Most college students don’t consider getting a job when they are preparing to move onto campus. However, part-time jobs can help students with housing and tuition payments, food, transportation and other necessities, while also giving them a bit of extra spending money for fun. This is no different for students at Elizabethtown College, many of whom work on campus for various departments and organizations.
Out of the hundreds of on-campus workers, approximately 124 students work multiple jobs on campus according to Human Resources and payroll specialist Israiel Carter. She also explained that the three departments that currently have the most student workers this semester are the Learning Zone, Athletics and Admissions.
However, the number of tutors for the Learning Zone is much lower than in years past. Currently there are 115 active tutors (when normally the department has over 200) with 171 academic courses listed to be tutored. Additionally, 60 percent of these courses only have one tutor able to tutor the course. This is why the Learning Zone has been having issues with scheduling one-on-one tutoring sessions with students.
Several dozen students work for Admissions as tour guides, with their official job title being Blue Jay Ambassadors. Admissions hires new student workers at the end of the fall semester, so the department typically has more students available to work big events like open houses and accepted student days in the spring.
Athletics is another popular department for student workers; students can work on the athletics event crew to prepare for and clean up after games on campus or they can work for athletics communications as student assistants and student videographers.
“The athletics department continues to be one of the highest demanded areas for student work with so many different opportunities within that department,” Carter said.
Student employment was down last year due to the COVID-19 pandemic since many students were remote and therefore not on campus to work. It is also possible that having hybrid and remote classes over Zoom made students want to dedicate more time to academics rather than to working on campus.
Carter said that there are no student employment shortages in any departments compared to the prior academic year. In contrast, many departments are looking for new student workers since Etown’s campus is now fully open.
What could be holding students back from working on campus? One possibility could be the sudden transition to remote and hybrid learning in 2020 and the slow transition back to everyone being on campus again.
The Learning Zone said in the Student Senate meeting last month that the number of students willing to or able to be tutors has fallen dramatically since the College went hybrid.
Another reason could be the hourly wage for on-campus jobs. Currently, the student worker minimum wage is $7.25 per hour, the same as Pennsylvania’s and the federal minimum wage.
Earlier this semester, Student Senate invited the student body to participate in a survey about student employment, and they found that 97.1 percent of responses indicated that they would be significantly more interested in working on campus if the wage was increased. Student Senate then put forward a resolution on Thursday, Oct. 7 that would increase the student worker wage from $7.25 to $10.00 per hour. The current wage has not been increased in over a decade even though inflation has dramatically decreased its purchasing power.
“Based on our findings and research we believe that a $10.00 student worker minimum wage will greatly improve student worker experience on campus, provide a decent wage and support the College’s mission,” the statement read.
Student Senate requested that the wage increase be implemented by Jan. 10, 2022, the first day of classes for the spring 2022 semester.
