Collegiate Times

Correction: This story has been modified from its original version. — Quotes from Dr. Simmons were corrected to more accurately portray factual errors that were made previously. The Collegiate Times regrets these errors.

Students on federal work study will see their grants reduced by 41 percent, effective immediately.

The announcement was made in an e-mail to students Oct. 22. 

According to Barry Simmons, Virginia Tech’s director for university scholarships and financial aid, most work study students received $2,000 for the 2010-2011 academic year. With the reductions, they can receive only $1,180.

These students must now work with their supervisors on a case-by-case basis to develop a financial plan for the rest of the year.

Basically, these students are faced with two choices: They can reduce their hours and try to space out their remaining funds until May 2011, or they can continue working the hours they have been with the realization that their funding will end sooner than anticipated.

When FWS money does run out, students may be able to keep their jobs and switch from work study to regular payroll, but that depends on the department they work in and whether that department has enough funding to pay them.

“We have them work about 10 hours per week,” said John Phillips, a professor who employs several work study students in a biology lab in Derring Hall. “Even the current allotments before the reductions were not enough to make it through the whole year. If I don’t have the funds to give them a wage job after their grant runs out, they lose their job.”

FWS is a federal program which provides grants for postsecondary education that students can earn through part-time employment, either on or off campus. Once students qualify for the program by demonstrating financial need, it is their responsibility to find and apply for a position in order to receive the FWS money.

Often students are able to get jobs through programs relating to their majors, which can provide valuable work experience and contacts.

“With the economy there’s more students qualifying for work study, so it’s a smaller pot of money divided between more students,” Phillips said.

Simmons said students’ work study wages are paid 75 percent from federal funds and 25 percent from institutional funds, and that these cutbacks are purely reductions in that federal money.

“It puts a lot of stress and strain on the students. It was already way too little money before all the cutbacks,” Phillips said. “There are a lot of students I have who are just barely paying their way through — I wonder if we won’t see more students dropping out.”

Simmons said the reductions are the result of a “perfect storm” of factors.

“There are three things going on here,” Simmons said. “We have less federal work study money this year, more students are working and more college departments are using work study students.”

According to Simmons, Tech received $1,329,612 in FWS funds last year. This year, the school received only $1,093,000.

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A version of this article appeared in the Oct 29 issue of the Collegiate Times.