Finding a job on campus is proving to be a hassle for both federal work-study students and non-federal work-study students.
Otterbein offers jobs to students in several places including the library, the mail room, the copy center and individual academic departments.
However, for people like Savannah Byrne, freshman equine business and facility management major, finding a job hasn't been easy.
"I came to Otterbein and had planned on doing work-study," she said. "But it was kind of hard to find out about jobs."
Robert Gatti, vice president of Student Affairs, thinks students are having difficulty for a number of reasons.
"We could just have a lot of returning upperclassmen," Gatti said.
According to Gatti, Otterbein departments do not have limitations on re-hiring students who want to return to their previous position. Those students can either be federal or non-federal work-study. However, new hires must be federal work-study students. This creates problems for not only freshmen, but also upperclassmen who are not work-study and looking for a job.
Jill Humrichhouse, sophomore music education major, had a job in Student Affairs over the summer, but when the school year began she did not get hired back.
"We were all under the impression that because we had (worked there over the summer) we would get hired back...it turned out, that was not the case," Humrichouse said. "They (Student Affairs) said that because I was not work-study and because my employment was not actually during the school year, I was not automatically hired back."
"I think it sucks, yeah, but I guess I understand the rule. I definitely think that work-study should be a priority," Humrichouse said.
Other non-federal work-study students disagree.
"I definitely don't think it's fair that they give priority to work-study students because I know that I need more money than the government thinks I do. I'm paying for school myself," Mandy Markiecki, senior public relations major and non-federal work-study student, said.
According to Gatti, Otterbein received additional work-study funds this year, but that has not eliminated problems with the system.
"One of the problems is it's not centralized. There really is no one person who oversees the program, which can lead to problems like students without jobs," Gatti said. "We need to address the situation."
According to Gatti, Otterbein is in the process of hiring a grad student to oversee the program.
Not all students are failing to find positions on campus.
"I looked ahead of time this summer. It was pretty easy to find one," Sarah Bookner, freshman equine science major, said. Bookner does have federal work-study.
For those students who have yet to give up the job hunt, positions are posted on an as-needed basis on the Human Resources page of the Otterbein College Intranet site, under the Jobs link. Gatti advises students who are still looking to "be persistent." He said, if you don't get your first choice to look to your second or third choice. t&c;
