By Kate Packard
College officials recently made the decision to freeze work study for all students, except those who aid in academic delivery, such as teaching assistants or writing tutors. Rather than send a campus-wide alert regarding this decision, students learned that their jobs had been terminated through their individual bosses on campus. As a result, the news spread slowly across campus as staff decided to notify their student workers at different times. These notifications varied in how much information or explanation they offered which created a general feeling of panic and confusion among student workers who felt that they were being robbed of their funds. “I’m really upset that Stonehill decided to freeze our federal work study because it’s our money awarded to us,” Elizabeth Ednie, class of 2022, said. “I don’t see why they can’t issue it back to us.” According to the Office of Student Financial Assistance, student employment is funded first through federal work study funds, then through institution funds. Work study funding is typically exhausted early in the academic year. At this point in the year, work study was being funded solely through Stonehill’s budget. “While the federal support for our work-study students is substantial, totaling $342,700, it only covers a portion of the work those students do on campus,” said Assistant Vice President of Student Financial Assistance William Smith. “We expend those limited funds first, primarily during the fall semester of the academic year, and the remaining hours they work during the year are then funded with Stonehill Student Employment funds, which total over $1.7 million.” Despite the statement that the College uses federal funds to support student employment first and that it is typically expended during the fall semester, students who had been awarded federal work study note that their financial aid statement on MyHill indicates an even split in funding between the fall and spring semester.
For students who may have exceeded their funds allotted by the government, it makes sense for the College to stop funding from their student employment budget. However, not all work study students have exceeded their federally allocated dollars, and if they had, it wouldn’t be possible for them to know.
According to Smith, the government shares criteria with colleges that are used to determine which students qualify for work study and how much funding they should receive. The government also provides “limited funding” from a budget set aside for all institutions. That amount, says Smith, “does not cover every student who qualifies.”
USNews.com reports that the Department of Education “subsidizes up to 75 percent of students’ wages.” For a student who has been awarded $2,500 for the academic year, that would mean that the government will fund up to $1,875. However, that funding could fluctuate and Stonehill did not disclose how much federal funding was provided per student, which makes it impossible for students to know whether or not they may be owed work study money.
“During this pandemic, the Federal Government indicated schools may choose to continue to allocate federal dollars to students, even if the students are not working,” added Smith. Because the College has no remaining federal funds, this action does not apply.”
Ednie does not believe she could have met her federal work study funding during either semester this year. In each semester, she made less than half of her total work study. This means that her paychecks weren’t coming from the student employment budget, they were coming from federal funds.
“I’m angry to know that Stonehill is not issuing our money to us. It’s federal money … Stonehill shouldn’t get to choose [if we get those funds or not]” Ednie said.
Now that work study programs have been frozen, Smith reports that the remainder of this budget will be used to cover costs related to remote learning and programming for students. He could not point to anything specific as a result of the format of the College’s budget process.
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