It is essential that student work programs comply with certain generally-applicable policies related to work eligibility, anti-discrimination, maximum hours, training, etc. The College also encourages departments to create their own policies covering other topics, based on the needs of their department, in order to provide the best possible learning environment for student workers.
Student Work Policies
These policies are consistent across all student work programs at The College of Wooster.
Persons eligible for student work must be currently enrolled at The College of Wooster. Non-Wooster students must apply for non-student employment with the Office of Human Resources.
To become eligible for student work, students must first verify their eligibility to work within the United States with the Office of Student Employment. For convenience, students are able to complete this step at any time, after accepting a position, but within 3 business days once the position is started.
Students who have withdrawn (or been withdrawn) lose any campus work through the Office of Student Employment effective upon the withdrawal date.
Academics should take top priority while classes are in session, and students should consider speaking with their supervisor about taking a break from student work to ensure satisfactory academic progress is met.
To be eligible for student work, students must verify their eligibility to work within the United States by presenting original documentation as required on page 3 of the I-9 form. Photocopies and faxed copies of documents cannot be accepted.
F-1 students can apply for a Social Security Number (SSN) after receiving a job offer; the Social Security Administration (SSA) requires proof of employment to issue an SSN to F-1 students. F-1 students will need to apply for their SSN to comply with payroll and tax requirements, but they can begin working and even be paid prior to receiving their SSN, pending they have provided Human Resources with a copy of their SSN Receipt. The International Student Services Office will assist F-1 students with applying for their SSN.
Student workers are not to work more than 20 hours per week during the academic year. Students are only eligible to work up to 40 hours when the entire work week does not have instructional days. Instructional days are days with classes or exam periods.
Students studying at the College of Wooster on an F-1 visa are to pay special attention to the limits placed on hours worked. Not complying with this guideline is a violation and can affect visa status. It is the student worker’s responsibility to ensure that they are staying within these hours.
Student work status is temporary, does not contain any provisions for fringe benefits, holiday, or overtime pay, and is contingent upon available funds. Student workers are an exempt class and do not qualify for unemployment insurance.
Students and supervisors must record hours worked in the corresponding pay period in Self-Service. The only exception to this rule is if a student fails to submit a timesheet on time.
In this case, a manual timesheet must be submitted that indicates how many hours are for a separate pay period, and for which pay period.
All student work programs must comply with the College of Wooster’s Nondiscrimination Statement in the Student Handbook at all times.
All student work programs are to provide reasonable accommodations to enable student workers with disabilities to complete the essential functions of a position.
All student employment positions must be posted on Handshake through the Office of Student Employment.
The Fair Labors Standard Act states that the only time meetings, training programs, and similar activities do not need to be counted as working time is if four criteria are met, which are as followed:
– it must be outside of normal hours;
– must be voluntary;
– must not be job-related;
– and no other work is concurrently performed.
Time spent completing online training, even when completed away from the worksite, must be counted as work time unless all the criteria points listed are met.
To maintain employee compliance with policy regulations and standards of work performance, the College of Wooster follows the concept of Progressive Discipline. Under this concept, penalties increase in severity with each failure to comply with work standards and/or regulations.
Please review Student Disciplinary Action statement in the Student Employment Handbook.
*All disciplinary reprimands must be documented and sent to Human Resources
For more information, please review the Student Disciplinary Procedures webpage
Recommended Departmental Policies
Provided here is a list of such policies that each department may consider implementing as appropriate.
Policies and practices with regard to work attendance and absences are defined, communicated to student workers, and enforced by individual departments. These policies should be made clear to potential student workers as early as possible in the hiring process. The policies and practices should also be documented and accessible to student workers after work has commenced.
When preparing policies, supervisors may wish to account for absences due to the following reasons:
1) curricular or extracurricular activities
2) illness, and
3) personal circumstances.
In these cases, student workers should be made aware of the appropriate communication channel, timing, and additional actions required in order to avoid an unexcused absence. Remember, student workers are students first.
Departments that allow student employees to handle sensitive information will want to ensure that the information is protected and remains within secure folders and databases at the College of Wooster.
You are encouraged to use the Confidentiality Statement for Employees for use with your student workers.
Supervisors are encouraged to document individual departmental policies and make them accessible to student employees as early as the hiring process. Ideally, these will also be available for reference by student employees after being hired. This ensures that everyone is clear on expectations and allows time for questions.
Supervisors can decide to change policies as student work programs evolve but should notify student employees of changes to keep expectations transparent at all times.