Work-study not working out?
Important campus services understaffed

Mike Connors | staff writer
mconnors@smcvt.edu

St. Michael’s College has fewer work-study students this year then previously, resulting in some stressful moments for certain departments. The Writing Center and the Information Technology Department (IT) are both facing staffing issues that may result in problems with each department’s budget.

To work or not to work?

Professor William Marquess, English professor and interim director of the Writing Center, says the center’s budget is $4,500 for this academic year. The college has not cut back on this budget, he says, but that amount may not be enough to pay for the center’s financial needs. The budget is used specifically to pay the Writing Center staff, some of whom are not work study students.  The students working at the center are paid the standard amount set by the college, with the pay varying depending on the coach’s experience.

“It ranges from $8.25 for a person who’s a coach for the first time and to $9.90 for somebody who is in the fourth year of experience,” Marquess says.

The Writing Center is availiable to all students. Mike Connors, photo

If the need for more money in the Center’s budget arises, the school is prepared to provide the necessary funds, Marquess says. Marquess spoke with Jeffery Trumbower, dean of the college and Kathleen Balutansky, associate dean. Marquess says Balutansky told him the school needs to run the Writing Center at an acceptable level and the center and IT is working on resolving the issue.

The Writing Center opened during the second week of the fall semester. Ideally, the Writing Center should have three coaches on duty each hour, but currently that isn’t possible, Marquess says.

“Right now we don’t have the budget to do that,” Marquess says. “We’ve covered it with two coaches per hour which is really a minimum.”

According to Marquess, there are more non-work-study students employed and the center has to take money out of their own budget to pay them.

The importance of being well prepared

Students are nominated by the faculty to work for the Writing
Center. Once a list of possible students has been compiled, the college asks if the students would be interested. Those who respond take a grammar quiz to prove that they “at least have some basic skills,” Marquess says.

The Writing Center coaches must have completed English 314, Teaching Writing, before taking on the job, Marquess says, but not all Writing Center coaches are English majors. Marquess says that they employ coaches from a wide variety of majors including biology, journalism, psychology and religious studies. 

Caroline Howe, a biology major, is one of the coaches that is not a work-study student.

Prior to working at the Writing Center, Howe never used the center but working there has been a positive experience for her because she can see the students progressing towards better writing.

Fewer hours means less work

IT is also experiencing stressful times. According to Joann Trottier, IT associate director for user services, the department also has to keep an eye on its budget because they have a number of students working who are not work-study. 

“We supplement the work-study hours with paid hours,” Trottier says. “We also employ four students who did not have work-study.”

Trottier says she asked for 40 workers this year, so that she wouldn’t have to go as deep into the budget paying non-work-study students, but she says that they won’t be able to reach that target.

“We anticipate employing 12 work-study and three paid students,” Trottier says. Last year, the department employed 20 work-study students.

“We’ve been actively looking into getting more students signed up for work-study,” Trottier says.

With the cut in staff the IT office seems emptier than usual. Mike Connors, photo

The department is planning to send out e-mails to qualified students as well as advertising on Channel 4 in an attempt to recruit more student workers. Trottier also says the work-study program faces competition from outside jobs that offer better hours at pay.

The level of pay a student working in IT receives depends on his or her knowledge of the equipment.

“What we have tried to do is pay our lead students to work eight hours a week,” Trottier says. “And then we supplement work-study so that the other students can work a minimum of six hours a week.” 

“We are no longer able to provide evening support,” Trottier says.

The IT department has staffing goals similar to those of the Writing Center.

“Our goal is to have three students working at any given time,” Trottier says.

But the smaller number of students working will not affect the service overall, but is a test of the department’s strength, she says.

“That is a challenge to maintain service while doing so with fewer numbers,” Trottier says. "