Student wage increase stings Metro programs

By Jesse Stephenson
The Metropolitan

Two months after college administrators approved pay increases for campus student employees, Metro program directors who employ students are still struggling to come up with money to pay the higher wages.

Yolanda Ortega-Ericksen, dean of Student Life, oversees Metro offices that rely on student fees for funding.

She said sheâs not opposed to paying student employees higher wages, but questions why no one gave program directors a chance to adjust their budgets to accommodate the higher salaries.

In June, Metro President Sheila Kaplanâs cabinet ordered all Metro offices to increase student employeesâ pay.

This came a month after budgets for the student fee funded offices were finalized. The increase ranges between 40 cents to $2.04 more per hour.

Ortega-Ericksen said seven offices that are funded by student fees, including Campus Recreation, Student Activities, and Student Publications, will need to come up with an estimated total of $63,000 to compensate for the wage increases.

ãWeâve been absolutely frantic about this,ä Ortega-Ericksen said. ãWe had no lead time to prepare for the increase, and now Iâm cleaning up after the fact.ä

Joe Arcese, Metroâs vice president for Administration and Finance, approved the student wage increases. He said he regrets leaving student fee funded programs in a financial lurch but said that the pay raises are long past due.

ãWe could have done a better job on my side of getting (the pay raise information) out to the departments sooner,ä he said. ãIn fact, if we have to do this again, we will do it sooner.ä

In the meantime, Ortega-Ericksen said sheâs going to continue to look for ways to come up with the money to pay for the raise. Those options include making the programs use reserve money left over from previous years, as well as requesting a student fee hike next year.

The student fee based programs might also ask for money from a special fund set aside for unexpected or one-time expenses, she said.

Another way Ortega-Ericksen said she could get money to fill the wage gap is from additional student fee dollars collected thanks to Metroâs higher enrollment this year. She said preliminary enrollment figures are showing the collegeâs student population is up 3 percent over last fall.

Arcese said Metro administrators decided to raise student pay after they conducted a study this spring on what students earn at other campuses and private businesses in the Metro area.

The results of that study showed that Metro offices were paying students less than they could earn off campus and as employees of other colleges, Arcese said.

Metro administrators also wanted the raise because they believed many student salaries could be paid with federal work-study dollars instead of money from collegeâs departmental budgets.

Arcese said hundreds of students at Metro are eligible for work study and could be ÷ but arenât ÷ working at the college. Work-study students donât cost departments since the federal government supplies the money to pay their salaries. The federal government automatically considers the work-study eligibility of every student who applies for financial aid.

ãThere are 1,200 jobs available for students at Metro, and there are 1,700 students who are eligible for work study dollars,ä Arcese said.

Metro spokeswoman Sherry Patton said college administrators are hoping the wage increase will prompt Metro departments to assure everyone eligible for work-study is actually being paid from work-study funds. Patton said some departments pay students out of their own budget without inquiring whether they are eligible for work-study.

ãThe administrators are saying, Îgee if weâve got all this federal money sitting here, why not use it,âä Patton said.

Ortega-Ericksen said sheâs doubtful most programs have underutilized work-study dollars. She added it is impossible to hire only work-study eligible students since most student fee funded departments offer have positions that require high levels of skill. Those departments cannot always find an employee with adequate expertise who is also eligible for work-study dollars.

Vernon Haley, Metroâs vice president of Student Services, agrees that most student fee funded programs take full advantage of work-study funds. But he began a survey last week on those programs to find out how many student fee funded employers were paying students eligible for work study with that money, not from their own budgets.

ãIâm hoping that study will confirm my suspicion that there are very few students in the student-fee funded offices who arenât using work study when they could be,ä Haley said. The results of the survey should be available in early September. Haley said the college has a vested interest in making jobs for at Auraria attractive to student employees since studies show that nationwide, the more time students spend on campus, the less likely they are to drop out of college.

This is because students who are often on campus for reasons other than attending class develop personal relationships, making their time here enjoyable, he said. Haley also said student employees are usually more familiar with what services the college offers and have a better idea of where to go if they need academic or personal assistance.