Categories of Student Employment

Students who work on campus at Northwestern fall into one of two categories: Campus Employment or Federal Work Study. Students who have financial need based on their FAFSA form can earn Federal Work Study dollars. The U.S. Department of Education gives Northwestern a small allotment of money to assist in funding the Student Employment Program. If a student is not eligible for Federal Work Study dollars, he/she is still eligible to work on campus and will just be working under the Campus Employment category. All hourly positions at Northwestern are eligible for either Campus Employment students or Federal Work Study students.

Eligible Students

1. Undergraduate Students that are registered full-time (12-18 credit hours) and half-time (6-11 credit hours) are eligible for on-campus employment.
2. Graduate Students that are registered full-time (9+ credits) and half-time (5-8 credit hours) are now eligible for on-campus employment with the following limitations:

1. The Graduate Student cannot be a Graduate Assistant.
2. Graduate classes need to be through Northwestern and enrolled at least half-time (5 credit hours).
3. Graduate Students will be limited to only one job as a student employee (you will be responsible for informing the student you are hiring).

3. Graduated seniors are NOT eligible to work as student employees unless they are enrolled as a Graduate Student (at least 5 graduate credit hours) at Northwestern College.

Staff/Faculty Waiver

Students who receive the staff/faculty waiver are allowed to hold a maximum of two jobs as long as they live on campus. If a commuter student receives the staff/faculty waiver, he/she will be allowed to hold only one job on campus. Students may not work in the same department as their parent or be supervised by someone else in the department that is under the direct supervision of that parent.

Pre-Employment Forms

Student employees need to complete pre-employment forms prior to starting their job on campus. These forms only need to be filled out by students one time while they are at

Northwestern College. Once complete, these forms need to be turned in to the Human Resources Office.

To look if a student already has their forms complete, supervisors can access the worksheet titled “Campus Employment_xx-xx-xxxx” on the J:Drive/Campus Employment.

Iowa Code 91A.3.3a allows employers in Iowa to enforce Mandatory Direct Deposit for employees. As a condition of student employment at Northwestern, a student needs to have an active United States bank account. If a student employee refuses to turn direct deposit information into the Human Resources Office, that student will not be allowed to continue working.

Contracted Jobs on Campus

Student employment positions at Northwestern College should be hourly positions with a Student Employment Contract. This allows for fair wage and hour laws to be applied to our student employees. Supervisors also have the ability to monitor the work and hours their student employees are putting in. Federal Work Study funds will be used for students who meet the criteria for a work-study award.

Contracts for student employment on campus are to be reviewed and evaluated each academic year. All contracts need to be turned in to the Human Resources Office prior to a student starting their job. Working with the Financial Aid Office, the Human Resources Office will load each job into the student employment payroll system which will then produce a timecard for the student on his/her MyNWC portal system under the Workstudy tab. The student will then also show up on the supervisor’s roster of student employees on the TimeCard Approval page under the WorkStudy Tab on their MyNWC.

Non-Contract Jobs on Campus

There are very few jobs that are considered non-contract. Non-contract jobs can be held by any student, even if they already have contracted jobs. Please see the list below for jobs that are considered non-contract:

Stipend Positions

The Human Resources Office needs to approve any stipend positions. Stipend payments will be allowed if there is sound reasoning as to why the student cannot be paid on an hourly basis. The following criteria must be met for a student to be paid stipend amounts:

• The student is required to be “on call” for a majority of their time (Resident Advisors, NEXT roommates, Campus Ministry Leaders, Graduate Assistants).
• The student is receiving a one-time payment for a creative or artistic endeavor.

If a student does hold a stipend position, that position will be considered to be 5 hours per week. Please take that into account when hiring students who hold multiple on campus jobs.

Work Week and Weekly Hours

Northwestern College considers the “Work Week” to be Sunday at 12:00am to Saturday at 11:59pm. Combining all contracted and non-contracted jobs, students must not be working more than 20 hours/week. Please keep this in mind when applying for and accepting jobs on campus. Students are responsible for accurately logging any hours they work.

Per the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS), International Students with F-1 or J-1 immigration status are not permitted to work more than a total of 20 hours per week during the academic terms when they are enrolled, and no more than 40 hours per week during school breaks. Working more hours could jeopardize their visa status.

Students are not permitted to work during their scheduled class time even if the class is cancelled. It is the supervisor and student employee’s responsibility to work out a schedule and to communicate potential conflicted with the work schedule.

If a student is consistently going over the weekly limit for all jobs (20 hours/week), that student will get a reminder of the policy. Supervisors will be included in the second reminder if the student continues to go over the weekly limits. After a third violation, the student will be limited to working only one job on campus.

Although students need to be responsible for monitoring their hours, supervisors can also assist by making sure they are not working more hours in a week than their contract indicates/allows. Please touch base with Sara Zomermaand in the Human Resources Office if you have any questions or concerns about your student employees and the total hours they are working each week.

Hiring

Before hiring, supervisors will need to determine the number of student employees their office/department will be hiring – this is determined based on their budget and/or the budget report they received.

On-campus job openings should be posted on Handshake as that is where all students are directed to look for job opportunities.

• Supervisors are welcome to post an opening for themselves and/or their department. If you need assistance in posting, contact Sara Zomermaand in the Human Resources Office.
• A Handshake Instruction Guide has been completed for supervisors to use if they want to post a job opening and navigate Handshake themselves. This Guide can be found on the J:Drive/Campus Employment/Handshake.

Supervisors are responsible for interviewing and hiring students for their positions. Supervisors are responsible for doing this in a timely fashion AND for communicating with students who they are not hiring in a timely fashion.

• The following resources are available for supervisors to use while interviewing and hiring student employees: Interviewing Student Workers and Student Applicant Comparison.
• These resources can be found on MyNWC/Workstudy tab/START HERE (Supervisors) or on the J:Drive/Campus Employment/Helpful Documents for Interviewing & Terminating.

Clocking In & Out Procedures

Student employees are required to log their hours worked electronically, either via the clock-in/clock-out station at their job location OR through the TimeCard Entry page under the WorkStudy Tab on the MyNWC portal system.

• There is a guide for student employees that walks them through how to log their hours. This can be found on the J:Drive/Campus Employment/Time Entry Guides.
• There is also a brief video walk-through for students on how to log hours that can be found on MyNWC/Workstudy/START HERE (Students).

Supervisors are required to monitor their student’s hours and then submit hours on the first working day of the month (for hours worked the month prior).

• Supervisors should tell their student employees that all hours need to be logged by midnight on the last day of the month (this helps ensure that supervisors can then view and submit the correct hours on the first working day of the month).
• There is a guide for supervisors that walks through how to view, edit and submit hours. This guide can be found on the J:Drive/Campus Employment/Time Entry Guides.
• There is also a brief video walk-through for supervisors on how to view, edit and submit hours that can be found on MyNWC/Workstudy/START HERE (Supervisors).
• The hours submitted through the MyNWC portal system by supervisors feed directly into the student payroll system. Supervisors need to ensure that the hours they are submitting for students are accurate as this is what their student employees will be paid for.  

Pay Procedures

Student employees are paid on (approximately) the 10^th of every month for hours worked the month prior. For example, student employees would be paid on December 10^th for hours worked in November. If the 10^th is on a Saturday, student employees would be paid on the 9^th. If the 10^th is on a Sunday, student employees would be paid on the 11^th.

Student employee’s pay is not directly applied to their tuition cost and/or their student bill. Student employee’s pay is directly deposited into their bank account (the bank account they provide on the ACH direct deposit authorization form). Student employees do not receive physical pay stubs; student employees can view a pay stub by going to MyNWC/Workstudy/View My Paystub.