Work-Study Supervisors

The job request must be approved in Handshake before hiring a work-study employee. Each academic college and some larger departments have a work-study delegate.

• The supervisor creating the job request will review applicants, interview, and hire.
  Please notify our office if there is a change in supervisors.
• Hiring of work-study students must not result in the displacement of regularly employed workers.
  It is the intent of the program to create new and expanded job opportunities. Replacing a full-time employee whose position was eliminated (for any reason) with a student employee paid with work study funds is prohibited.     

Pay rates should follow guidelines for IH pay rates. The supervisor is responsible for determining the pay rate and providing raises when appropriate. Pay rates should be determined by the type of work, performance, skills, and experience, not the size of the student's work-study award. Minimum wage is $7.25.

Students are expected to arrange a schedule with their supervisor and adhere to it. If they are unable to work they should contact their supervisor. Per federal regulation "a work-study student is to be paid an hour of pay for an hour of work." There are no paid lunch hours, study hours, holidays, sick leaves, vacations, etc. Students are allowed the same morning and/or afternoon breaks as regular employees. A student should not work more than 40 hours in a week, total of all University of Idaho employment. It is the responsibility of the supervisor to keep track of earnings and award balances to ensure the student does not work over the amount awarded.

Students are expected to give punctual, efficient and cooperative performances. Those who do not perform in such a manner may have their work-study job terminated. Please email finaid-workstudy@uidaho.edu if problems arise that cannot be resolved within your office. Please include the student's name, ID number and the reasons for termination. The student should have been previously warned and given a reasonable time period to correct the problem before termination.

Clear instruction with regard to assigned duties and expectations should be given by the supervisor. When supervision is lacking or when it does not result in a cooperative attitude, the work-study coordinator should be contacted.

Hours worked will be entered in VandalWeb Web Time Entry. The VandalWeb system counts time worked in hundredths of an hour: 2 hours 15 minutes = 2.25 (rounded to the nearest hundredth of an hour).

Due to federal work-study program audit requirements, the Payroll office is required to keep electronic time sheets for five years.

Supervisors who are not familiar with the electronic time sheet process can view a tutorial or access the web time and leave entry training manual.

A student may not exceed their award amount. The department should not approve hours that will result in an overage of the work-study award. For example: If the student has enough remaining to cover 20 hours and 30 hours were worked, only 20 hours should be submitted on the work-study budget, the remaining 10 hours should be paid from your IH account. You will need to request a new IH EPAF for future earnings and terminate the work-study EPAF.

Please do not add a work-study budget to an existing IH time slip. This will generate a report in Payroll, and they automatically revert the hours back to the IH budget. A student cannot be paid from work-study funds until all paperwork and approvals are finished. A student must have a Work Authorization Card from the Human Resources office before beginning work. The student must renew their Work Authorization Card every three years.

USE SEPARATE TIME SHEETS FOR WORK-STUDY AND IH EARNINGS.

A department may not submit retroactive hours for a student after June 1 for the fiscal year. Any hours submitted after June 1 will be billed to the departmental IH account.

Please email finaid-workstudy@uidaho.edu with your student employees V# and full name.

Community Services Definition

The definition of "community services" was amended to read: services which are identified by an institution of higher education, through formal or informal consultation with local nonprofit, governmental, and community-based organizations, as designed to improve the quality of life for community residents, particularly low-income individuals, or to solve particular problems related to their needs, including

1. Such fields as health care, child care, literacy training, education (including tutorial services), welfare, social services, transportation, housing and neighborhood improvement, public safety, crime prevention and control, recreation, rural development, and community improvement;
2. Work in service opportunities or youth corps as defined in section 101(*) of the National and Community Services Act of 1990, and services in the agencies, institutions and activities designated in section 124 (a) [**] of the National and Community Services Act of 1990;
3. Support services to students with disabilities
4. Activities in which a student serves as a mentor for such purposes as
• Tutoring
• Supporting educational and recreational activities
• Counseling, including career counseling

*Section 101 of the National and Community Service Act of 1990 defines the terms "service opportunity" and "youth corps program" as follows:

1. Service opportunity - a program or project, including service learning programs or projects, that enables students or out-of-school youth to perform meaningful and constructive service in agencies, institutions, and situations where the application of human talent and dedication may help to meet human, educational, linguistic, and environmental community needs, especially those relating to poverty.
2. Youth corps program - a program, such as a conservation corps or youth service program, that offers full-time, productive work (to be financed through stipends) with visible community benefits, in a natural resource or human service setting and that gives participants a mix of work experience, basic and life skills, education, training, and support services.

**Section 124(a) of the National and Community Service Act (NASA) of 1990 provides the following list of agencies, institutions, and activities that:

1. In the case of conservation corps programs, focus on 
• Conservation, rehabilitation, and the improvement of wildlife habitat, rangelands, parks, and recreation areas
• Urban and rural revitalization, historical and site preservation, and reforestation of both urban and rural areas
• Fish culture, wildlife habitat maintenance and improvement, and other fishery assistance
• Road and trail maintenance and improvement
• Erosion, flood drought, and storm damage assistance and controls
• Stream, lake, waterfront harbor, and port improvement
• Wetlands protection and pollution control
• Insect, disease, rodent, and fire prevention and control
• The improvement of abandoned railroad beds and rights-of-way
• Energy conservation projects, renewable resource enhancement, and recovery of biomass
• Reclamation and improvement of strip-mined land
• Forestry, nursery, and cultural operations
• Making public facilities accessible to individuals with disabilities.
2. In the case of human services corps programs, include participant service in
• State, local, and regional governmental agencies
• Nursing homes, hospices, senior centers, hospitals, local libraries, parks, recreational facilities, child and adult day care centers, programs serving individuals with disabilities, and schools
• Law enforcement agencies, and penal and probation systems
• Private nonprofit organizations that primarily focus on social service such as community action agencies
• Activities that focus on the rehabilitation or improvement of public facilities, neighborhood improvements, literacy training that benefits educationally disadvantaged individuals, weatherization of and basic repairs to low-income housing including housing occupied by older adults, energy conservation (including solar energy techniques), removal of architectural barriers to access by individuals with disabilities to public facilities, activities that focus on drug and alcohol abuse education, prevention and treatment, and conservation, maintenance, or restoration of natural resources on publicly held lands
• Any other nonpartisan civic activities and services that the Commission determines to be of a substantial social benefit in meeting unmet human, educational, or environmental needs (particularly needs related to poverty) or in the community where volunteer service is to be performed; or
3. Encompass the focuses and services described in both paragraphs (1) and (2).