Starting Jan. 1, Ohio University student workers will be able to work 25 hours per week on campus.
Increasing student worker hours was a Student Senate initiative that started last academic year to help accommodate “how expensive the cost of college can be,” Student Senate President Hannah Clouser said.
“The previous (Student Senate) president, Gabby Bacha, had brought it up to (the) provost and (OU) president who then worked on it,” Clouser said. “I know (Human Resources) was a big part of it.”
There are 2,100 student workers and 20 hours a week is currently the limit they are allowed to work on campus, according to a presentation by the Budget Planning Council to Student Senate. However, the university can’t control the number of hours OU students work at jobs off campus.
Greg Fialko, senior human resources director, said OU reviewed the current work hour limit at the request of students and department managers.
“Students indicated they were interested in the ability to work additional hours on campus to generate additional income, to gain more work experience, and to make up for a perceived lack of off-campus part-time work options,” Fialko said in an email.
The weekly hour limit for on-campus jobs is being increased to 25 since when a student reaches 30 hours, the university legally has to offer a student benefits, which can cost around $12,000, Clouser said.
“A lot of departments can’t afford to add another person that they are offering benefits to … (so) they might just let that student go, which we didn’t want to see that happen,” Clouser said.
However, some international students at OU are not fully incorporated into this change due to immigration laws.
“Under federal law, students with F and/or J visas are limited to working no more than 20 hours per week when school is in session,” Fialko said in an email. “When school is not in session, nonresident alien undergraduate students can work up to 28 hours per week. Exceeding the 20 hour per week limit when school is in session, even just one time, can result in a visa being revoked.”
The Exchange Visitor (J) nonimmigrant visa category allows people who are approved to participate in work- and study-based exchange visitor programs, according to the U.S. Department of State. The F-1 visa is for students attending a full-time degree or academic program at a school, college or university, according to internationalstudent.com.
If an international student is on an F-1 Visa as a full-time student in the U.S., they are not allowed to be employed off campus, Nawaf Abolola, Student Senate international affairs commissioner, said.
“You have to be a full time student, your semester cannot be less than 12 (credit) hours,” Abolola said. “On top of that, even if you work on campus and when you do, you cannot have a full-time job because (under) immigration law, you must be fully supported, you have to submit financial letters that you are self-sufficient, that you can support yourself throughout the whole year.”
On-campus jobs, although part-time, are important to international students, Abolola said.
“As an international student, when you come to the United States, you don’t have a social security number so things like loans or financing a car for example … all of these sorts of things you can do, you cannot do without a social security number,” Abolola said. “Getting a job gives you the only opportunity to get a social security (number) so there are a lot of people who have been put in a tougher situation.”
