Sep. 4 —Over the summer, Hampshire College administration quietly reduced the number of hours that student employees are allowed to work in a week.
Student employees, regardless of whether or not they have federal work-study, are now strictly limited to 7 hours of work per week, equating to $105 per week or $210 per two week pay period. This is less than a quarter of the previous limit, which was 29 hours per week.
Although most student employers would have their own limits below the college’s 29 hour limit, now the college’s limit is 7 hours, and no employer is allowed to go above that.
Some students have reported that this new limit would prevent them from collecting their full work-study award, even if they worked all 7 hours every week for the entire semester. International students, who are not allowed to work off-campus jobs due to their visas, have expressed concern that a reduction in work hours would make it impossible to pay the additional fees that international students are subject to, on top of ordinary expenses like groceries and tuition.
As of August 31st, no public announcement of the change has been made by the administration, it has only been confirmed by updates to the Student Employment FAQ, and internal emails to returning student employees of certain departments.
The change is another example of Hampshire’s tendency to make significant decisions during the summer, when student organizing is effectively impossible, like the summer of 2023 when IT was outsourced to an external company over the summer.
Nonetheless, student organizing got underway online as soon as students became aware of the cuts. A letter with demands to President Ed Wingenbach was quickly drafted in the Hampshire Hangout Discord server, and as of writing, has gathered 83 signatures from students.
Correspondence between various concerned students and various members of administration have indicated that the 7 hour limit is set in stone. But there is some reason to believe the limits are not quite so inflexible. On August 30th, Adonis, a student known for being a leader of Title IX protests last spring, and now organizing on this issue, announced via Instagram that “a small group of returning student workers have been given permission [by] Ed to have their weekly hours raised to 15 a week.” One Circle Keeper confirmed that they are allowed to work 9 hours a week, but can only work 12 out of 15 weeks in the semester.
DISCLOSURE: The author of this article spearheaded the writing of the letter mentioned.
