1
Student Employee
Handbook
Prepared and Presented by:
Office of Institutional Diversity & Inclusion
2
Table of Contents
Introduction
Our Mission………………………………………………………………………………………………………………..3
Organizational Chart…………………………………………………………………………………………………..3
Our Policies
Family Education Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA)……………………………………………………….4
Your Role and Responsibilities……………………………………………………………………………………7
Professional Office…………………………………………………………………………………………………....7
Dress Code…………………………………………………………………………………………………………………8
Telephone Etiquette (Cell Phone)………………………………………………………………………………9
Office Telephone Skills………………………………………………………………………………………….….10
General WKU Polices
Enrollment Requirements………………………………………………………………………………………….12
Summer Term……………………………………………………………………………………………………………12
Employment During Non-Enrollment Periods…………………………………………………………….13
Academic Requirements…………………………………………………………………………………….……..14
Evaluations………………………………………………………………………………………………………………..14
Criteria for Performance Evaluation………………………………………………………………………....15
Grounds for Dismissal……………………………………………………………………………………………….15
Pay Rate……………………………………………………………………………………………………………..…….16
Breaks and Lunches……………………………………………………………………………………………….….16
Resignation……………………………………………………………………………………………………………….16
Transferring………………………………………………………………………………………………………………17
Sexual Harassment……………………………………………………………………………………………………17
3
ODI Mission Statement
The mission of the Office of Institutional Diversity and Inclusion is to provide
resources to the campus community and the external community that promote
inclusive excellence, access and social justice for all. The Office of Institutional
Diversity and Inclusion affirms that being a member of an under-represented
group may be achieved by membership in one or more of the following social
identities: Asian American, Asian Pacific American, Black, GLBTQ, Gender,
Latino/a, Mental/Physical ability, Mexican American, Native American, Primary
language spoken, Religious belief and Socioeconomic status.
ODI Organizational Chart
4
WKU Confidentiality/Disclosure of Records
Western Kentucky University is bound by federal law to comply with the
provisions of the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act of 1974 (FERPA).
Maintaining confidentiality of educational records is the responsibility of all
users whether the individuals are faculty, staff, or students. According to
FERPA, an education record, with limited exception, is a record which is
maintained by the institution, directly related to the student, and from
which a student can be identified. As student employees, it is important
that you understand the limits of confidentiality in regard to student records
(including your own records).
What is FERPA?
The Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act of 1974, also known as the
Buckley Amendment, affords certain rights to students concerning their
education records. FERPA provides for the right to inspect and review
education records, the right to seek to amend those records, and the right to
limit disclosure of information from the records. FERPA applies to all
institutions that receive federal funds under any program administered by the
Secretary of Education.
Who is protected under FERPA?
Students who are currently enrolled in higher education institutions or were
formerly enrolled are protected. The records of students who are deceased are
not protected under FERPA. Students who have applied, but have not attended
an institution, do not have rights of protection.
What are Education Records?
Education records are those records that are directly related to students and
are maintained by an educational institution or party authorized to keep
records for the institution. Education records include any records in the
possession of an employee that are shared with or accessible to another
individual.
Records may be handwritten or in the form of print, magnetic tape, film or
some other medium. FERPA coverage includes records, files, documents and
data directly related to students. This includes transcripts or other records
obtained from a school in which a student was previously enrolled.
Examples of education records include, but are not limited to:
5
* Biographical information including gender, nationality, race and ethnicity,
and identification photos
* Grades, test scores, evaluations, and courses taken
* Coursework including papers and exams, class schedules, as well as written
email or recorded communications that are part of the academic process
* Disciplinary records
* Financial aid records
* Internship program records
Education records do not include:
* Sole possession notes or private notes no one else can find or see
* Law enforcement or campus security records
* Employee records
* Medical records
* Alumni records
What information can be released about a WKU student?
Directory information is information available about a student that is not
considered harmful or an invasion of privacy if disclosed. While FERPA protects
the privacy of education records, directory information is not treated as
confidential and may be disclosed by the university without student consent
unless the student requests a confidentiality. At WKU, the following has been
designated as directory information:
* Student name
* Local/permanent addresses; telephone number(s) and email address
* Date and place of birth
* Major field of study
* Participation in officially recognized activities/sports
* Weight/height of members of athletic teams
* Dates of attendance
* Degrees and awards received and dates
* Most recent previous educational institution attended
* Enrollment status (full-time, part-time, withdrawn, and date of withdrawal)
6
What is Non-directory Information?
Non-directory information refers to information that generally cannot be
released without the student's consent. This includes:
* Birth date
* Religion
* Citizenship
* Disciplinary status
* Race/ethnicity
* Gender
* GPA (grade point average)
* Marital status
* Social security number
* Grades/exam scores
* Number of hours enrolled
* Class Schedule
Students may submit a privacy form to the Office of the Registrar in Potter Hall 233
requesting all information remain confidential. If a student has a privacy form on
file, WKU cannot release any directory information about the student.
FERPA is a federal law. Violation of the law may result in the loss of federal money
given to WKU.
Please note: This information has been developed by the Office of the Registrar to
provide general information about the law and procedures related to accessing
confidential student information and to provide guidance on commonly asked
questions or situations faced by faculty, staff, students and parents. It is for
information purposes only; this information is not university policy nor is it
intended as legal advice. Questions pertaining to the Family Educational Rights and
Privacy Act may be directed to Freida K. Eggleton, University Registrar, 238 Potter
Hall, (270) 745-5432.
FERPA is a federal law. Violation of the law may result in the loss of federal money
given to WKU.
7
Office Work Environment: Your Role and Responsibilities
You are scheduled to work your hours per week to accommodate both your
class schedule and the unit’s needs.
Your Student Employment Request Form specifies your dates of service; these
dates will align with WKU’s academic calendar. Discuss any required changes
from the agreed-upon schedule with your supervisor well in advance (at least
a 3-day notice).
Academic departments will be open during final examination weeks. Your
schedule for that week should be reviewed with your supervisor in case there
are any conflicts with your final exam schedule.
Keep your supervisor aware of your current contact information, including
local phone numbers, address, and email address, and communicate any
changes promptly so that you can be reached if needed.
Professional Office
Be on time. A little early is better than a minute late.
BE ready to start when your shift starts. That means that you are at your work
area and you do not leave unless your shift is over.
BE aware of the effects of your actions on your co-workers. If you are late, illprepared, or not where you are supposed to be, then you are not meeting your
job responsibilities and someone else has to do more as a result.
DO NOT call in at the last minute. You should make prior (ideally, three days)
arrangements for schedule changes.
DO NOT expect your supervisor or other office staff to call you to find out where
you are. You must take on the responsibility of having a job. If you will be late,
notify your office with a reason as soon as you know this and give an estimated
time of arrival.
8
CHECK IN with your supervisor when you come to work and
when you leave.
ALERT your supervisor when you have completed a task or project and check
for additional work. Ask if there are tasks you should have in reserve for times
when work may be slow, such as organizing books and magazines, and decluttering the office.
Dress Code
You are employed in a professional capacity and will need to establish
authority and respect with our student population, their parents, other visitors,
and University personnel. Therefore, your appearance should not detract from
your professional image. While not wishing to dictate dress, certain styles are
clearly unacceptable. If it is appropriate for the beach, a party, cleaning house,
weeding the garden, etc., it is inappropriate for the office. Make sure your attire
reflects the appropriate level of professionalism.
Warm weather attire may include skorts or shorts. NO BOOTY shorts. Items
should be tasteful and portray a polished image. Inappropriate apparel includes
boxer shorts, biker shorts, and pajama bottoms. Shorts and skirts may be worn as
long as they are to YOUR fingertips. We will follow the fingertip rule. Tee shirts
are acceptable as long as they do not contain any offensive words or pictures and
do not contain advertisements for alcohol or tobacco. Head scarves, hats,
turbans, and do rags are not appropriate for wearing in the office.
Any uncertainties about the appropriateness of an outfit should be discussed
with your immediate supervisor before it is worn to the office. Your cooperation
with these guidelines is appreciated.
9
Cell Phone Etiquette at Work
It may be hard to remember such a time, but through most of recorded history
the world of business operated quite effectively without constant cell phone use.
Thanks to the invasion of cell phones in every aspect of life, including the work
place, more and more firms will be joining those who have published regulations
and policies on cell phone use in the work place.
By following basic rules of good cell phone etiquette, you’ll not only be ahead of
the curve, you will enhance your professional standing at work by displaying
considerate behavior. To avoid cell phone distractions in your office, consider the
following generally accepted rules of good cell phone behavior:
•
Turn your ringer OFF or set to “vibrate.” Set your unit to vibrate while at
your desk. Even if you’ve selected a tasteful ring tone; repetitive incoming
calls will be noticed (negatively) by co-workers and supervisors. If you must
let your phone ring, keep the ringer volume as low as possible.
•
Let “bread and milk” and other unimportant calls go to voice mail. While
it’s wonderful to have a live connection to the important people in your life
(family and friends), frequent chatty calls during your work day will reflect
negatively on your perceived concentration on your duties and be
distracting to others in the office.
•
When you must use your cell phone, find a private, quiet place to
make your calls. Regardless of where you are, most etiquette advisors
agree you should always observe the “ten-foot rule.” Maintain a buffer
zone of at least ten feet from others while you’re using your cell phone.
•
Don’t bring your cell phone to meetings unless turned off and out of
sight. It is expected that if you are attending a meeting, you are paying
attention to the business there. Some etiquette gurus recommend that,
should an important call be expected, either for business or a family
emergency, you could put your cell phone on “vibrate” and bring it with
you. Treat this exception with extreme caution, however. Regardless of
the urgency of the expected call, your supervisor may take a very dim
10
view of a meeting interruption because of your cell phone.
Sending text messages during a meeting is just as distracting and
indicates lack of attention to the meeting business. It is far better to
leave your cell phone at your desk to avoid any “interruption
temptation.”
•
On a LIMITED basis, use text messages instead of voice calls to maintain
professionalism. If you must communicate with someone on a personal
level and voice calls would be awkward or inappropriate, send a text
message to your caller. It’s quiet, fast, and to the point. Excessive texting,
however, is just as annoying and distracting as Web surfing, when your
primary focus should instead be on performing your job.
Office Telephone Skills
As a student employee at Western Kentucky University, you may find yourself
placing and receiving phone calls as part of your duties. You should be aware that
at all times you are serving as a representative of both Western Kentucky
University and your specific department while providing information and services
to callers.
Placing Calls
Before placing a business call, be prepared to leave a message on an answering
machine or voice mail system. Because you have a good chance of reaching a
machine instead of a person, you need to plan the message you intend to leave.
Voice mail systems rely on you to provide the critical information in a way that
allows the intended receiver to understand it.
Whenever you place a call, be prepared to leave message:
•
State your name clearly. If you are calling someone for the first time or
someone you do not know reasonably well, spell at least your last name.
That helps ensure that the receiver knows your name and affords him or
her sufficient time to write it down.
11
•
State the name of your organization. Especially if the receiver is not
already familiar with you and your organization, speak more slowly and
with greater care than you would in a face-to- face conversation. If the
name of your organization contains unusual words, spell those out in case
a listener might have difficulty understanding or spelling.
•
State your phone number. While it might seem obvious that messages
left on answering machines and voice mail systems should contain the
number of the person leaving the message, many do not. Unless you and
the person you are calling know each other well, leave your phone number
so that the other person will not have to look it up. If there is time to do
so, state the number twice and state it slowly enough for the message
recipient to write it down.
•
State the day and time of your call. Although most voice mail
systems now automatically record this information, many systems
require the user to go through extra steps to retrieve it. Your including
that information saves the receiver from having to retrieve it.
•
Clarify the purpose of your call. Remember that the idea of voice mail is
to reduce “telephone tag.” A simple “Call me” does not provide the
other person with sufficient information for him or her to take action
on the basis of your phone call.
Receiving Calls
Callers will evaluate you and your organization based on the way you answer
the telephone and your telephone manners in general. When you answer the
phone, make your greeting appropriate for your office and organization. In
most cases, that means stating your name, department, and organization.
Being prepared for a phone call means being prepared to take notes. One of
the problems with oral communication in general is that messages may be
quickly forgotten. Be prepared to record the essentials of important
telephone calls:
• The name and organization of the person calling.
• His or her phone number (including the country and area codes when
different from your own)
12
• The day and time of the call, noting any differences in time zones.
• The subject of the message.
General WKU Policies
Enrollment Requirements
During the academic year, you must be enrolled at least part-time (undergraduate
6 hours; Graduate 4.5 hours) to be eligible to work on campus. If you drop below
part-time status, employment must be terminated. (Note: during the academic
year, international students must be enrolled at least full-time to be eligible to
work on campus).
Summer Term
If you are a returning at least part-time the following semester, your eligibility
hours per week is contingent upon your enrollment during the summer session.
You would be eligible to work up to 40 hours per week during the interim prior to
session A and during the interim following session C. Eligibility during session A
and session C is determined by the number of credit hours in which you are
enrolled during each session. If you are not enrolled during either session you can
work up to 40 hours per week during both sessions. If you are enrolled during
either session for 1-3 credit hours, you are eligible to work up to 30 hours per
week during the session of enrollment. If you are enrolled during either session
for more than 3 credit hours, you are eligible to work up to 20 hours per week
during the session of enrollment.
If you are enrolling during the summer session only and are not returning at least
part-time the following fall semester, you are not eligible to work through the
period of enrollment (i.e., if you are enrolled in Session A and not returning for
the fall semester, you can only work through Session A).
13
If you are not enrolling for the summer sessions and are not enrolling at least
part-time the following semester, you are not eligible to work for the summer
session.
Employment During Non-Enrollment Periods
Employment during the Christmas Break is considered employment during a
non-enrollment period. You are eligible to work up to 40 hours a week during this
period as long as you are enrolled at least part-time the following Spring
semester. Since this is an interim period, a student can work during this time
without affecting your financial aid package. Prior to the Christmas Break, an
interim list will be sent to all departments. The departments will indicate any
students that will be working this period and the number of hours per week each
anticipates working. Student Employment will then adjust each student’s work
award accordingly to allow for additional earnings during this period. The
department will receive a copy of the Student Employee Change Form to indicate
the change has been made.
Fall Break is considered a period of enrollment. During this time, you should
adhere to the number of hours you normally work. (If it is absolutely necessary
you exceeded your normal hours per week during this period, then your hours
should be reduced by the number you exceeded at some point during your award
period). Student Employment cannot do any adjustments to reflect work during
Fall Break.
Spring Break is also considered a period of enrollment. However, you can work
up to 40 hours during this week. Since the student’s work award does not include
an amount for Spring Break, the award must be adjusted to reflect the amount
that would be earned during this time period. An interim list will be sent to all
departments prior to Spring Break. The department will indicate on this list the
students that will be working during this period, as well as the number of hours
they anticipate working. Student Employment will adjust your award accordingly.
The department will receive a copy of the Student Employee Change Form when
the change has been made.
14
Academic Requirements
You must be making satisfactory academic progress toward a degree to work on
campus. If you have been requested to work and have been denied academically,
the department will be notified by a weekly status report. You may be denied
academically, but qualify for appeal. If so, you would need to submit to the
Department of Student Financial Assistance an academic appeal to be reviewed
by the Appeals Committee. If approved, you will be allowed to work on campus.
If denied, you will not be eligible for employment at that time.
If you are cleared to work on campus and then become denied during the
assignment (enrollment dropped after receiving aid, fail grades, reviewed, etc.,
the department will complete a Student Employee Evaluation and Termination
Form (see page 12) and return it to Student Employment.
Evaluations
Evaluations are sent to the departments once a year by the Student Employment
Office. Your supervisor is required to complete a Student Evaluation and
Termination Form (see page 13) on each student annually and to review your
completed evaluation with you. Both you and your supervisor are required to
sign the form.
The purpose of this evaluation is to provide an opportunity for reinforcement of
significant strengths and for constructive discussion of areas in which
improvement is needed. One copy will remain on file in the employing
department and one copy becomes a part of your permanent file in the
Department of Student Financial Assistance.
15
Criteria for Performance Evaluation
The following criteria are used to evaluate a student’s job performance: 1)
Quality of work/job knowledge-accurate, neat, dependable, attention to detail,
keeps work area clean and well organized, knowledge of procedures. 2) Quantity
of work/productivity-follows task to completion, strives for greater efficiency,
uses time wisely, generates acceptable or above standard rate of work. 3)
Reliability/attendance-arrives on time, dependable work schedule, notifies well in
advance of schedule conflicts. 4) Attitude-shows interest in work, willingly
receives and carries out instructions, seeks performance improvement. 5)
Cooperation/working relationships-acknowledges the difference in working and
social relationships, cooperative attitude toward students and staff, accepts
suggestions and criticism as well as praise, works well on cooperative projects. 6)
Initiative/judgment-ability to adapt to changing situations and procedures,
analyzes and uses sound judgment, shows resourcefulness and initiative, plans,
and organizes work.
Grounds for Dismissal
We have tried to clear our expectations of our student employees. It is your
responsibility to read and understand the Grounds for Dismissal Policy. Any
questions concerning this policy should be discussed with your supervisor. You
may be dismissed for any of the following reasons: 1) Refusal to do assigned tasks
and/or insubordination. 2) Frequent tardiness from work without permission
form your supervisors, or three unexcused absences. 3) Unauthorized use of
office materials, supplies, or facilities. 4) Improper reporting of hours on time
sheets. 5) Consistently poor job performance. 6) Failure to consistency,
maintain a positive, service-oriented approach toward students, staff, co-workers
and others. 7) Reporting to work under the influence of alcohol or other illegal
substances.
16
Failure to comply with one or more of the listed expectations will generally be
handled in the following manner by a supervisor: 1) verbal warning, 2) written
warning, and 3) dismissal.
A supervisor may bypass step one and proceed to step two if circumstances
warrant.
If overall performance rating is marginal and after significant warning there is no
improvement, you will not be rehired for subsequent semester.
There is an appeal process for a written warning. You may appeal in writing to
the Office of Institutional Diversity and Inclusion. If you feel the warning was
unjustified.
Pay Rate
The hourly pay rate for student employees is $7.25. Students should not work
more hours per week than originally approved to work; therefore, overtime pay
rates are not applicable.
Breaks and Lunches
If you are working four consecutive hours, you are allowed one paid 15 minute
break. It is preferred lunch be taken before or after your scheduled shift. If it is
necessary for you to take a lunch break during your shift, it is considered a nonpaid break and should not be included in your number of hours worked. When
you are working full-time, an unpaid lunch hour is permitted, as well as two paid
15 minute breaks (one 15 minute break during each consecutive for hour period).
Resignation
If you choose to cease your employment, you are expected to give appropriate
notice to your supervisor (usually 2 weeks). The department will still complete a
Student Employee Termination Form and return it to the Student Employment
Office. You will be terminated from the department with the date indicated on
the form.
17
Transferring
If you are leaving employment from one department and transferring to another
department, a Student Employee Termination Form will be completed by the
department in which your employment has ceased. The new department will
submit a Work Authorization Form to place the student on payroll for their
department. You cannot be placed in the new department until termination is
received from the previous department.
Sexual Harassment Policy
Employees are required to read the University’s Sexual Harassment Policy and
sign a statement acknowledging understanding. The copy of your signed
statement will remain on file in this office. Any questions regarding the policy
should be directed to your supervisor.