College Policy and Hiring Priorities
Hiring Preference
Faculty and staff are asked to support the college's hiring policy for federal work-study students (FWS). FWS recipients have a campus earnings expectation built into their financial aid awards, and therefore, all other things being equal, have priority for campus jobs.
The college has a primary obligation to ensure that positions are available for all FWS students who wish to utilize this part of their aid awards.
Departments should therefore be aware of the priority hiring policy when hiring current student employees for the academic year. The expectation is that departments expend 70% or more of their total student employment allocations for FWS wages. Supervisors may need to adjust the allocation of hours among students to ensure that the departmental expenditures on FWS are at least 70% of its student employment allocation.
As a result of this policy, departments are at liberty to hire FWS and WW student employees concurrently, maintaining 70% of its Student Employment budget for FWS student employees.
International students who have registered with the Student Financial Services (SFS), (i.e., secured social security numbers and completed work forms) may also apply for job openings with the same hiring preference as FWS students. International students, because of immigration policies, are not eligible to seek work opportunities off campus. They, therefore, must be able to work on campus.
All Wheaton students must be paid through the Student Employment Program for work performed on campus. Students must be authorized to work by completing the appropriate work forms (i.e. I-9, W-4, Work Authorization Form and Direct Deposit Form), obtained in SFS. Please keep in mind that both student employees and supervisors are responsible for submitting and approving hours worked. Supervisors must ensure that student employees submit hours worked in a timely manner. Students should enter hours on the Inside Wheaton time sheet, and supervisors should approve and submit the time sheet to the Payroll Office within the stated Payroll Office deadlines. If students are allowed to work unauthorized, or without submitting hours that exceed one pay period, departments will be charged with the affected wages from their non work-study operations budgets.
Supervisors and students who fail to follow this procedure place the College out of compliance with federal payroll regulations. If audited and cited, the College could face significant fines.
Confidentiality Statement
Student employees may be required to sign a statement of confidentiality by individual departments. As a result of increased use of computer technology in the workplace, access to sensitive information about members of the Wheaton community is more readily available to student employees. It is, therefore, critical that confidentiality and privacy of information about others be respected and protected. A breach of the confidentiality statement is just cause for immediate dismissal of the student employee from his/her position.
Off-Campus Employment
Students who wish to obtain off-campus employment are encouraged to use the services of the Career Center, located in the Kollett Center for Collaborative Learning. Food Services and the Old Town Hall Bookstore are designated as "off-campus" employers, consistent with Wheaton's treatment of all for-profit vendors on campus. Wheaton students who work in food service and Bookstore positions are paid for those positions by each employer, not Wheaton. Therefore, wages earned in a food service or Bookstore position will not be deducted from students' Wheaton work allotments. This means that students who wish to earn more than their on-campus work allotments may do so by working at either employer.