Students looking for work study positions this summer might have to make other plans.
Student Employment Manager John Rudolph sent an e-mail to work study students this week informing them of a 23-percent decrease in funds for this upcoming summer’s positions.
The cuts are being made to the summer plan in order to ensure funding for the academic year, which Student Financial Services Communications Manager Marlene Bruno said has “always been the priority” of Federal Work Study.
Congress determines funds for work study programs, she explained.
Last summer, the 2009-2010 stimulus package appropriated extra funds to accommodate students’ increasing financial concerns. But to date there is no plan to supplement funding this summer, according to Bruno.
Concerned about allocations to Federal Work Study, Penn’s Student Registration and Financial Services “increased the employer contribution for summer by 10% in order to stretch the funding,” she wrote in an e-mail. “Therefore, summer work-study will continue with minimum impact to students.”
Wharton sophomore Hillary Heimbach had planned on continuing her work-study job this summer and is concerned about the e-mail from Rudolph.
“This could really ruin my summer plans,” she said.
Heimbach also said she was not sure why this e-mail had not been sent out earlier so that she could have made alternate plans.
“[It] would have been nicer to know before, since I did not expect this,” she said.
Bruno said the e-mail was sent once they had received their “tentative allocation” from the Department of Education.
Rudolph’s e-mail said need is taken into consideration regarding who receives work study aid.
College freshman Maeve Flynn said work study job selection “Could be unfair because some might not be able to express need on paper.”
While Flynn said looking at need could be unfair, she does not see how else to do it.
Flynn said students might start “looking at jobs outside the Penn employment system” in order to meet financial needs.
“It’s too bad, but there’s not much to be done now,” she said.
College sophomore Danielle Epstein finds the cuts “kind of scary,” calling them a “big blow” to students who were depending on these sources of income.
While concerned, Epstein said “it makes sense that it’s done in the summer,” since she feels the academic year should be SFS’s priority.
