$500,000 to go toward student pay

Up to $500,000 in one-time funds will go toward on-campus student employment for this year, UW-Oshkosh Chancellor Richard Wells announced Tuesday.

Last year, about 1,500 students employees earned an average of $3,200 per person, which was enough to pay for tuition and other fees for a semester. This initiative, called the Student Titans Employment Program (STEP), should allow 150 students to have a campus job.

According to Susan Nuernberg, University's Planning Council member and Chancellor's assistant for strategic planning and office communication, the program is "another way to help address the quality" of our campus and the experiences of the students who attend it.

"Once (students) get hooked on it, they can take advantage of it and they benefit," Nuernberg said.

Wells said he was excited to be able to reinvest funds in students, and since they will be the ones getting paid, they will then be able to more readily pay their way through school.

This is a "major gesture" toward making education more affordable to students, according to Nuernberg, which is one solution to a growing problem.

The Oshkosh campus is dealing with a budget shortfall of $13.6 million, and while money does have to come from somewhere, there will not be any "across the board budget cuts," according to Wells.

Wells and his team's plan to combat the budget is based around one thing: strategy. Money will come from a number of different places, such as pay cuts and tuition increases for students from families making more than $60,000. However, after all the funds are added up, Oshkosh will be left with $1.5 million to use for what Wells calls "strategic reinvestment."

STEP will invest the $500,000 "in student wages to help engage students in educationally purposeful activities and to enhance their opportunities to interact with faculty, academic and classified staff, and peers in substantive ways," according to Wells. This way, whenever a faculty or staff member has a student assignment, he or she can apply for STEP funding.

In order for students to apply to work within the program, they have to indicate in their announcement portion of their Titan Jobs account that they are interested in STEP. Their resume will then be shared to departments that are looking for help.

This creates a win-win situation for students and faculty and staff alike, according to Nuernberg. Now, for example, faculty and staff don't have to keep learning new technology that they may not understand or have the time to learn. Students can get paid to teach them.

As for the continuation of the program, Nuernberg said she's hopeful there will be enough money.

"We don't know what the mid-biennial budget situation will be," she said. STEP will invest the $500,000 "in student wages to help engage students in educationally purposeful activities and to enhance their opportunities to interact with faculty, academic and classified staff, and peers in substantive ways," according to Wells. This way, whenever a faculty or staff member has a student assignment, he or she can apply for STEP funding.

In order for students to apply to work within the program, they have to indicate in their announcement portion of their Titan Jobs account that they are interested in STEP. Their resume will then be shared to departments that are looking for help.

This creates a win-win situation for students, faculty and staff alike, according to Nuernberg. Now, for example, faculty and staff don't have to keep learning new technology that they may not understand or have the time to learn. Students can get paid to teach them.

As for the continuation of the program, Nuernberg said she's hopeful there will be enough money.

"We don't know what the mid-biennial budget situation will be," she said.