Work Study

Students Greatly Affected by Cutbacks in Work Study

By Jolie Peters

New York, Ny--The Students at The New School have been greatly affected by the lack of job opportunity and cutbacks in the work study program which occurred at the beginning of this fiscal aid year thanks to cuts made in the congressional budget package. 

  

Rumors were surfacing around the school that the work study program had been cut entirely because it was becoming increasingly hard to find jobs. The program still exists, however due to decrease in money provided for the program the job opportunities have decreased as well. 

“I applied to a variety of places through the school however no one returned my phone calls or responded to my applications. I was told to look elsewhere for a job. What I didn’t understand was how in an economy like the one we are currently facing our school could just assume an outside job will hire a college student. Between time I would have to take off for breaks, and days I wouldn’t be able to work because of my schools work load, I wouldn’t exactly be a perfectly dependable candidate for a regular job. The benefit of working through the schools work study program is the jobs are sensitive to the students needs,” said Olivia Scalise, a sophomore student at The New School. 

The job offerings ran out about a month ago. Students that were offered work study last year are automatically eligible again the following years. The new students are offered based on need. However, the jobs are a first come first serve basis so if a new student applies to a job and gets it the returning students must look elsewhere. Because the money decreased, The New School gave out less money to each department and therefore the departments had less job openings because they couldn’t afford to pay the same amount of people. 

“In the beginning of October we will be reassessing our aid. The students who have yet to use the work study money’s aid will be terminated. Then we will see who is still interested in working under the work study program. Students who are still interested in jobs will be given more money, and then it will be up to them to start their job search,” said Elliot Anderson the Assistant Director of Financial Aid at The New School. 

The reason it was so much easier to get jobs in the past few years was thanks to the work study act which occurred in 2009. The schools were given more fiscal aid by the government for campus based programs such as work study, perkins loans, and the federal opportunity grant. Although the money was allocated in 2009, some schools chose to split the aid in half and use some for the 2010/11 school year. The schools normally have the same base amount of money for campus based programs year after year. They are given another amount which is determined yearly by the congressional budget package and is subject to fluctuation. 

FAFSA does have some hand in determining how much schools will get for these programs. A student’s FAFSA profile determines the financial need of the student which allows the schools to determine their eligibility for work study. Also, by looking at FAFSA profiles, FAFSA is able to determining the financial need of a student body as a whole. They can then allocate more money for programs, such as work study, to schools who have a large body of students in need. 

“If the school does not receive more money because their student body is of a higher socio-economic status, but they still have students that need loans and aid, they are able to offer one of the other campus based loan programs to the said student. FAFSA is only responsible for 70% of the work study money, the other 30% is provided by the school. When the government passes a lower budget, we do everything we can to work with the school and accommodate the students in need” said Jane Glickman a public affairs specialist for FAFSA. 

Students can check back on Collegecentral.com/newschool at the beginning of next semester to see the new job opportunities that may have opened up.