Author: Christina LeBlanc
As I arrived on campus for the first time my freshman year, I met my roommate, moved into Stearns, registered for classes and began to fill out applications to find a job. The spring before, when I received my acceptance letters, I remember the immediate joy of being accepted somewhere, and then the downfall-the aid packages. Oxy, however, was a pleasant surprise, with a proposal that was not only generous but comprehensive, until I saw the words “work award.”
Originally, I wasn’t worried at all. I had a job in high school and I was sure I could satisfy my work award-all I had to do was be proactive. A year later, I have come to terms with just how wrong I was. Finding a job on a campus is a struggle, and Oxy doesn’t make it any easier. Between the endless paperwork, unhelpful administration and intense competition, it is almost impossible not to become discouraged; and if you don’t begin to look for a job within your first couple of weeks on campus, then don’t hold your breath.
The inclusion of non-work award students in the quest for an on-campus job increases the competition. Not only was I trying to get a job to pay for tuition along with all my other work-study comrades, I had to compete against students working for extra beer cash. The increase of workers makes the job application process infuriatingly difficult.
After finding a job, however, I thought that my problems with work study would pass. Once again, I was mistaken and disillusioned. In order for Oxy students to maintain their studies while working, the administration placed a limit of 15 hours per week that any student can work on campus. This restriction was made with the student’s welfare in mind, but the consequences clearly weren’t taken into consideration.
When working for the minimum wage at $7.50 an hour, which many on-campus jobs pay, 15 hours a week leaves little leeway for mistakes when a student has to make $2,800 dollars in a year. This also assumes you can even get scheduled for 15 hours a week. Most of the jobs on campus only require seven to eight hours per week, making a second job a necessity for most work study students. With the shortage of jobs on campus, finding two is exponentially difficult.
Work study as a whole is not a negative program. It’s beneficial to students who need help in order to pay for their education, and it allows the school to give more government-funded aid. The way Oxy implements the system, however, makes the process of working on campus a continuous struggle with very little benefit. It almost seems as though Oxy begrudgingly takes on the burden of having students work for them, instead of embracing the program as beneficial to both parties.
The system in place simply creates a mass of disgruntled students feeling under-appreciated and trapped. In order to create a more positive environment where students feel less like they are up against the entire school and more like they are working as a part of the institution, Oxy needs to make some fundamental changes to the way on-campus jobs are run.
The easiest and most significant change that must take place is increasing the pay for students working for work study. The school is given money from the government, that’s why work study is federal. Therefore, raising wages for students would come at no extra cost to the school, and would decrease the stress of students striving to earn their allotted amounts.
Other ideas are to restrict on-campus jobs to those with work awards or to revoke the 15-hour work limit. By Oxy giving jobs to only work study students, the competition for jobs would decrease immensely, and through working more hours, students would reach their work study awards with greater ease.
Work study has the potential to ruin or enrich a student’s time at Oxy. So let’s not leave our student body wondering, “What the hell are we working for?”
Christina LeBlanc is an undeclared sophomore. She can be reached at cleblanc@oxy.edu.
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