Few OU Students Affected by Worker-Hour Increase
By: Anastasia Nicholas
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The cost of a degree from Ohio University has never been higher, but the university is helping students pay for it by raising the student worker-hour limit.
Starting this year, on-campus student employees are allowed to clock in 25-hours per week, five more than last year.
More hours means more money, and while those additional hours can cut into study time, some students believe the change won’t affect their grades.
Sophomore Richard Morris works in the Modern Language Department.
“There’s 168 hours in a week, you know?” Morris said. “Ten hours out of 168, that’s about one-seventeenth of my week I spend working. I’d say, of the other sixteen seventeenths, I can probably find some time to do some homework.”
Sophomore Beth Ulrick works at the University Archives. She works eight hours a week, but said she could handle 25.
“I don’t think it’d affect my grades at all,” Ulrick said. “I do all my studying late at night, and if I worked 25 hours a week, I still wouldn’t be working late at night.”
Not all students can take advantage of the worker-hour increase, either.
Lizzie Potter, a senior working at the Kennedy Museum of Art, said her wages from a federal work-study job are based on a scholarship. Therefore, she can work only the hours that total the scholarship award for the semester.
“I would love the chance to work 25 hours a week,” she said. “I have a good balance between work and study.
Several OU students, including Morris, Ulrick and Potter, said their GPAs have not noticeably suffered since the worker-hour increase.
Students perform best working 10 to 15 hours per week, according to the American Association of University Professors.
In addition, few students’ lives have changed much since the worker-hour increase, since they still do not reach the weekly limit.
As the cost of college continues to rise, students may need to work the full 25 hours according to The Washington Post. That may impact their grades in the future.