Work-study hit by federal cuts

When UNC-CH junior Caitlin Wood was told that the University did not have the money to award her a work-study position again this year, she had to adjust.

Wood now has two part-time jobs and accepted student loans for the first time this year.

“It actually is harder because I had to get a job to pay for rent,” she said.

The number of work-study positions allocated by the University has decreased by 25 percent, or almost 500 students, since last year.

And as schools across the country absorb federal cuts to financial aid programs, students at other UNC-system universities are also seeing a decrease in available work-study positions from previous years.

“Unfortunately, it’s true that we lost almost a quarter of our work-study program this year,” said Julie Poorman, director of student financial aid, student employment and the financial services call center at East Carolina University.

The decreases in funding for work-study, a federal program, have varied across the system.

Western Carolina University did not receive federal cuts, said Trina Orr, director of WCU’s financial aid office, attributing it to the university’s smaller size.

During the 2011-12 academic school year, 327 WCU students participated in work-study programs, with similar numbers this year. About 1,400 students currently participate in UNC-CH’s work-study program.

But Orr added that it’s hard to understand why some schools receive cuts rather than others.

The Higher Education Act of 1965 authorized most federal student financial aid programs. Poorman said schools that were offering aid during the 1960s and 1970s now have a bigger share of federal funding than newer schools, based on a funding formula that has remained largely unchanged since 1992.

The U.S. Department of Education awards money based on institutions’ prior years of use, and the remainder is allocated according to student financial need.

Federal Work-Study, along with programs like the Perkins Loan and the Federal Supplemental Educational Opportunity Grant, are awarded based on this multi-step “fair share” formula.

When the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, commonly known as the stimulus bill, was passed in 2009, there was an increase in funding for many federal financial aid programs, including work-study.

“President Obama gave schools more money than we’d ever had before,” Poorman said.

But she added that the program has not been getting the same support from Congress.

“I would say that the higher education financial aid programs have not been a priority for Congress for the last year or two,” she said.

In order to ameliorate the strain from decreased work-study positions, departments throughout ECU have been encouraged to find money in their own budgets to pay for a portion of the students, Poorman said.

But she said many departments don’t have any money left, and as a result the full-time staff is expected to do the work that was once done by students.

“Most of the schools in this state, our budgets have been pared down,” she said.

At UNC-CH, a higher demand for financial aid among students during the recession has led to overstretched resources. Last year, the University received $1.5 million from the federal government and provided an additional $2.4 million in matching funds for the work-study program.

Phil Asbury, deputy director of scholarships and student aid at UNC-CH, said the University was unable to match federal funds this year as much as previous years.

“It’s always unfortunate when we have to cut a financial aid program,” Asbury said.

“My hope is that the cut we had to make has not caused any students to be unable to attend the University.”

Wood, who works mostly night shifts off campus, is still at UNC — but she said losing work-study has changed her lifestyle.

“I guess I’m just disappointed and kind of frustrated.”

Contact the desk editor at state@dailytarheel.com.