Image taken from Skidmore college’s website.
Author's note: Many students in this article wanted to remain anonymous while being interviewed and expressing specific concerns.
Now that we are over five weeks into the semester, Skidmore continues to invest in preventing the spread of COVID within the community in the hopes that we will have a successful semester of low cases. However, preventing the spread of the Coronavirus comes with the decline of job opportunities on campus. Last year, students advocated for the increase of minimum wage from its usual $9.25-$10.50 to a wage of $11.80-$12.55 per hour for different student employment jobs. However, currently, the competitiveness of jobs on campus has caused the sector to become more inflexible because of limited positions available and a lack of funding to employ students.
Many students have been scavenging for jobs on campus, hoping to not seek off-campus employment, which could situate many at a greater risk of exposure to COVID. There are students who rely heavily on their work study job(s) to help with both personal and family responsibilities. One student voices that prior to the Coronavirus, she worked at least three different jobs on campus to also help her parents with many bills at home. Another student spoke about working on campus to contribute to her tuition, with small student loans taken out for the semester. However, now that many jobs have been cancelled for the fall, students have been immensely worried about balancing the responsibilities that come with the realities of making less money on campus.
Upperclassmen who are unable to work their usual in-person jobs worry about resorting to working in food services, such as the Dining Hall, The Spa, or Burgess Cafe. Dining services are best known for employing the most students on campus, especially incoming freshmen. Many students feel uncomfortable, worried that safely social distancing in these places can be difficult while serving students their food and working with staff & other student workers. A student spoke up about witnessing chefs pulling their masks under their noses or taking them off briefly while entering cooking or working spaces. Skidmore's Dining Hall has been doing a good job with trying to keep social distancing regulations intact by preparing to-go box containers, limiting eating times inside the dining hall, having outside dining tents and sanitizer stations, showing the Coverified app upon entry, and testing students & staff workers’ temperatures before working while ensuring that all workers wear correct working attire. However, even with implementing protocols, the heavy population of students coming in/out and eating at crowded tables without masks makes it uneasy for students to want to work with food.
High paying jobs, such as Media Services, IT Help Desk, department assistants and supervisor positions have transitioned to new platforms online to assist students, staff, and faculty, which requires less hours of work. The IT Desk began using an online service called Kayako, where students can chat with a help desk assistant or staff member about technical issues. Some students who have worked for years at usual high paying jobs have been stripped from them due to limited hours of in-person services. Also, some students discuss their anxieties of patiently waiting for specific in-person jobs to open up again, especially job positions at the Sports center. Brian Lora ‘21, who has worked in the equipment room at the gym for the past year, explains that he is working limited hours and rather than working with several students at once, he can only work individually or with one other student. He also says that he relies heavily on his work study job to maintain himself on campus, and the limited hours of these jobs have been unexpected. Students who live in on or off campus apartments are scrambling to receive at least 4-5 hours a week, as they are affected by the challenges of budgeting, especially with the constant need of buying masks, cleaning products/hand sanitizers for their spaces. However recently, the cardio and weight rooms have begun opening, and students hope that employment will be available there.
Frustrations with the competitiveness and hiring process through the student employment page has resulted in many students remaining without work at all. Some have become exhausted with applying for jobs because the page hasn't been updated or employers haven't gotten back to students about certain jobs they've applied to. One student explained that she plans to not work at all this semester because the exhaustion that comes with looking for work study jobs has been expendable; she would prefer to use her free time focusing on her schoolwork. However, with the slow opening of certain departments on campus, there is hope for students to eventually work sufficient hours at the jobs they once had.