Department of Human Resources

Student Employment

Student Opportunities Begin Here

The Student Employment Office is committed to promoting student employment opportunities that can provide valuable work/education experience. Student employment provides job skills and knowledge that can help students transition into their professional roles, post-graduation. Mutually, the college benefits and grows with the vast talents, insight, and enthusiasm students bring to these roles.

Oberlin College offers two types of student employment opportunities. The two types of student employment are Federal Work-Study and Regular Student Wage positions. If you have a Federal Work-Study award in your financial aid package, your earnings will be paid out of federal funds. If you do not have a financial aid award or Federal Work-Study in your financial aid package, your student employment earnings will be paid from college funds.

Where do I apply?
How do I record my worked time?/TimeClock Plus

Oberlin College uses TimeClock Plus to electronically record all worked hours. The time record-keeping tool is flexible and allows you to clock in and out via a downloadable app or via their WebClient link. Please find resources and tutorials here:

Payment Options
  • Direct Deposit - As a condition of employment, students must sign up for direct deposit payments. Sign in using your ObieID and Password and follow the steps for Direct Deposit Allocation.
  • Payroll Deduction - Allocates earned funds to your tuition account
First-time hire at Oberlin College?

New student employees will be required to complete new hire paperwork. Once completed, the tax forms may be submitted electronically and the I-9 form submitted in person to our office with the supporting documents to complete your new hire set.  Please note that new hire paperwork should not be submitted until you have been offered and have accepted a student employment position.  Please use your Oberlin College address when completing new hire paperwork.

IMPORTANT: A student worker cannot work until all forms have been submitted and the student position has been finalized.

Submit Completed Tax Forms Here

 

Submit in person to our office:

  • **Effective 10/30/23--New Employment Eligibility Verification (I-9 Form) must be used and submitted in person to our office along with supporting documents from page 2 of the I-9.   
    • Only complete Section 1 of this form.  If you check Box 4 on the I-9, please  be sure to write your work authorization expiration date on the line to the right.  All new incoming student employees must submit their original, unexpired supporting I-9 documents in person at the Student Employment Office. A complete list of acceptable documents can be found on page two of the I-9 eligibility PDF.  

**This form is not supported by Safari, please use an alternate browser.

International Student Workers

Student Employment is available for all students, but please be aware that you are required to apply for a social security number in order to work and receive taxable wages. You may reach out to the International Student and Scholar Services Office to receive assistance with applying for a social security number.  International students do not need to wait until they receive their social security card before they begin work; the ssn can be left blank on new hire paperwork.  However, all legally required new hire paperwork and I-9 supporting documents need to be submitted to before starting work.  The social security card should be submitted to our office once received, either via the student new hire paperwork portal or in person.

Policies and Procedures

Employment

Academics should take top priority while classes are in session and employment should not interfere with the student course schedule. Additionally, employment on campus is NOT guaranteed for any student. In order to be eligible for student employment, a person must be currently enrolled and fully matriculated at Oberlin College.

Students who withdraw or are withdrawn from their courses will lose any campus employment, effective upon their withdrawal date.

Labor Practices

It is the student's responsibility to properly record all worked hours via the College provided time record-keeping system. If a student fails to properly or accurately record time, they should reach out to their supervisor as soon as possible for assistance. Continued failure to properly record time may be subject to disciplinary action. The falsification of work records is considered a terminable offense and, depending on the gravity of the matter, may be subject to further action.

Student employees generally are not permitted to work more than 20-30 hours per week during the academic year. This is in large part due to the Affordable Care Act (ACA) tracking and reporting hours requirements for the IRS. Additionally, as a student, academics should be prioritized and you are considered a student first.

Federal work-study award recipients who earn their maximum award amounts in the corresponding academic year will convert from federal work-study payment status to student wage to meet the federal guidelines.

FICA EXEMPTIONS

Per the IRS website, during the academic year when classes are in session, all student jobs are FICA exempt. FICA exemptions are also possible during the academic year when classes are in break (e.g., Winter Holiday break and Fall/Spring break), provided the student employee was eligible to work the last day of classes/exams preceding the break and will be eligible to take classes for the academic period following the break. Summer employment is NOT FICA exempt. Summer earnings will have Social Security and Medicare deducted from the gross pay.

Additional Resources and Documents

Over 800 students are placed in over 3,000 student employment jobs during each academic year. It is the Student Employment Office's responsibility to follow federal and state regulations governing employment to ensure students are properly hired and entered into the Banner system of record, prior to their job start date.

Please note, peak times will coincide with the beginning of each term. We encourage supervisors to plan accordingly and be proactive in their hire decisions, early, when possible. Please use the resources and information provided below as your student employment resource.

I am in need of a student employee

Your first step should be to work with your division's budget leader to see if you have student worker funds available. Once you've identified available funding, you'll want to post the position. The preferred method is via PeopleAdmin, Oberlin College's job posting site.

Posting a position

Please find the PeopleAdmin Student Worker Posting guide here:

The guide will walk you through every step to properly make a student position posting. 

When determining the pay rate for a student position, please reference the following guide:

I am ready to hire a student

Students can be hired for one semester or for the full academic year.  Students hired for Fall semester only will have their jobs terminated at the end of the Fall semester.  Students hired for the Spring semester or for the full academic year will have their jobs terminated at the end of the Spring semester.

Once you've made your hire decisions, you will want to follow the steps in the Student Worker Hiring Proposal Guide using PeopleAdmin to push the position forward for Student Employment Office completion.

Alternatively, you may complete the required information on this google sheet. Please be advised that completing the google sheet will not produce a confirmation of hire completion, PeopleAdmin will.

When can my student begin?

A student must complete and submit all new hire paperwork and must be entered in the Banner system of record before they are able to begin employment. If a position is not set up, the student will be unable to access TimeClock Plus to record their worked time and, as a supervisor, you will be unable to see them in TimeClock Plus for approvals. The start date will be driven by the submission of materials. Please work with your student to have all required items submitted to our office ASAP. Required documents are available on the student portion of this site.

If you've completed your new hire request via PeopleAdmin, you will receive a confirmation when the student has been set up in their position. If you've submitted your request via the google sheet, you will not receive confirmation but will know your student is set up when they are accessible to you on TimeClock Plus.

IMPORTANT NOTE: The ability to work prior to the proper completion of an employee set-up is not a college decision, it is a legal and compliance matter. Students should not work until their positions are finalized and all required hire documents have been received.

How can I request a pay rate change for my student?

A pay rate change can be provided if the student is earning a regular raise, duties/responsibilities have changed for their current role, or as an equitable change due to outside factors; such as minimum wage increases. As always, please check with your budget leaders to ensure any student raises still fall within the given budget.

How do I end a student position?

Student jobs will be terminated either at the end of the Fall or Spring semesters, depending on the hire request.  To terminate a student position early, please submit a formal request through this google form:

How do I re-hire my student?

Students can be hired for one semester or for the full academic year.  Students hired for Fall semester only will have their jobs terminated at the end of the Fall semester.  Students hired for the Spring semester or for the full academic year will have their jobs terminated at the end of the Spring semester.

If the position has terminated and you want to rehire the student, please submit a new employment request.  Please note that student jobs do not continue from academic year to academic year without a new hire request.


If you wish to terminate a student's position early, please see the terminate a student section for further instructions.


If you are changing the rate of pay for an active student worker, please see the rate change section for further instructions.


If you are changing supervisor information, please reach out to student.employment@oberlin.edu.  Please provide the following information:

  • Name
  • TNumber
  • Org Code
  • Position Suffix
  • Title
  • New Supervisor Name and TNumber

This information may be found in TimeClock Plus on the Cost Code detail for each student, the format is ID/ORG/Suffix-Title. See the image below for reference:

TCP Screenshot

TimeClock Plus

TimeClock Plus is the time record-keeping system for student employees at Oberlin College. It is the supervisor's responsibility to approve and maintain the time entered by the student. Students will clock in and out of their shifts to record time. Approvals must be submitted at the end of each payroll period. You may reference the payroll calendar for pay dates and deadlines.

  • Academic Payroll Calendar
    • Current fiscal/academic year active payroll calendar. For future dated calendars, please see the Additional Resources section below.

Supervisor training materials are available here and are also available on the payroll website.

For technical assistance with TimeClock Plus, please contact TimeEntryHelp@oberlin.edu

Policies and Procedures

Employment

Academics should take top priority while classes are in session and employment should not interfere with the student course schedule. Additionally, employment on campus is NOT guaranteed for any student. In order to be eligible for student employment, a person must be currently enrolled and fully matriculated at Oberlin College.

Students who withdraw or are withdrawn from their courses will lose any campus employment, effective upon their withdrawal date.

Labor Practices

While it is the student supervisor's responsibility to review and approve time, any reasonable recorded time that has not been approved must be paid to the student in accordance with Department of Labor laws. Excessive failure to approve time could result in disciplinary action and loss of student worker privileges.

Student employees generally are not permitted to work more than 20-30 hours per week during the academic year. This is in large part due to the Affordable Care Act (ACA) tracking and reporting hours requirements for the IRS, to determine benefit eligibility. Students going over the threshold must be offered benefits, and the cost will be fully charged to corresponding departments. Departments may reduce student hours to comply with the policy.

Federal work-study award recipients who earn their maximum award amounts in the corresponding academic year will convert from federal work-study payment status to student wage to meet the federal guidelines.

FICA EXEMPTIONS

Per the IRS website, during the academic year when classes are in session, all student jobs are FICA exempt. FICA exemptions are also possible during the academic year when classes are in break (e.g., Winter Holiday break and Fall/Spring break), provided the student employee was eligible to work the last day of classes/exams preceding the break and will be eligible to take classes for the academic period following the break. Summer employment is NOT FICA exempt. Summer earnings will have Social Security and Medicare deducted from the gross pay.

Additional Resources and Documents

Please find a list of additional resources as it relates to student employment below

Memos

Calendars

Training

Forms

  • Student Missed Payment Form
    • The position number for jobs in TimeClock Plus is S10680. The suffix will be the unique identifier. This may be found in TimeClock Plus on the Cost Code detail for each student, the format is ID/ORG/Suffix-Title. See the image below for example reference:

TCP Screenshot

Miscellaneous


IMPORTANT UPDATES

Virtual Pre-Orientation Session - Student Employment - Did you miss the virtual session for Student Employment on August 16th? Have no fear! A recorded session is here. Please find the recorded session and the slide presentations below:

Reminder to student worker hiring departments/supervisors - Student jobs do not roll over from one academic year to summer or to the next academic year.  If your student worker will be returning, you will need to rehire them.  Please see "How do I rehire my student?" in the Information for Employers section above.

Student job start and end dates -Supervisors of student workers, please note the following: 

  • 2023-24 Full academic year and Fall-only 2023 jobs will begin on 08/14/23*
  • Fall-only 2023 jobs will end on 01/28/24
  • Spring-only 2024 jobs will begin on 01/29/24*  
  • 2023-24 Full academic year and Spring-only 2024 jobs will end on 06/02/24
  • 2024 Summer jobs will begin on 06/03/2024* and end on 08/11/2024

*Actual start date is dependent upon hire request and new hire documentation submissions.

Exceptions Include: Withdrawn Students, Termination Requests, Graduated Students, and FWS-specific employment with exhausted funds. 

OCMR Elimination and Checks - Effective Spring 2023 OCMR mailbox are no longer being used. Please see the communication sent to all students on 2/3/2023 here for additional information and guidance.

Common FAQ's - Have questions about Student Employment?  Here are the answers to some frequent FAQ's.

Contact


Room 205
Service Building
173 W. Lorain St.
Oberlin, OH 44074

Student.Employment@oberlin.edu
[p] 440-775-8144 [f] 440-775-8683