The state of on-campus employment has been changing this year. According to students, fewer jobs are available and benefits have been cut, while remaining positions are increasingly filled based on personal connections, making it difficult for students to find and sustain on-campus work.
Senior Abby Kuiper has been a barista at Peet’s since January 2023. As a long-term student employee, she describes her experience three years ago as very different than today. “When I started,” she explained, “we had a lot of benefits. They’ve slowly started taking those away, and now we don’t have any left.”
These perks once included a free item every shift, complimentary meal vouchers and discounted drinks while off-the-clock. Over the summer, Kuiper chose to forgo a meal plan with these benefits in mind. But this fall, she was told by a fellow student that the vouchers had been cut. “I was banking on that,” Kuiper said. Most frustrating, however, Kuiper explained, was the lack of communication by the university. “We didn’t get a why. We didn’t get an explanation,” she added.
Pay, too, has plateaued. Kuiper remembers her checks looking different than they do now. “We, in the past, have gotten a small raise every semester that we’ve worked.” This too has since been discontinued.
Peet’s has also undergone structural changes. Kuiper expressed gratitude for the newly employed full-time, non-student workers. Yet their introduction came with a cost. “It seems to me like they kind of eliminated the student supervisor position,” Kuiper remarked. “And again, this wasn’t communicated with us at all.”
On top of shrinking benefits, on-campus employment is simply more difficult to find.
“I remember checking [Workday] at the beginning of the summer, and there were maybe five listings,” recalled junior Matthew de Vuyst. After returning from the Henry Institute’s semester in Washington DC, de Vuyst was hoping to choose a secure, conveniently located job for the fall. Yet choice wasn’t a factor. Weeks later, when he returned to Workday’s employment tab, he was met with “the same five listings,” none of which were relevant to him.
On the subject, the Calvin Career Center commented that “all available opportunities are posted in Workday, ensuring that every student has equal access to apply.”
De Vuyst wonders if students are finding on-campus opportunities elsewhere. “Most people I’ve talked to have situations where they walked up to a table and had a conversation with somebody that ended up with them getting a job.” Student relationships with faculty prove connective.
Sophie Brouwers can attest. A junior majoring in social work and criminology, Brouwers currently holds two, going on three, on-campus positions. She works as a grader for a Biology course, provides transportation through the Service Learning Center (SLC) and, starting next semester, will serve as student coordinator for Calvin’s Common Good Cohort.
All three of Brouwers’ jobs were forged through her own personal connections. First hearing about it while on the SLC’s spring break trip, Brouwers said “It was helpful knowing the director … otherwise I most likely wouldn’t have known about [the opportunity].”
Though she used Workday to fill out her employment forms, Brouwers did not discover her current positions through the online platform. It may be the case that listings exist elsewhere, or are made known to students through personal networks, as suggested by Kuiper. According to Kuiper, Peet’s has taken this approach. “They, from what I have heard, have stopped posting the position on Workday and it spreads through word-of-mouth,” Kuiper said.
The Career Center recommends that students looking for on-campus employment “start early and stay persistent.” Amidst competitive processes, “students find success by applying to multiple positions.” They encourage students to check Workday listings regularly.
“I think that a lot of people tend to stay in their on-campus jobs,” explained Brouwers, as it is a great way to “get them involved in Calvin.” On-campus positions are often coveted, making it hard for new students to get their foot in the door.
The Career Center also advises students to turn their search towards positions off-campus; including, “yard work, moving furniture, babysitting or running errands,” all jobs which have “flexible hours, quick pay and no long-term commitment,” the same factors that make on-campus jobs so desired. Further, the Career Center recommends off-campus federal work study programs for students with financial need. Still, these inevitably cannot offer the convenience of location that comes with an on-campus job. To de Vuyst, location was a necessary sacrifice; now working off-campus, assisting in a political campaign.
Calvin’s human resources office declined Chimes’ request for employment data or any other information about changes to student employment. Based on these students’ experience, the future and availability of on-campus employment remains uncertain.
