of the Office of Scholarships and Financial Aid, said it could tip the scales in either direction.
“On one hand the university is currently engaged in some exercises to reduce spending … and of course that would possibly include the elimination of positions,” Munier said.
“That begs the question, would departments do without that kind of work, or would they turn to (work-study) student help to replaces some of that work effort?”
Munier also said the university is in danger of over-appropriating work-study licenses as demand increases.
“We have overcommitted federal work study money for a number of years, and we assume that it won’t all be accepted. It’s a very difficult guessing game for us to accurately predict this,” he said.
At this point, the economic downturn's effect on student employment within the university remains unclear.
Actual demand for on-campus jobs and work-study programs remain difficult to determine. Both will be determining factors as financial aid is appropriated in the upcoming week.
“The economic crisis is just beginning to impact Nebraska,” Wilber said.
iansacks@dailynebraskan.com
Work-study jobs still strong during recession
Published: Sunday, March 22, 2009
Updated: Sunday, March 22, 2009
Be the first to comment on this article!