6A
/ NEWS / THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 30, 2010 / THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN / KANSAN.COM
EMPLOYMENT
Students fight to balance jobs, classes
BY STEPHEN GRAY
sqray@kansan.com
While economic conditions and budgetary restraints have led to fewer jobs on campus in recent years, there is no shortage of students looking for employment.
Last year, the total number of student applications sent to campus employers was 25,455. This was significantly higher than the 1,285 on-campus jobs posted by employers, according to the University Career Center.
Kristin Crawford, a senior from Paola and peer career assistant at the University Career Center, is one of the lucky students who found an on-campus job this semester. For her, the challenges of balancing work, her social life and school are significant, but they do not outweigh the financial and personal benefits of being employed.
"I don't have as much free time as I'd like, but I need to support myself and pay my bills because my parents don't," Crawford said.
Crawford works 16 hours a
week and said she believed the job would provide good experience and a degree of responsibility in the future. Her main motivation, though, remains paying for rent and tuition.
Crawford's situation is one familiar on college campuses. According to a U.S. Department of Education study, 78 percent of undergraduates worked while they were enrolled during the 2003-2004 academic year. Of that total, two-thirds of working students found employment in order to be able to pay for their tuition, fees and living expenses.
Ann Hartley, associate director at the University Career Center, said because higher education was getting more expensive, more students needed a job to get through college than they did in previous generations.
"More students have to work to support themselves," Hartley said. "There is just more stuff to pay for."
One question is whether it is possible for students to maintain both
jobs and good grades. According to the same U.S. Department of Education study, research has shown that working 15 hours or fewer per week often has a positive effect on persistence and degree completion. Anything above that, however, can be detrimental.
Hartley said even part-time jobs can often become quite overwhelming for students with a full course load and that preserving a good GPA often depends on the focus and ambition of the individual.
Curtis Marsh, director of KU Info, employs 23 students and thinks that staying on campus to work is a benefit for students, especially for those interested in maintaining their grades.
"Most campus employers understand that you are a student first, employee second." Marsh said.
KU Libraries, one of the larger employers on campus, has had fairly steady student employment figures over the last few years, despite the University's budget cuts. According to Rebecca Smith, director of communications for KU Libraries, last year 224 students were employed, compared to 246 as of last week.
Like most employers on campus, application totals for KU Libraries positions have been consistently high in recent years.
Jeromy Horkman, a service desk supervisor at Watson Library, said he had noticed an increase in the number of students following up on their online application submissions with personal visits and phone calls.
"I would attribute this to overall economic conditions and KU Libraries' popularity as a key place in which to work and study," Horkman said.
As it becomes increasingly more difficult to find jobs available amidst tough competition at the University, Crawford is just glad to have found one.
"With my schedule, it's nice to have that flexibility and understanding that comes on campus," Crawford said.
Edited by Michael Bednar
DIVERSITY (CONTINUED FROM 1A)
Kris Kobach, a Republican running for Kansas Secretary of State, helped draft SB 1070, which went into effect on April 23. David Trevino, an immigration lawyer from Lawrence and a member of the three-person panel at the forum, said if Kobach were elected, Kansas government would likely push for stricter enforcement of immigration laws.
Trevino said the idea of stricter immigration laws was popular among Kansas citizens, and that if Republicans took office, it was likely that lawmakers would draft a bill for Kansas similar to SB 1070.
"It concerns me," Trevino said. One aspect of the Arizona immigration bill that causes concern is the fear that people stopped by the police will be subjected to racial profiling. People of Hispanic descent will most likely be under
ODD NEWS
Pa. judge uses acorns to hand out condoms
Associated Press
HARRISBURG, Pa. — Police said a district judge from Intercourse, Pa., hid condoms inside acorns and handed them out to women in the state Capitol complex last week. A summary charge of disorderly conduct was filed Tuesday against Isaac H. Stoltzfus, who presides over low-level cases as a district judge in Lancaster County.
scrutiny, the law's critics say.
Trevino said that although the immigration law specifically forbade racial profiling, it would be almost impossible to stop.
"Racial profiling is part of police work," Trevino said, "Obviously we are not a color-blind society, so assumptions are made."
"America is the melting pot of the world, so we need to promote that as much as we can," Velasco said.
Tanya Golash-Boza, assistant professor of sociology and a member of the panel, said that today in the United States, about 25 per
Edited by Michael Bednar
had different social problems, which needed to be addressed in different ways. He said the United States should promote legal immigration by offering more work visas and easing laws to make legal immigration less difficult.
cent of undocumented immigrants are not from Latin America. Only about five percent of deported people were from countries other than Latin America. People of European, Middle Eastern and Asian descent are usually not deported.
Kris Velasco, sophomore from Wamego, said he didn't want to see a form of the Arizona immigration bill come to Kansas. He said he believed that Kansas and Arizona
Howard Ting/KANSAN
Dylan Welch, a sophomore from Wichita, spends his afternoons working as a Spanish tutor at Anschutz Library. Wich is one of the few people who find on-campus employment each year.
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