This section reviews policies set forth by the University and University Communications. Should you have questions, please contact your department’s HR Liaison.
The policies and procedures portion of this document serves as a reference to what our expectations are regarding your employment with us. A student employee serves only during the period for which he or she was hired. Employment during any period creates no expectancy of future employment. Student employees may be appointed for any portion of the academic-year or summer employment periods. During the initial thirty-day period of employment, a student employee serves in a probationary status. UC may extend the probationary period for an additional thirty days. At any time during the probationary period a student employee may be terminated at the sole discretion of the supervisor. Such a termination is not an act of discipline. The employment of a student may be terminated at any time, or hours reduced, for financial or program reasons as determined at the sole discretion of the department. If the student’s employment is dependent of their eligibility for wage subsidies (i.e. Federal Work Study (FWS) funding), we will inform the student at the time of his/her appointment to the payroll. Students who want to resign their positions should provide at least two weeks' notice to their supervisors.
Attendance and Punctuality: It is a student’s responsibility to report to work on time for every scheduled shift. If a student cannot work because of an illness or an emergency or will be late to work, he or she must notify his or her supervisor as soon as possible before the shift begins. Departments may require a student who is unable to work during any portion of a regularly scheduled shift to find a substitute. Occasionally situations arise in which a student employee must miss work for reasons other than sickness—the most common such reason is an academic conflict. Student employees are expected to make every effort to plan academic, personal, and work schedules that do not conflict. Potential conflicts should be discussed well in advance with supervisors. Tardiness and failure to provide adequate notice of absence (as determined by the supervisor) are considered grounds for disciplinary action by the employing department.
Additional Notes:
Failure to report to work without notice may result in immediate termination of employment.
Absences or tardiness exceeding three incidents may result in termination of employment.
Assignment and Scheduling Work: Student employee work shifts and work assignments are determined at the discretion of University Communications. If we required a student to work over fall, winter or spring breaks, we will inform student of this at the time of the job offer. Similarly, if students are expected to continue to work past the end of the term or return to work before the beginning of a term, we will inform students of this at the time of their offer of employment.
Homework and Reading: During work hours, student employees are required to perform their work assignments. Homework, reading and other personal work are not permitted during work hours.
Smoking: Student employees must also adhere to the University smoking policy.
Attire: UC maintains a casual dress code for our student employees. We do, however, conduct business with other institutions and clients. Our office is not a nightclub, so please do dress appropriately.
Rest breaks are authorized under the following conditions:
To qualify for a rest break, an employee must work a time block of at least four hours.
Rest breaks may not occur at the beginning or the end of the work day and may not be added to a meal break or other off duty time.
A rest break should not exceed fifteen minutes
Rest break time may not be accumulated.
The following guidelines exist for student employee meal periods. By law, student employees must take a meal period as outlined under these guidelines:
Six hour shifts - Students are allowed at least thirty minutes for the noonday meal. The noon- day meal period is recognized as extending from 11:00 a.m. to 2:00 p.m. An employee who works a shift of more than six hours which extends over the noon-day meal period is entitled to at least 30 minutes off within that period for the meal period.
Eight hour shifts - Students are allowed at least sixty minutes for the noon day meal or for dinner depending on the time of the day the shift begins.
Overtime issues - Students may not work through their lunch in order to accumulate an excess of eight hours in one day, or to try to earn overtime in a given week.
The standard work week for the university begins at midnight on the 11th of the month and ends at 11:59 p.m. on the 10th of each month. The only exceptions to this are time worked in November and December of each year.
Employees are paid on a monthly basis-typically on the last day of the month via direct deposit to their authorized account.
Student employees are required to document the hours they have worked on an approved university time card. For a student to be paid, the time card must be completed, submitted, and approved by the supervisor or payroll representative according to the published payroll schedule. Those actions are the responsibility of the student.
The time card must be an accurate account of the hours worked for each week. Beginning June 2025, timecards will be replaced by Web Time Entry.
The supervisor who approves the employee’s time card/entry must have personal knowledge of the hours worked by the employee.
Supervisors must certify the accuracy of the time card/entry.
Deliberate falsification of a time card or entry by any student employee is a grounds for immediate dismissal.
Rates of hourly student employees are determined by the department. UC generally sets their wages higher than the mandated minimum wage if budget is available.
In general, we schedule students in a way that avoids overtime. A student’s primary focus should be academics. We foster this by limiting overtime to a minimum. Student employees are paid overtime at a rate of one and a half times the regular rate of pay for work in excess of forty hours in a standard work week. The standard work week begins midnight Sunday and ends at 11:59pm the following Saturday.
Evaluation of Job Performance
• UC encourages supervisors to provide a performance review after 30 days of employment.
• At that time, the supervisor will inform the student if an additional probationary period is desired.
• If an additional period is desired, a second review will be conducted after an additional 30 days has passed.
• Students not moved from probationary status after 60 days of employment will be terminated.
• This is not a disciplinary action. It simply means the fit is not a good one.
Policies
Once a student is removed from probation, performance reviews will be conducted at the end of the semester unless there is need to re-evaluate sooner.
Other Policies
Telephones and all other university materials and resources present at a work site are for business use only and are not to be used for personal matters. Student employees should advise their friends not to make personal calls to them while they are at work. All proprietary and other information concerning the business and affairs of the university and its clients should remain private and confidential and should not be repeated to others or used for personal gain.
Other student employment policies can be found at the Career Services Center.