Controversy over the vague language of the Department of Education’s guidelines for distributing federal work-study funds has some faculty members and students questioning SIUC’s policy.

Complaints have spurred an investigation into the University’s practice of allowing federal work-study funds to be used by private businesses. Reactions have varied across the campus, but many peer universities disagree with SIUC’s current policy.

Nancy Dole, a student employment advisor for Eastern Illinois University in Charleston, said the university’s policy does not include outside businesses. Although businesses like Chic-O-Fillet are contracted with on-campus dining services, they are not allowed to the University’s work-study funds under any circumstance.

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“With work-study, you’re supposed to be learning something as you work,” Dole said. “So pretty much, we have enough spaces on campus that need to be filled by our work-study students, and other departments that need the help to sustain their department.”

Federal work-study is a program that allows low-income college students to earn money for college while doing community service or learning skills related to their major.

The government gives a lump amount of work-study funds to universities to dole out to their departments. Students who have work-study awards can be employed by the departments that requested work-study funds and have jobs available, saving them from fully funding their student staffs. Students are then paid with 75 percent of federal work-study money and 25 percent of the department’s budgeted funds.

The departmental allotments to University areas are based on the percentage of funds used from the previous year, according to Daniel Mann, director of the Financial Aid Office. This year’s allotments were based on spending as of March 2004.

Mann said that if one department does not use its funds, the money is transferred to another department that needs it. He said this happens frequently within an area, although often an area uses its entire funding.

Amanda Haynes, a sophomore studying interior design from Charleston, said she had trouble getting an on-campus job because work-study students are given first choice for job opportunities. Haynes said she went to the Student Center at the beginning of her freshman year and was told to come back later due to a high volume of applications from students with work-study.

After returning three times, she went off-campus for a job. She said she was also turned away at the library and several other places because she did not have federal work-study aid.

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“I need the money just as much as they do,” Haynes said. “I really appreciate that opportunity for those students to have that, but at the same time, because I’m not working off a loan, I have to go off-campus for a job.”

Haynes said she feels as if she should get a job easier because she is paying for school by herself, but instead has the hassle of finding an off-campus job.

Mann said that a committee is looking into whether it is appropriate for the University to continue allowing work-study at Student Center businesses and taking a closer look at the guidelines for using work-study funds. He said the committee is looking into why the contracts allow for that practice.

While the Student Center is responsible for all contracting, Mann said he does not know if they are required to have the contracts approved by a higher authority.

Peer institutions like Northern Illinois University in DeKalb allow work-study students to work off-campus at not-for-profit businesses in addition to on-campus departmental jobs, said Human Resource Officer Candy Buie. This is allowed in the guidelines, she said. However, Governors State University in University Park, a suburb of Chicago, does not even use that option, according to Brenda Moore, a financial aid advisor.

LaVonne Novakofski, assistant director of Financial Aid for University of Illinois in Urbana-Champaign, took a slightly different view. She said her university has enough on-campus and community service work-study jobs available that they do not need to venture into the private sector.

“We try to generally stick to non-for-profit businesses,” Novakofski said. “I don’t think it’s something that we would be totally closed-minded about, we just don’t have a need to go that route at this point.”

Bill Bushaw, director of Financial Aid at Western Illinois University in Macomb, said that there is such limited funding at his university, they have not even touched the private sector with work-study money.

“We have designated all the money toward jobs within the institution,” Bushaw said. “Our allocation is such that we have more need here at the university than we could possibly support.”

Bushaw said they would include job searches in the private sector if outside funding was available, but would never use work-study funds for that purpose.

Lan Ding, a graduate in accounting from China, said she did not agree with the SIUC’s policy at all. Ding said that the money was given to the University and should be used for its needs first, especially since a private company has the resources to do so.

“I think maybe we can work for a professor or within a program in the University, but not for a private company,” she said.

Nathan Spencer, a freshman studying forestry from Clinton, said while he thinks private businesses should be able to pay their employees out of their own pockets, he has no problem with the University’s practice.

“I think it would be okay,” he said. “I mean, the money is still going to the students in the long run.”