[Correction (April 18, 2025): A previous version of this article stated that the Work Study allotment was $3,500. The figure is instead $3,000. The article has been edited accordingly.]
On April 2, the Working Student Coalition (WSC) released a petition advocating for an improvement to Vassar student workers’ labor conditions. The petition argues, “While Vassar prides itself on supporting low-income students and promises to meet 100% of demonstrated financial need, the College falls short of this commitment.” WSC’s main concerns are twofold. First, although the Work Study allotment of $3,000 is an essential part of many students’ financial aid, most students do not earn their full allotment, which jeopardizes their ability to pay for their education. Second, current wages are not increasing to match tuition raises, despite student workers performing essential work across campus.
The petition also advocates for an overhaul of the hiring process, adequate and paid training for all student jobs and direct negotiations between the College and student workers. In an email to The Miscellany News, WSC wrote, “As of April 15, 663 student workers, students, faculty, alumni, and other members of the Vassar community have expressed their support for our demands.”
WSC’s petition argues that student worker wage increases are insufficient to cover rising tuition. Vassar students earn the New York minimum wage, which increased by a little over 3 percent from 2024 to 2025 to stand at $15.50. According to Vice President for Finance and Administration Bryan Swarthout, the total cost of attending Vassar will increase by 4.5 percent between the 2024-2025 and 2025-2026 school years, outpacing minimum wage.
In a collaborative written correspondence, Swarthout, Vice President of Operations for Technology and Human Resources Carlos García and Director of Human Resources Operations Linda Wessberg wrote, “While the federal Work Study minimum wage remains $7.25/hour, Vassar has chosen to match New York State’s minimum wage… As both tuition and financial aid have risen, Vassar has kept the maximum Work Study allotment steady, meaning students work fewer hours each year to earn the same total amount.” In fact, according to the Department of Education’s Federal Student Aid Handbook, Vassar did not choose to match the New York minimum wage: The handbook states, “If a state or local law requires a higher minimum wage, the school must pay the FWS student that higher wage.”
In the petition and an Instagram post from April 7, WSC noted that only 37 percent of student workers report earning their full Work Study allotment. The petition says this figure has been verified through internal communication; the Instagram post says the verification came from the Student Employment Office. Swarthout, Garcia and Wessberg wrote, “About 75% of student workers met or exceeded 75% of their allotment, and about 37% earned 100% or more. While students are not required to accept or maintain the schedules and roles offered to them, the percentage of Work Study allotments earned by students increased from AY 2023 to AY 2024.” While students can earn up to $3,000 through positions that are paid on an hourly basis, some students have earned additional money through stipends received from another job.
Swarthout, García and Wessberg also explained, “Student Employment makes every effort to place Work Study students in jobs, but Vassar neither requires students to accept positions nor guarantees employment for students who do not meet expectations. Since Human Resources began tracking placements in 2020, Vassar has never run out of available positions for Work Study students.” Despite the availability of Work Study positions on campus, WSC’s petition notes that the current hiring platform for on-campus jobs, JobX, is often inefficient. According to the VSA’s Second Annual Comprehensive Survey, only 29.5 percent of students more often than not hear back from employers about Work Study job applications. WSC’s petition states, “When work-study funds are part of the financial aid package, but jobs and allotments are not guaranteed, Vassar’s commitment to meeting 100% of financial need becomes hollow.”
Swarthout, García and Wessberg noted that not all students receive the maximum Work Study allotment of $3,000 because the total is determined by their individual financial aid package. The administrators wrote, “In 2023, we shifted to a semester-based ‘bucket of hours’ system to give students and supervisors greater flexibility in scheduling… This change also created opportunities for students to earn beyond their Work Study allotment.”
While WSC’s petition also demands that the College enter direct negotiations with student workers, when asked by The Miscellany News if administrators would engage in such negotiations, Swarthout, Garcia and Wessberg explained: “Since forming the Student Employment Advisory Group in March 2023, we’ve implemented changes that have improved hiring rates, increased student earnings, and raised the percentage of Work Study funds utilized. We remain committed to working with students to identify additional improvements—through the VSA, regular surveys, and other feedback channels.”
Student workers interviewed by The Miscellany News expressed that meeting their Work Study allotment is difficult. Patrick Cincotti ’28, a lifeguard at the Athletics and Fitness Center, said, “It’s hard to get shifts, especially now that the swim team doesn’t practice in the mornings or in the afternoon. I would just work swim practices, and that’s how I would get, like, eight hours a week. But now I work once a week.” Although Cincotti is busier now due to sports practices, he expressed that a freer schedule likely would not make working easier: “I would still probably just be working two [hours]. Because there’s no shifts available for the work.”
Student employees with guaranteed weekly hours have also raised concerns about receiving just compensation for their time, especially House Team. House Teams, the groups of students who provide support to residential houses as Student Fellows, House Fellow Interns, Community Fellows and other roles, are required to arrive on campus two weeks before returning students move in. During these two weeks, students receive situation-based training on how to support their peers, attend workshops and engage in bonding exercises. While House Team members are paid hourly wages during the school year, they are not compensated for their two weeks of training.
Jewett House President Jadon Sobejana ’25 wrote by email, “I absolutely think that HT [House Team] members should be paid for their training. I think a lot of ResLife activity at Vassar comes from the engagement of our College’s individual HTs and their members. And a large part of that role comes from having to arrive at Vassar about two weeks early before move-in, and going through this intensive training.” Sobejana noted that his thoughts on this are not anomalous: “I’ve heard some complaints & frustration about HT training being unpaid for sure! As I’ve mentioned before, this is because, in large part, the training is super-long, time-consuming, and quite energetically draining.”
The Vassar Student Association’s (VSA) Student Financial Affairs Committee (SFAC) has been advocating for similar changes as WSC. At its April 13 meeting, the VSA Senate passed a resolution submitted by SFAC in support of WSC’s petition. The petition reads, “Collaboration between the WSC and SFAC to realize the demands of student workers will allow both groups to utilize their advocacy resources most effectively. With this understanding in mind and the knowledge of the Association’s long history of advocating for better labor standards, the Association stands firmly with the student workers of Vassar College in support of this petition.” VSA Senator Ian Saunders, who sits on SFAC, elaborated on the VSA’s support for the petition by written correspondence: “This is a glaring concern that cannot be solved by one student organization but must be addressed by a variety of students, including the Vassar Student Association.” In an email, VSA Senator Charlie From ’25, the SFAC Chair, explained the committee’s next steps: “To work with the WSC to see the petition demands realized! Student workers are stronger together!”
During the VSA’s March 30 meeting, senators described discussing proposals about cost of living, wage increases and just-cause terminations with Wessberg. Representatives also explained that Wessberg proposed a system in which wages are determined based on positions’ difficulty level, but noted that this idea has been contentious. Similarly, a seniority-based system has been proposed in which workers’ compensation would increase the longer they stay in their position.
On April 13, SFAC emailed student workers requesting they fill out a Google Form with feedback on two proposals. Proposal No. 1 is to get rid of JobX and the 30-day hiring period solely for Work Study students at the beginning of each semester. Instead, about 80 percent of each workplace’s jobs would be reserved for Work Study students, with the remaining jobs being open to all students. Proposal No. 2 consolidates Wessberg’s proposals by suggesting instituting tiered wages based on job difficulty, seniority by grade level or seniority by experience in a particular job; the lowest wage will be at least the current one. Swarthout, García and Wessberg wrote, “This idea originally emerged from discussions in the Student Employment Advisory Group. We are open to further exploration and have encouraged the VSA to submit a detailed proposal, as agreed at our most recent meeting.”
As of April 15, according to Saunders, 91 students have filled out the proposal form. Saunders wrote, “As for the JobX concern about transitioning from the 30-day priority to an 80/20 job split, there is an even split between students who support the model and students who don’t… Currently, there is an exact split between no tiered wages and wages dependent on skill level required/difficulty of job, with the two remaining options within four percent of each other.” WSC commented, “We are open to considering different proposed solutions as long as they meet our bottom line: fair compensation for all student workers, regardless of position or seniority.”