Allison Arlotta works two off-campus jobs for nearly 20 hours a week. Her round-trip bike commute takes 45 minutes to an hour each way.
While the School of Communication junior said she realizes employment in the city has turned out to be a blessing in disguise, Arlotta recalls her frustration with trying to find an on-campus job throughout her freshman year.
“That really bothered me because I wanted a job that was convenient when I lived on campus,” she said.
Arlotta is not eligible for Federal Work-Study as part of her financial aid package. She is one of the many students who have found themselves unable to get on-campus jobs at AU because the majority of student positions are open only to applicants who have received a need-based Federal Work-Study award.
Federal Work-Study is a financial aid program that guarantees a $2,000 yearly salary to students who qualify. Financial aid administrators at institutions eligible for work-study have flexibility in determining the number of students that can receive these awards, according to the Department of Education.
The Department of Education pays for 75 percent of the Federal Work-Study grants it awards to AU. Each of the departments hiring student workers then has to cover the remaining 25 percent from its own budget, said Ganiat Harris, assistant director of service delivery at AU Human Resources.
Human Resources does not keep records of the total number of Federal Work-Study jobs available on campus, Harris said. It can only provide estimates based on the number of AU students on the University’s payroll who receive Federal Work-Study funds. That number is difficult to determine, because many students hold multiple positions or additional off-campus jobs, Harris said.
“We have seen a trend in which most departments will prefer, because it is a positive side to their budget, hiring Federal Work-Study students,” she said.
Some students eventually exhaust the $2,000 salary allocated to their Work-Study package. When that happens, the employing department often will transfer them onto a student worker position funded by the department’s own resources, Harris said.
Out of the 58 on- and off-campus positions publicized to students on the online AU Student Government Student Jobs Board Jan. 27, three required graduate students as applicants, seven more were available for students not eligible for Federal Work-Study and the remaining 48 were restricted to students that qualify for Federal Work-Study.
Brendan Bargmann, a junior at the School of International Service, used to have a non-Federal Work-Study job at the independently-run campus bookstore before a change in management led to staff layoffs.
“Finding a non-Federal Work-Study job since then has been nearly impossible,” said Bargmann, who has held multiple off-campus positions since his layoff.
The position at the bookstore was the only non-Federal Work-Study job he was able to secure in his three years at AU, Bargmann said.
The lack of on-campus work opportunities has left the many international students in an unemployment deadlock.
Most international students are only legally authorized to hold on-campus jobs, not off-campus jobs, but only American citizens are eligible for Federal Work-Study as part of their financial aid package.
Sandra Cai Chen, a College of Arts and Sciences junior from Mexico, said she did not qualify for Federal Work-Study employment because she is not an American citizen. Chen’s visa status, however, prohibits her from applying for most off-campus jobs as well.
“International students from middle class families like me are constantly on the look for extra money to buy books or to pay fees in order to lessen the financial burden on our families,” said Chen, who has been looking for on-campus employment with fixed hours since her sophomore year.
“We would appreciate more employment options on campus,” she said.
Chen has to resort to less formal jobs such as tutoring to earn the extra cash she needs.
“Federal Work-Study is an important program, and I don’t think it’s inherently unfair that they have first pick,” Arlotta said. “But it would definitely be helpful to have maybe an equal number of jobs that anyone can apply for. I guess the truth is that the jobs just don’t exist.”
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