More students are taking advantage of Federal Work Study money than they have in previous years, according to the financial aid office.
“What we’re seeing is that students this year are working more hours, earning more money than the same population same time last year,” said Keith Dubois, director of the financial aid office.
“The first payroll we ran was several thousand dollars higher than last year.”
But the increased demand for work study positions has meant some students looking for jobs have been turned away.
“Our work study positions at WMPG are filled,” said Kelsey Perchinsky, office manager and work study supervisor at WMPG. “I am still getting e-mails from students who are hoping to get a work study position with us, but we only have so many positions.”
Although positions have filled up early in some departments, Dubois says the same total amount of money has been the same for the last ten years. The federal government provides $1,526,544, or 75 percent of the funding for workstudy payrolls. USM matches the rest.
“Although a department can cut certain work study positions that they offer, it is not due to a lack of work study funds,” said Dubois. “That money is awarded to the student who then chooses a specific job. There are no positions that are directly funded by work study. There are as many work study jobs being offered this year, if not more.”
But some students who previously worked on campus had problems getting their jobs back this fall.
Ben Webber, a senior business major at USM said, “I never had a problem receiving work study until my senior year. It was really bad timing.” Webber said it was the first time in his college career he didn’t receive workstudy funds. “They said my application was later than the rest and all of the work study money had been given out at that point, apparently I was two days later than usual and the work study was also in higher demand.”
“Although a department can cut certain work study positions that they offer, it is not due to a lack of work study funds,” said Dubois. “That money is awarded to the student who then chooses a specific job. There are as many work study jobs being offered this year, if not more.”
“I was offered my job again but I didn’t have any funding to take it,” said Artemas Foster, a senior English major. “That sucked. But there wasn’t much I could do about it.”
Foster said he received the same total amount of aid, but it didn’t include any work study money.
“I thought it was strange, because I actually got a pretty big grant,” he said. “I figured they’d want me to work for my money.”