06:32:00 Student Personnel

Purpose

To provide guidance of Walters State’s student employment process handled through the Financial Aid Department and Office of Student Services.

Policy

I. Student Personnel

1. Academic Work Scholarship
   This scholarship is based upon a student’s high school academic record. An application for scholarship at Walters State must be completed. The Academic Work Scholarship assists with paying required fees. In return, students must work 75 hours per semester.
    
2. Federal Work-Study Program (FWSP)
   Eligibility for this program is determined upon completion and submission of the Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA) form. Eligibility for other aid programs and the student’s cost of attendance must be considered before determining eligibility and amount of award of FWSP.
    
3. Employment of Student Help
   This procedure does not apply to the employment of students under the Title IV, Financial Aid Program, i.e., Federal Work Study Program, (FWSP).

Senators Pages are scholarship students and are chosen on an interview basis. All WS Promise students received an invitation to apply and have the opportunity to complete an internal application created by Student Services. After the application is completed, applicants are interviewed and Pages are chosen based on internal ranking system. There is no position announcement for these positions.

The Office of Student Tutoring does not post advertisements for student tutors. Students come to the Student Tutoring office and ask about tutoring opportunities. If it is a subject for which the college needs tutors and the student has made an A or a high B in the class, the student is interviewed and given an application packet to complete. Many times, a faculty member will recommend that a student check with the Student Tutoring office to see if tutors are needed for a particular subject. Only temporary part-time employees (non-students) are advertised through Human Resources. Regular peer tutors are recommended by Faculty, Staff or Financial Aid.

A position announcement that briefly defines the nature of the work to be performed and includes a general description of the qualifications needed, will be prepared and posted in conspicuous areas within the department wanting to hire student employees. In addition, three copies of the announcement are to be forwarded to the vice president for Student Services. These announcements are for posting at designated locations throughout the campuses. The Fair Labor Standards Act requires that all covered workers receive an hourly wage not less than $7.25 beginning July 24, 2009. This rate is subject to revisions by the federal government. Any changes will be posted on labor law posters in the hallway outside the human resources office.

Prospective students may complete the Student Application and Employment Form and submit the form to the academic or administrative department head. The department heads or their designee will review the applications submitted subsequent to the close of the application review date. (The position announcement should be posted for a minimum time of five school days in order to give interested students sufficient time to apply.) The department heads or their designee will interview the students most qualified for the position. Qualifications should be determined in accordance with the statements of job objective, essential job functions, job standards, equipment to be used in performing the job, and critical skills/expertise as these factors are defined in the position announcement.

The department heads or their designee should prepare a listing of all student applicants and maintain a listing as to the ranking of the student applicants. The listing should indicate which students were selected for interview. This information should be retained on file with the department head for a period of three years.

When department heads complete the necessary forms they are to be forwarded to the Cashiers Office for review by the vice president for Business & Finance or designee. The necessary forms are as follows:

• Student Application and Employment Form (completed entirely and signed).
• I-9 (completed entirely and signed.) Original I-9 is maintained by the employing department.
• W-4 (completed entirely and signed).
• Employment contract (completed and signed — except employment date and president’s signature).
• Authorization Agreement for Direct Deposit (completed entirely and signed).

The student must have the documentation specified in WSCC Policy 06:18:00 and on the I-9 form to prove citizenship and to complete the I-9.

Within two business days of receiving the file, certain persons in the Cashier Office will be designated to review the files for completeness. If any of the forms in the file are incomplete the entire file will be returned to the originator with no review performed. If the files are complete the following steps will be executed in the business office:

• An appropriate person will determine and verify that the applicable account is established and has an available budget.
• Email will be sent to the employing department with a copy to Payroll notifying them of the official hire date.
• An official employment date will be indicated on the employment contract.
• The Business Office updates SPAIDEN for the MA address type and verifies gender, citizenship, birthday, and ethnicity. An email is sent to Human Resources for their update of PEAEMPL.
• The employment contract will be routed to the President’s Office for final approval and signature.
• The Cashiers’ Office forwards the entire packet of information to the vice president for Business & Finance. The President’s Office forwards the entire packet of information to the payroll office.

Only after the email has been received indicating the official hire date may the student begin work. Student employment contracts may not extend beyond the end of the current fiscal year (June 30). An employment contract may run from the beginning of a semester through the end of the semester or, in the alternative, through the current fiscal year. Understood is the fact that any individual employed under this type of a contract must be a student. The only exception is if a student is working between terms (i.e., between the fall and spring terms). It is the hiring department’s responsibility to ensure that students are officially enrolled at Walters State in order to work under the terms of the student employment contract.

Temporary part-time student employees who are paid from a department’s budget are eligible to work until the end of their contract (June 30), even if they have already graduated in May. In addition, temporary part-time student employees who are paid from departmental budgets may work prior to classes beginning, as long as they have already been accepted as a student at WSCC.

Student workers will be employed under only one contract at a time. Students already working who desire to work in more than one job at the college may apply and be considered for an interview as any other candidate for the job. Those students with a current contract will not sign another contract, but will be assigned to other employing departments as available and approved by the primary department (the original hiring department). The primary department will be responsible for controlling the scheduling, coordination of hours, and submission of the student’s time card for all hours worked. The primary department will obtain verification from the other departments in which a student was allocated as to the dates and times worked. All hours worked for the reporting period, regardless of department worked in, will be recorded on one time card, and approved by the primary department’s head. Funds for student workers will be taken from the primary department’s budget. For students who have worked in other departments, funds equal to expenditures will be transferred into the primary department’s budget from the departments using allotted students at specific times during the fiscal year. It will not be necessary to modify any budgeting procedures for student workers other than primary departments requesting budget transfers to cover time worked in other departments, and provide support for those transfers. The budget transfer requests may be submitted to the director of Budgeting Services each month; however, the transfers will only be made during budget periods (i.e., October and April).

The purpose of restricting students to one job, or one contract, is to ensure that all students have an equal opportunity to be provided employment if they desire to work. In addition, the policy is to warrant that no student is inadvertently placed into an overtime status. Thus, the primary department will guarantee that no student worker will exceed a maximum of 20 combined hours from all departments during any defined workweek.

Due to the strict limitations imposed by federal and state regulations, which Walters State is required to follow, exceptions to this procedure may not be permitted.

08/13; 05/16; 05/21