The number of students requesting more federal work-study hours at Syracuse University has increased, as the recession forces employers to cut back on those hours, said Kaye DeVesty, director of financial aid at SU.

‘So far, we have been able to allocate many requests to increase a student’s work-study,’ Devesty said. ‘But we’re very close to using up all our available work-study allocation.’

Camille Donabella, SU’s manager of student employment, said roughly 10,000 students work on campus, with around 7,000 of those students employed through the work-study program.

Donabella said she thinks the same number of students are working now as in the past, but it’s difficult to know whether they are working the same number of hours they used to.

‘When a student employer hires a student, they’re committed to that person for as long as that person is there, given satisfactory employment, she said. ‘They would never lay them off, per say, but they may reduce their hours.’

Another trend she is seeing is the amount of time it takes employers to fill open jobs.

‘I’ve noticed that this semester, more than ever before, jobs are going much quicker. I’ll post a job, and two days later I’ll have to take it down because the office is calling me, saying they have too many applicants,’ Donabella said. ‘I just took down two jobs a couple of minutes ago.’

Donabella said the economy is part of the reason students are taking jobs so quickly and requesting more hours. ‘There are more people looking for jobs, there are a lot more students who have financial needs. Parents may have lost their jobs, people are having a problem even staying at the university,’ she said.

The criteria for work-study have not changed, but next year it could, said Donabella. ‘By the time the economy tanked, the award had already been given out last year,’ she said.

Federal Work Study is awarded to students on a need basis in their financial aid packages. The amount of work-study a student receives is based on their Free Application for Federal Student Aid form, which considers a family’s income and the student’s cost of education at their particular school.

Unlike other forms of aid, work-study does not automatically reduce students’ tuition bills. Instead, it gives them a certain amount of money they can earn through jobs. A handful of jobs on campus may accept non-work study employees, but most are limited to only work-study students. Hiring a work-study student is often more practical for an employer, because the government pays half of the student’s earnings and the employer pays the other half.

A work-study student helped at the desk in the Office of the Dean in Hendricks Chapel last semester. Now, a sign that reads ‘Need Help? A staff member around the corner will assist you’ sits alone on the desk. Budget cuts forced the office to eliminate unnecessary job positions, said Bridget Budwey, an accounting clerk who works in the office.

In an effort to save money, full-time employees have started to fill the jobs work-study students used to do, Budwey said. She also said work-study hours at Hendricks have been reduced by five hours per day during the week.

Helen Neville, a work-study employer in the College of Law, said she has had to outright decline several students looking for a job in her office.

‘I tell them to get back online and look for a new job and try and work something out,’ Neville said.

Neville had to turn away a student who had used up so much of her allotted work-study that she wouldn’t have been able to stay for the entire semester. In other cases, students who have worked for her for three years ask for additional hours, which she says she can’t always give.

‘I feel bad, but my hands are tied too,’ Neville said.

Anjali Ganess, a sophomore environmental engineering major at SU, said she spent all of first semester balancing two jobs. She was working 19 hours every week to make ends meet. This semester, Ganess can’t find a job on campus at all.

Having worked so much first semester, Ganess earned nearly all of her allotted work-study money. Now she says no campus job will hire her because her work-study would be used up before the end of the semester. One of the places she was turned away from was Neville’s office.

‘I can’t spend at all, because of the economy and not having a job. I only buy food and necessities, and even that is difficult enough to get. I find myself going to the cheapest brands of food,’ Ganess said.

Donabella, the manager of student employment, has students come into her office looking for work on a daily basis. When this happens, Donabella usually sits down with the student and looks through the jobs that are posted online. She said oftentimes, students don’t notice some available jobs. While many people associate work-study with jobs on campus, the university posts work-study jobs off-campus, at places like the Westcott Community Center and SUNY Upstate Medical Center, Donabella said.

‘It may take a little bit longer to find a job, and students may need to be a little more creative,’ Donabella said. ‘Adjust your expectations. You might have to work in Food Services, which is a very big employer. If you really need a job, just take one, and look for a better one throughout the semester. That’s just the reality of our economy right now.’

cbegelst@syr.edu

Published on March 2, 2009 at 12:00 pm