Healthcare reform could force Wright State to change student employment policies and cut students' hours

Student employees could soon be limited to a maximum of 24 hours of work per week due to federal regulations resulting from the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, according to Assistant Vice President for Student Affairs Gary Dickstein.

Dickstein spoke at the Student Government meeting Tuesday night during advisory reports, and said that federal regulations from the upcoming healthcare reform will require employees working over 30 hours to receive health benefits from employers, which will force Wright State to reduce student employee hours.

“Obviously [students] can’t be considered employees and get health benefits from the university, because no one would go here because [they] couldn’t afford the tuition,” Dickstein said.

Student stipend positions will now be changed to hourly, though Student Employment will do its best to secure the net amount of pay for these formally stipend positions, according to Dickstein.

Dickstein said that if finalized, the guidelines are set to begin around “the first day of summer session”, or May 6.

Dickstein also said that the changes were the result of federal legislation, not a decision rendered by Wright State officials.

“This is not the university’s doing, this is federal legislation that’s not going to change,” Dickstein said.

Dickstein also said that the university would have to do the best it could with the negative circumstances.

“We have to just figure out a way to work within [the policy] that creates a process that is in the best interest of our students to work the maximum amount of hours they can within the budgetary constraints that this new policy creates,” Dickstein said.

In addition to restricting the number of hours a student can work in a given week, the changes will require every student worker to use a timecard, and will continue to limit international students to 20 hours a week due to Immigration and Naturalization Service laws and standards, according to Dickstein.

Dickstein said that Resident Assistants, Graduate Teaching Assistants and President Ambassadors will also be affected, though he is not yet sure exactly what changes will be put in effect for these positions.

“Nothing is finalized, but it looks like this is the path were heading on,” Dickstein said. “We’re going to do everything we can do to make the best lemonades out of lemons we can make. The only question is how sour is the lemonade going to taste?”

The Guardian will continue to follow and update this story as more information is confirmed and collected.

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