Dear Business Managers,
Last week, Vice Provost Farmer announced to members of the Work-Study Supervisor Listserv that the WS Program would be moving to a wage-sharing model for all participants beginning with the 2019-2020 academic year. To provide better distribution of this information, the message is being redistributed to members of this listserv.
Please feel free to reach out to me and my team at work-study@unc.edu with any questions or feedback you may have.
Sincerely,
Josh Leonard
Last May I wrote to introduce our plan to expand and strengthen the work-study opportunities we offer to our students by requiring that employers provide a share of the funding for work-study positions. As promised, the Office of Undergraduate Admissions and the Office of Scholarships and Student Aid, as well as off-campus employers, are piloting this approach this year. Today, I’m reaching out to provide additional details about the next phase of this cost sharing, as well as some of the improvements that this approach will provide.
Beginning in Fall 2019, UNC will require all Federal Work-Study (FWS) employers to contribute 15 percent of each student’s gross earnings. That contribution will rise to 30 percent in Fall 2020. On average, these changes will amount to less than $300 per work-study position per year in 2019-2020 and less than $600 in 2020-2021. Positions currently offered through the donor-funded Carolina Works Work-Study Program (CW) will continue to be split at 50 percent each from the employer and Carolina Works for the next two years.
We’ll share technical details about these changes in the weeks ahead, but we wanted to let you know now about the cost sharing so that you can make necessary budget decisions for the coming academic year.
We’re taking this step so that UNC can meet rising the demand for work-study opportunities at a time when public funding for work-study jobs is declining. As a result of this change, UNC will be able to continue to offer employment to every financially eligible undergraduate student interested in self-funding their college experience by working. We are also undertaking required software improvements, providing improved training materials, expanding meaningful learning experiences through the program, and creating work-study opportunities in the summer months.
This change also reflects standard practice for work-study programs across the country. Almost all universities use an employer match to help fairly allocate employment opportunities and allow individual employers to prioritize the work that is most valuable to them.
As a result of our pilot this year with off-campus employers and within the student aid and admissions offices, we’re refining our accounting processes to make things as easy as possible for you and other employers.
Please contact Josh Leonard, Assistant Director for Operations and Employment Programs in the Office of Scholarships and Student Aid, with questions or feedback: work-study@unc.edu.
With thanks for everything you do for our students,
Steve Farmer
Vice Provost, Enrollment and Undergraduate Admissions
Office of Undergraduate Admissions