After much dispute and concern from students, the policy keeping students from holding more than two paid on-campus jobs has been revoked. When it was announced that students would no longer be able to work more than two on campus jobs, the decision was met with a variety of opinions. Those who were already working more than two jobs were notified that they would have to drop one or two in order to meet the policy change and those seeking more hours by taking on extra jobs would be denied. Because of this, many students on campus have decided to speak up on the matter.
The decision to not allow a student to work more than two on-campus jobs was originally intended to allow for more jobs to be available. Because a lot of jobs have been snatched up by students, newer students were finding it difficult to find places to work. Those working for the Business Office and for Human Resources noticed this problem and made the change to benefit students.
Ultimately, what was meant to be a helpful solution to job-hunting students ended up becoming a problem. “I feel that the two job limit was extremely unfair,” Brian “Buddy” Booker, Senior, said via e-mail. “If a student wants to work so they can pay for their tuition/car payments/for whatever, they should be able to. Because I already had three positions, they were threatening to take one of my positions away in order let other students have the opportunity to find a position. Basically, they wanted to be fair, but taking a job away from me is not “fair”.”
Other students voiced this opinion as well, which called for a change to be made. “In the case where an incoming First-year is new to the school and can’t find a job it may make sense for someone to have to drop one of their jobs, but only if it is impossible for the student to get a job,” Kelvin Jerry, Sophomore, said. While it the policy may not be agreeable to everyone it is clear that the job outlook on campus can be a cause for concern for students.
Donte McCrary-McClain, Senior Student Senate member, heard these concerns and decided to take them to Payroll, the Business Office and Financial Aid. The main concern was that most jobs on campus don’t offer more than a handful of hours to students, which makes it difficult for students to make enough money. In order to compensate with this problem students are forced to try and obtain multiple jobs over the semester. When McCrary-McClain voiced this concern to the respective offices in charge of the decision, he was emailed a detailed explanation about why the policy had been created and put into place.
A day later he discovered that the policy had been reversed because of the concerns that students were having. It was also determined through a survey that many other college policies do not limit the amount of jobs that students are able to have but merely stick to the similar 20 hours a week job policy that Elizabethtown College already follows.
This reverse of policy may leave students searching for available jobs, but it ensures that those who have worked hard to become proficient with their respective duties won’t have to leave in order to make room for new recruits. While difficult, there are still job opportunities available for students through dining services and Admissions. The 20 hours a week policy will also prevent students from working an excessive amount of jobs and will keep from eliminating available jobs all together.
