Student jobs may soon suffer due to budget cuts
With USU experiencing budget cuts in many areas, some students are feeling the crunch, too. Final numbers aren’t expected from the Legislature until later this month but some student employees can see the difference already.
The IT (Information Technology) Service Desk has shortened its hours by 10 because of a tightening budget and, as a result, student employees have seen their schedules cut.
Kyle Hanson, a senior in history who has worked at the IT Service Desk for a year and a half, said losing hours has made things harder.
“It’s a noticeable difference but not much,” he said.
Fortunately, Hanson said, there are other employees to help share the burden.
Steve Funk, manager of the IT Service Desk, said he doesn’t anticipate limiting working time any more than what has already been cut.
“I think they’ll stay pretty much where they’re at,” Funk said. “We hope we won’t have to reduce them any further.”
Funk said he’s tried to minimize the financial effect on students who work at the desk. In order to prevent this, Funk said he has not replaced employees who have left. He also said he doesn’t think the hourly wage will go down.
“We’ve tried to have it impact them as little as possible,” he said.
Even though hours have been reduced, Hanson said he doesn’t think it will affect customers because most people call during earlier hours of the day.
USU’s switchboard operators have also had their hours cut.
Whitney Wilson, switchboard operator and senior in family, consumer and human development, said operators no longer work Saturdays and Sundays. They’ve also cut 15 hours of work during weekdays.
Wilson said this has also made a difference for her, especially cutting weekends.
“I looked forward to those extra hours,” she said.
Students working in some areas of Dining Services have also seen a reduction in hours, said Allan Andersen, executive director of Dining Services.
Andersen said Dining Services’ budget is independent of the university’s but because departmental budgets are being reduced, food services are indirectly affected. Catering and The Skyroom have seen the biggest difference. There are fewer events at which students can work because departments are cutting big meals out of their budget, Andersen said. He said they have not laid anyone off and he does not project cutting salaries.
This kind of economic fluctuation is not new to Andersen and he said he is used to working and budgeting in this kind of environment.
“We’re always analyzing,” he said. “We’re always in this mode of adjusting to the economy.”
Other locations on campus, however, are not feeling the affect yet.
John Elsweiler, who works in the Merrill-Cazier Library as associate dean for public services, said student employees at the library have received no cut in hours or pay. He said he doesn’t anticipate any in the near future.
The library’s hours will be shortened next week due to the furlough but Elsweiler said the students who work there will not be affected.
“Students will still have the opportunity to work,” he said, adding, “We will find something for them to do if they planned on working.”
Elsweiler said he, too, is making every effort to not impact students financially.
“We are making it a point to not jeopardize students,” he said.
David Parkinson, USU Bookstore director, said employees there have not yet seen cuts. Like Dining Services, the bookstore receives no budget dollars from the university. However, as departmental budgets shrink, employees may eventually be affected because department members purchase items from the store.
Parkinson said, “If they have less budget, they buy less stuff.”
He said sales are down this year a couple percentage points.
“We were doing fine until this semester started,” he said.
But Parkinson doesn’t attribute that entirely to university budget cuts. Parkinson said sales move with the ebb and flow of the market. Also, he said the store competes with the largest retailers in the nation.
Even with the small downturn in sales and expected cuts from the Legislature, Parkinson said his employees should be fine. He said he will not be replacing staff members he might lose to early retirement but otherwise, as long as people keep shopping, the store and its employees will be OK.
“Right now, we’re not foreseeing any changes,” he said, adding, “We want to save the student every dollar we can.”
Parking and Transportation Services has seen movement in its employees but Lisa Leishman, director of parking and transportation, said these were the result of budget inefficiencies. They eliminated one parking service officer, which was a student position, and cut one student from an office position but they were able to offer that person a job as a booth attendant. They’ve also shortened the hours available as an attendant in the Visitor Information Center.
Parking and Transportation Services does not receive funding from the state but Aggie Shuttle does. Leishman said Aggie Shuttle has experienced a cut from the state but it was small enough they’ve been able to absorb it.
Facilities has also been able to maintain the same number of student employees and positions, said Darrell Hart, associate vice president of Facilities. He said for 2009, he sees no difference. For next year, however, he said, “I just don’t know yet.”
Another area of student employment that hasn’t seen a change now but has an uncertain future is work study. Steven Sharp, director of the Financial Aid Office, said it depends on government and university budgets. For work study, he said the government pays 75 percent of a student’s salary and the department pays 25 percent. Sharp said work study should be receiving money from the national government.
“The stimulus package that was just passed on the national level did increase federal work study,” Sharp said. “We have not been notified how much that’s going to make for us but we’ll have some increases.”
Money coming from the state is another story.
“A lot of the work study, however, here at Utah State comes from state funds and we fully expect those to be slashed deeply,” he said.
Sharp said his hope is that it will be a wash and work study will have the same amount of students next year.
Sharp said the Financial Aid Office is ridding unnecessary spending.
“We have cut all travel out and we’ve cut, to the extent possible, all of our operating expenses,” he said. “The problem with the university is that most of the expenses are personnel so any further cuts that come to us, it has to be personnel.”
Like everyone else, Sharp is hoping student employees will not be affected by budget cuts but until the state determines the amount of cuts, everyone is just waiting.
–arie.k@aggiemail.usu.edu