Student employees at USF have had recent trouble receiving paychecks on time.
Many students go to pick up paychecks only to be turned away by the administration because either paper work has not been filed on time or checks did not arrive when they were supposed to.
There are some student employees, including some on the Foghorn staff, that have been dealing with this problem as far back as last school year.
We are unsure how long this has been going on. We know that it has been at least two semesters and it is completely unacceptable and needs to end immediately.
Just as professors, administrators, and other non-student, full-time employees on campus expect to get their money on time, so do students.
What would the USFFA do if professors’ paychecks were frequently not distributed on time?
It is unlikely that the USF administration has ever dragged their feet when it comes to promptly receiving their own paychecks. Why does our administration think that students can afford to wait when they themselves cannot?
We doubt USF has ever been late in charging students for tuition or housing.
We cannot go to the bookstore, grab books off the shelf, and say we will pay for them later. We cannot take food from the cafeteria or Crossroads and leave an IOU on the counter.
The cost of living in San Francisco is high and not all students can depend on family or anyone else but themselves for financial support. In some cases, students are supporting others.
Many students have to pay rent, buy groceries, pay for books and supplies at school, and do a host of other things that costs money while providing for themselves.
They depend on their job to live their daily life, and our administration needs to be more understanding of how important it is for some of us to get paid on time.
It is just as important as professors and administrators getting paid. Just because we are students does not mean we don’t have timely financial responsibilities.
Even if students are not living solely off of their USF paycheck, paychecks should still be ready on time.
We work hard just to balance our jobs and our classes throughout the week, not to mention all the work that we do at our job. We are not asking for anything out of the ordinary, only for USF to hold to their responsibility as an employer to its student employees.
We are aware that, in certain circumstances, the problem may be that students are not turning in their paperwork on time, making it difficult for the administration to get paychecks to students on time.
Those are students who are clearly not depending on their on-campus job to pay bills and live their daily life.
Those who depend on their jobs take every measure to make sure that their money is available on time, and it is entirely reasonable to expect the administration to have the paychecks ready.
USF needs to take this matter seriously and prevent this problem from reoccurring. It is unfair for hard-working students to question when, if ever, they will receive their paycheck, and it reflects poorly on the value that USF places on its student body.
