Speaking and Writing Center employee payment policy frustrates some student consultants

ZOE HANRAHAN Staff Writer

A Speaking and Writing Center policy that requires students to clock out while not doing work but stay on-site in the case of walk-in appointments has caused controversy among student employees this semester.

As outlined in the policy, student employees in the center need to be either in an appointment or working on a downtime project to be paid for the time that they are there. If they are working on a project, they also have to record the list of duties they performed during their shift. They are asked to clock out to work on homework or personal projects but remain on the premises in case there is a walk-in appointment.

This policy is outside the norm for most student employment opportunities on campus. In many other campus jobs, students are allowed to do homework, even when they’re being paid for their jobs. It’s unclear whether the policy violates federal regulations dealing with waiting time because, on one hand, the students argue they are required to stay in the center even if they don’t have center-related work to do, but on the other, the director, Leah Schweitzer, argues that there is always work to do and students are making the decision do homework instead of center projects.

“People who have had an issue with having to clock out argue that if we’re obligated to be at the center, then we should be paid for the entire time we’re there, even if we aren’t actively working on something,” said an employee who wished to remain anonymous.

Schweitzer says that while some students might lie about the number of hours they’ve worked, she has found that most Speaking and Writing Center employees are committed to their work.

She said that consultants in the Speaking and Writing Center are treated the same as others in academic services on campus, which include peer tutors and peer academic consultants.

“All of academic services as a unit asks that if you are not going to work, you clock out,” Schweitzer said. “If you come into work and you do not have appointments, and you say you do not want to do work on behalf of the center, but you want to do your own homework, or you want to work on your own personal project, you are not going to be paid to refuse to do work.” would be happy to pay them for all their time at the center.

A meeting agenda distributed at the beginning of the semester, however, suggests that there might be times when the amount of appointments is light, and students might have to clock out. The document says that the first week and post-midterm are “quiet times” and to “be mindful of punches,” which are used to clock in, and that finals week is also not very busy, so “get out of the mindset that there will be lots of work available.”

When consultants are not in a meeting with other students, they have a Google Doc that lists projects they can do. The process of choosing projects from the Google Doc has frustrated some consultants.

Eli Keith, a lead consultant at the center, said that sometimes the document can be difficult to read.

She also said if no center-related work is available for students to complete, she

“We have several Google Documents that are dozens of pages long,” said Keith, an English: creative writing major in the secondary education program. “We have a center Google

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