University students will have a tougher time finding work-study jobs on campus this year as federal stimulus money dries up.
The Federal College Work-Study program provides students who show financial need with part-time employment while still in school.
Students can earn up to $2,000 a year and work in a variety of positions in the program.
But this academic year, the number of work-study jobs will drop by 162,000 to 768,000 nationally as stimulus money from the Recovery Act runs out, according to the U.S. News & World Report.
Amy Marix, associate director of federal aid in the Office of Undergraduate Admissions, said the University is offering roughly 100 fewer work-study jobs this year compared to last year, which equates to around 450 jobs total.
“We always stress to students it’s a limited, funded program,” Marix said.
For the 2009-10 academic year, the University received around $1.1 million in funding for the program but received only $900,000 for the 2010-11 year, Marix said.
“We ran out of jobs a little bit quicker than last year,” she said.
Ryan Pontiff, kinesiology senior, said he applied for a work-study job in July for the fall semester but received an e-mail telling him that no positions were available.
“I applied for the position because it would have looked really good on my resumé, and the additional money would have really helped out,” Pontiff said. “It also would have been easier than having a job off campus.”
Pontiff said he has since found an off-campus job to supplement the unavailable work-study position.
Students currently in the program agree having an on-campus job has its benefits and losing it would be serious.
Rebecca Davis, elementary education junior, has been working in the dean’s office of the College of Arts and Sciences for three years.
Davis said her job includes filing, answering phones and inputting information into a computer.
“I applied for federal aid as a freshman, and this sounded like a good option,” Davis said. “You get paid to work on campus, but you also get to make connections with the faculty and administration.”
Marix said the number of work-study positions to be offered next year is hard to determine at this point.
 
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Contact Sarah Eddington at [email protected]