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KANSAN.COM
NEWS
Students respond to coming hour restrictions
BY KATE MILLER
@_KATE_MILLER_
Undergrads working more than 20 hours per week this summer at an on-campus job will have to look elsewhere in the fall to maintain their current income.
In response to benefit requirements the Affordable Care Act created, Human Resources will restrict undergraduate students to 20 hours per week at an on-campus job starting in August. For those currently working more than that this summer, the reduction will be an inconvenient adjustment.
"A lot of students depend on that income, and myself included," Hernandez said. "That's the only job I have because that's the only job I have time for."
Richie Hernandez, a junior from Kansas City, Kan., currently works an average of 27 hours per week at Student Housing this summer. Although the HR limit for undergrads is 40 hours during the summer,Hernandez said the Student Housing department limits his hours to 30 per week — and he's already starting to feel the pinch.
20 for the former, 40 for the latter which works out to an average of 29 hours, said Ola Faucher, director of HR.
While graduate students can work up to 29 hours during the fall and spring, hours for undergrads were determined by a balance between fall and spring and summer hours
"You have to look at it in terms of a year-long period," Faucher said. "It's also the fact that a lot of other schools nationally, for academic reasons, already limit their student hourlys to 20 hours a week."
However, although the University maximum is 20 hours in the fall for undergraduates, each department can set its own maximums based on its fiscal budget.
Garrett Ness, a senior from Wichita, works at Rock Chalk Recycle this summer and starts a second job at the Applied English Center this week. Currently, he tries to maintain 28 hours per week at his recycling technician job and hopes to pick up 10 hours at his new job for a total of 38 hours a week this summer.
However, starting in the fall, Ness will be reduced to 13 hours a week between the two jobs -eight for Rock Chalk Recycle and five for the Applied English Center. He worries about what might come in the fall with such a drastic drop in pay.
["The summer cut] means that I just don't get extra opportunities to work and make money, which is pretty unfortunate considering this is really the only time of the year I can do so," Ness said. "The one thing I can do is maybe borrow money from my parents, but being a senior in college, that's kind of embarrassing."
With the 2014-15 academic year a transition year, HR has been accepting suggestions and complaints prior to the implementation of the new hours policy this August with the start of the fall semester. However, without any legal changes made to the benefits policy of the Affordable Care Act, the restrictions will remain the policy in use at the University.
Hernandez, who lives on campus, said the proximity of an on-campus job, as well as the costs saved in gas and parking, will keep him working at Student Housing in the fall. These same conveniences will deter him from getting another job off-campus to pay his bills, but he said he could see himself working off-campus if the pay cut becomes too much to handle.
Unions employs hundreds of students at on-campus jobs, according to its website.
"I'm just going to have to sit down and budget really hard every week to make sure I don't go over how much my paycheck is," Hernandez said.
Hernandez is not the only student in this situation. KU Memorial
Students working part-time as sales associates at the Burge and Kansas Union, food service workers at the dining halls and cafeterias are currently paid $9.22 an hour for a starting wage, according to job postings and the department's website.
A student working 40 hours a week at this wage this summer would earn $358.84 a week after an income tax rate of 2.7 percent for the first $15,000 taxable income
With only 20 hours a week, a student would earn $179.42 per week, and $717.68 per month.
— $1,435.36 per month on a bimonthly pay schedule.
The average contracted monthly cost of an apartment in Lawrence is $361.70, according to data compiled by Walk Score. The cheapest dorm room available on campus runs $4,372 — or $437 a month during the official school year. Scholarship halls are cheaper, but not by much
- $3,872 a year, or $387 a month. These average rent costs, whether off-campus or on-campus, for a student working 20 hours is more than half of a month's paychecks.
In addition, for a double-major such as Ness taking 17 credit hours, the flexibility of an on-campus job allows for more focus on studies
"The flexibility of working for KU as a recycling technician is invaluable," Ness said. "[... The program] is really tied to the needs of the students."
Faucher couldn't say if the University would be able to hire more student workers because of the cap on student hours. Individual departments have their own fiscal budgets and they control how that money is spent, not HR.
She said she does not anticipate a reduction in the number of students who work on campus because of the new hour restrictions.
"Even as we look back historically, there were very few — and I can't give you a number — there were not a lot of student hourly people who worked over 20 hours," she said.
Ness said he recognizes the difficult position the University is in regarding student hour cuts, but wishes the needs of the students were taken more into account.
"I honestly don't know how much of it is the HR department's fault. Everything that is at play - I know this is a very complex issue that goes beyond the University," he said. "[...] In the end, this hurts the students. [...] It's just unfortunate that I feel, to some degree, that I'm being punished by these outside forces that I have no control over."
ASSOCIATED PRESS
Gov. Sam Brownback meets with the media on Saturday, May 30 in Topeka. Brownback is proposing a state sales tax increase and other measures to deal with the state's projected budget shortfall.
Haley said it's ridiculous it's taken this long to have these discussions of the budget.
FURLOUGH FROM PAGE 02
is my 21st year and it's never been this bad.
"A sad thing is these discussion are being had in June when in 2014 we knew there was going to be a shortage," he said. "The governor decided the wealthiest sector of Kansans should pay fewer or no taxes. It's sad, but a fair and accurate statement."
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House Majority Leader Ray Merrick (R-Stilwell) said on Saturday that there would be no
"I find that an afront," she said. "So, people earlier got to have an excused absence, and I can't? This should have been taken care of long ago. I'm not taking pay, that's not what the issue is for me; it's the point of I should be excused, and other people, too."
thus every legislator must be present. Rep. Barbara Bollier (R-Mission Hills), who is in Arizona caring for her dying father, said the announcement was cruel.
Check kansan.com for legislative updates.
more unexcused absences allowed
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