How Many Students Can You Pay?

They begin asking in September. Can I work next summer? Can you offer me a position here? Indeed, this is a great place to work for sure. I collect the names and tell them that we don't make those decisions until spring. But now it is nearly spring and the questions come again, more insistent, more pressing. They need to know, need to make plans, need a commitment.

I meet with the other student supervisors to determine the overall library needs for the upcoming summer projects and library schedule. We go over last year, we review the budget (we will be over this year by a considerable amount, though still within the institutional constraints), look at the summer activities. How many students can you pay? It sounds like an child's game - one potato, two potato, three potato four . . .

No matter how you slice and dice it, we simply cannot offer work to all the students on my list. We end the meeting with some sense, but not a firm decision. We will have to meet again and talk specifics. I let it ride. Then I get the question again. Please, can you give me some idea of whether or not you will be able to offer me a job this summer?

Sigh. We meet again, this time to figure out which students need the help the most. Who is married, who needs housing, who is likely to have to drop out of school if they don't get funded? How sobering to realize that the decisions we make will affect lives. A few have connected with other positions elsewhere and we cross their names off the list.

We calculate and recalculate. How many hours can we offer each person and they can still make ends meet? If we do fewer hours per person, can we keep more students on board? Yes. 2 of them will job share with other departments on campus. Finally we are able to offer work to the majority of the names on our list.

I think it will work. We will be staffed adequately and they will be able to keep going. Sigh. One more summer under grace. I hope the economy improves.