Johnson School Administrative Service Center: Hiring Student Employees

Administrative Service Center
235 Sage Hall
Phone : 607- 255-7541
Fax : 607-255-2823

Hiring Student Employees

For additional information on types of employees, please see Employee Definitions.

Appointment Process

Please send a list of your student workers (TAs, RAs, Administrative Assistants, or Program Assistants) to HumanResources@johnson.cornell.edu before the start of every new semester. The information needed includes: Names, Duration of the Appointments, Course Number, Stipend, Authorization and Account(s) to be Charged; i.e., STAR. If/when splitting charges between multiple accounts, authorization is required for each account.

When you have identified the student(s) you would like to hire, please direct them to the Student Employment and Payroll part of this website. They will need to complete the necessary paperwork that will enable us to officially appoint them to the payroll. This must be done prior to their actually working any hours.

The "appointment process" requires some effort on the individual's part. However, when the process is done early, it is relatively easy and straightforward.

Introduction

The work done by most of our graduate students complies with the criteria for professional exemption by the FLSA and is therefore more appropriately treated as an exempt versus hourly activity. Therefore, instead of designating TAs or RAs as hourly employees, we no longer require them to track, log and obtain approval for actual hours worked. Instead, they will be provided with a stipend based roughly on their expected effort.

The Administrative Service Center will work with you to determine a fair and equitable stipend to pay TAs or RAs. Even though we should not think in terms of "hourly rates" as the decision is that these individuals are exempt, for calculating purposes only, we will use something like $12.00 per hour; i.e., 10 hours a week * 14 weeks (full semester course, including prep and grading) = approximately $1,700. You can differentiate your estimate by student or use a standard number to be applied to each individual. Not everyone will commit to the exact level of commitment each week. (Note: If someone does end up putting in significantly more time than originally expected, the Administrative Service Center can process a supplemental payment at the end of the semester. It is expected, however, that such adjustments will be minimal.)

Policy

Any faculty member or department administrator who has funds available can hire a Student Employee. Wages will be charged directly to the STAR or departmental account. The Administrative Service Center does not maintain a list of students interested in working or have any place in which to post openings. Student positions can be posted on the University's Student Employment web site (see Student Employment Opportunities). To remove an ad from the Student Employment web site, please e-mail sesemp@cornell.edu.

If the individual you hire is not a Cornell student and officially registered as a full-time matriculating student at the University, he/she cannot be considered as a Student Employee and wages will be subject to fringe benefits. See Hiring Procedures for Temporary Employees for additional information.

Job Titles

Any student hired to work in an administrative area, i.e. Admissions, Career Management Center, Development, etc., will be appointed as an Administrative Assistant or Administrative Program Assistant, depending on the level of responsibility and whether or not the individual hired is an undergraduate or graduate student. Authorized Job Titles, Rates of Pay and Levels are as follows. This work, unlike that of a TA or RA, is NOT considered exempt by the FSLA and students appointed to these job titles are hourly.

Positions		Hourly Rate
Administrative Assistant		$7.50
Administrative Program Assistant		$8.10

Hourly Rates, Specifically for Undergraduate Students
Position		Hourly Rate
Administrative Assistant		$7.50
Administrative Program Assistant		$8.10
Research Assistant (Academic only)		$8.80
Teaching Assistant (Academic only)		$10.00
Computer Assistant		$8.80
Lab Consultant		$9.70

If none of the job titles indicated and/or rates of pay are adequate, you will need to write a detailed job description and submit it to the Administrative Service Center, who, in turn, will send it to the Office of Student Employment for classification and wage justification.

Job and Wage Classification

As you can see from the information in the chart, the Johnson School, like so many other units and colleges on campus, treats the majority of its graduate students as exempt employees. Graduate students will be paid a flat fee in exchange for a specified commitment over a specified period of time (half semester or full semester) subject to the Supervisor's preference. The graduate student will receive pay in regular installments until their appointment is finished. They will not record any hours in any timekeeping system such as COLTS II.

Undergraduate students are paid hourly ONLY. They cannot be compensated by fee payments and are required to record their hours in COLTS II.

Reappointments

All students in the Johnson School are appointed to the University Payroll by semester only. Therefore, if they continue their employment from one semester into the next, they must return to the Administrative Service Center to be reappointed. To reiterate, the reappointment process is NOT automatic. The Administrative Service Center must be informed of any employment arrangements, in advance.

If your student graduates and continues working past Commencement, their pay rate will remain the same, but wages will be subject to fringe benefits and their employment status changed to that of a temporary hourly employee.

Recording Hours - UNDERGRAUATE STUDENTS ONLY

It is imperative that you advise your student employee(s) to stop into the Administrative Service Center immediately after you have contracted with him or her to be appointed.

In addition, please emphasize to them the importance of entering and approving their hours in COLTS II daily. COLTS II can accommodate retro hours up to 30 days, but it takes an inordinate amount of time to review and approve these hours in the current payroll system.

Both the recording and approving in COLTS II can be done from any computer on campus and from home for anyone who has access to Cornell's computing system. Training will be available on an as-needed basis by contacting the Administrative Service Center at X5-5037. Instructions for approving hours are available at the following website: http://colts2.cornell.edu/gt.shtml

Please be advised that when a student works over 20 hours per week during the academic year, he/she jeopardizes his/her student status.

For additional information, see Cornell's Student Employment Policies and Procedures Manual.