Junior Nika Brailosky works five days a week, including weekends, for a total of 15 hours, between her two jobs at Mary Walker Health Center and Penfield library.
A recent study, conducted by Student Loan Report, showed Oswego State as a leader in providing students with part-time jobs on campus.
Oswego State ranked No. 5 in student compensation among all other universities and colleges in New York State. Student employment has proven to be beneficial towards academic excellence. The study showed $3.3 million was paid to 1,588 part-time student workers at Oswego State in 2015-2016.
“The experience I get here is really hands on by dealing with different kinds of people and how to handle different situations,” Brailosky said. “I think advice from people who are older than you and have been in the work force longer than you, want to help you out and see you succeed.”
Brailosky finds her jobs to be beneficial in more than one way. She is pre-med and wanted exposure to healthcare, which she was able to through student employment. She also needs a job to support herself during college.
“if I didn’t have this position here then I would definitely work off campus,” Bailosky said.
To qualify for employment, an undergraduate student must maintain 12 credit hours, whereas a graduate student must maintain nine credit hours. The employment process varies depending on employer, but it can be rather simple. For example, if a student would like to work at the dining hall, he or she will fill out an application with personal information, as well as availability. Students get paid bi-weekly and can choose to be paid by check or direct deposit.
“They do better academically and they do better in terms of retention so they are more likely to be engaged with a college,” said Michael Flaherty, General Manager of Auxiliary Services.
This could be said for student employees of other offices as well, such as senior Seqouya Fitzpatrick, a Facilities Attendant since fall 2015.
“There is always a way to relate what you do here to a job in the future,” Fitzpatrick said. “It has also given me an opportunity to work on homework. Since there is no usage of cell phones, it really forces you to focus, which is great.”
According to Flaherty, 1,318 student employees were issued W-2 tax forms in 2016.
Flaherty said students that work for Auxiliary Services do a variety of jobs including working in the dining centers, cafes and catering. Students also learn more real-life skills.
“They learn things like cooking to managing money to customer service,” Flaherty said.
A dinging hall employee, senior Matthew Drexler said working on campus helps with time management.
“You have budget everything because there’s only so many hours in the day and only so many things you could do between your extracurricular [activities] and your school work,” Drexler said. “It’s big on time management.”
He said another benefit of working at the dining halls is eating before or after working a shift, without having a meal plan.
“I think part-time jobs on campus are a really good opportunity especially for freshmen and sophomores who don’t have cars and that need to pay for school because they don’t have to go far,” Drexler said. “The campus is understanding with your schedule, so I think it’s really better to have an on campus job than anything off campus because they won’t care about what your outside life is.”
Maria-Ray Ossino, a junior, works as a student assistant at Penfield Library and said the experience has been valuable for meeting new people.
“I can network with a lot of students from every major that come in and out of the library, especially the really determined ones,” Ossino said. “Those are the ones you want to network with.”
Maria-Ray works three days a week and about two to three hours a day at the library.
“It’s great because right after you work you leave the desk and stay in the library so you don’t have to convince yourself to walk over to the library, you’re already here.” Ossino said.
Senior Morgan Atwood has worked as a Desk Attendant in the Sheldon-Mackin Complex for almost a year and she said she can benefit from her experience after graduation.
“My boss and I have a really good relationship built up,” Atwood said. “If I have a problem, I tell him about it or if something is not going right at the desk or anything, I always go to him and I have built a rapport with him and I know I can use him as a reference later.”
