Campus closures affects work-study student employees

CSUSB had its fifth campus closure this quarter due to reports of high 80 mph winds and power outages. On Wednesday, October 30, at 5:20 p.m. the school text alerts went out announcing the closure. However, as some students celebrated the campus shutdown, others are conflicted by it.

There are many student employees on campus who gain hours throughout the week working in the different departments, resource centers, and campus restaurants here on campus. These students get paid by the university to work on campus.

Federal Work-Study is a financial aid award given to the students who qualify for it. The facilities in universities then use that money to pay their full time and part-time student employees. When students fill out their FASFA, they mark whether or not they want work-study. Most on-campus job opportunities require students to have work-study, which makes this difficult for students without work-study to get an on-campus job.

Federal work-study student employees, however, will not get paid for the days campus was closed.

Work-study student employee Brijuana Hooper stated, “When it comes to students who receive work-study, we should also be paid on days of campus closures. Staff/faculty doesn’t have stressors of not getting paid for the days of the closures because of their status. Even though we are student employees, we all have bills to pay.”

Student employees are only allowed to work up to 20 hours a week according to the U.S Department of Labor and they only get paid once a month.

Another work-study student employee Mark Sanchez stated, “We should still get paid because we are students and we are working for the campus.”

On the other hand, students who do not have federal work-study, meaning they did not apply or qualify for federal work-study will still be getting paid for the days campus was closed.

Nonfederal work-study students get paid by the university.