Student organizations with paid positions for members could face debts at the end of this year, due to changes in the way work-study funds are allocated.
A limit has been put in place on the amount of funding that the Student Finance Committee can distribute for work-study positions, putting student organizations at risk of exceeding their budgets.
The limit on work-study funds for student organizations, which was decided without input from the SFC, establishes a cap for the dollar amount of federal work-study funds that can be distributed to student organizations. The limit affects how the SFC can distribute funds to organizations.
“It puts us in a position of trying to allocate a certain amount between groups,” SFC student treasurer and senior Adam Seidel said.
Down the road, this could create conflict between the expectations of student organizations with work-study positions and SFC’s financial realities.
“The work-study [funding] allowed [organizations] to fund more positions because they wouldn’t use their own budget; wages didn’t come out of the student activity fee,” Seidel said.
However, a limit on the amount of funds available for work-study could create a problem for organizations that depend on a certain number of paid positions to operate.
“Does this mean the SFC budget will have to swell because the expectation [of paid positions] is here?” Seidel said.
The limit could pose significant budgetary problems for organizations that expect that funding for the positions they require.
If work-study funding can no longer be distributed to all organizations that need it in the future, paid positions could drain funds paid for by the student activity fee from other areas.
Student organizations with work-study positions allocate a certain amount of their budget to pay wages. If a student who is eligible for a work-study job as a part of his or her financial aid package fills a position, the federal government will subsidize 75 percent of the student’s wages, while the remaining 25 percent comes out of the organization’s budget.
If the student who fills the position is not eligible for work-study, the position no longer receives the subsidy and the student’s full paycheck comes out of the organization’s funds. Qualifying for work-study funds depends on a match between a position and an eligible student.
“As a general rule for the work-study program, not every organization will qualify every year for work-study funds, or necessarily to the same degree,” Senior Staff Accountant David Laczko said.
Student organizations that have established work-study positions include the Student Senate, the SFC and, in years past, HI-O-HI, the Oberlin College yearbook.
For many groups, paid positions are critical to the organization’s success, as the nature of these groups require that committed individuals be trained for long-term positions.
For some groups, such as the Student Senate, work-study positions serve the added goal of making active participation a possibility for students who depend on work-study wages to finance their education.
The necessity of establishing a match between a work-study position and an eligible student also has the potential to create budget problems.
“If the Review had 10 work-study positions, and none [of its employees] are work-study eligible, that would show up as debt,” Seidel said.
Without being able to monitor how much work-study funds are being reimbursed, the SFC could face difficulty in dealing with organizations that have gone into debt at the end of the year.
The limit on work-study funding has created bureaucratic hassle for the SFC. However, there is hope that student organizations and the SFC can work effectively within these limits.

“On the one hand, it affects us [SFC] and we had no hand in it… while it makes our lives a little more difficult, and student organizations’ lives a little more difficult, I have faith that it’s made a better situation for work-study overall,” Seidel said.