Financing a college education is a concern for college students, who are often stereotyped as being poor or in insurmountable debt. In response, many of those students seek employment, especially in on-campus university departments.
Kerri Keller, director of the Career Center, said the university employs students in 174 of its departments, according to numbers she said were from Human Capital Services.
Some of the largest employers on campus include Housing and Dining Services, Bramlage Coliseum, the Kansas State Student Union and the Division of Facilities — which altogether employ nearly 1,700 students.
Keller said with all departments considered, the university employs between 5,500 and 6,000 undergraduate students each year, as well as about 2,000 graduate students as graduate assistants, graduate teaching assistants and graduate research assistants.
Student servers and runners
As one of the largest employers on campus, Kramer Dining Center employs nearly 300 students. With a larger staff size, Melissa Schrader, unit director of Kramer Dining Center, said this enables students to work about 5-10 hours a week, giving them an opportunity to focus on classes and homework.
“Students don’t want to overload themselves with work because they have classes and are getting adjusted to college life,” Schrader said.
Schrader said the dining center encourages all students to apply for jobs, especially students living in the Goodnow, Marlatt and Wefald Hall communities.
“For some students, (Kramer) is their first job, so they’re able to learn customer service skills and responsibility,” Schrader said. “There is quite a wide variety of jobs (and) for our entry-level students, the tasks are simpler,” Schrader said. “A lot of serving food and running food from where it’s produced to the service point.”
With all of these tasks to do, Schrader said help from student employees is absolutely critical and it takes approximately 2,500 to 2,800 student hours to operate Kramer each week.
Student librarians
Another employer on campus that offers opportunities for first-time employees is Hale Library.
“We employ anywhere between 50 to 70 students,” Kimberley Piper, human capital representative at Hale Library, said. “Right now we’re on the low end, between 55 and 60 student employees.”
Since the library’s student staff is on the low end, Piper said now is a great time to apply for a job.
“We’re really flexible and work with students’ schedules and extracurricular activities so that they can maintain their grades and activities,” Piper said.
Currently, there are about a dozen positions open in different departments at the library.
“A lot of student employees are graduating, and we need to fill those positions,” Piper said. “Our library helps student specialists conduct research, help people find resources, help users find library materials and sometimes open and close the library.”
The library also offers jobs that require more technical skills.
“Our instructional design librarian wants someone who is going to assist her in designing and creating online learning tools,” Piper said.
Other more specialized jobs include technology support and computer assistance for students and staff.
Piper also said that freshmen can apply for any of these jobs.
“We really want people who have attention to detail and customer service skills,” Piper said.
For a listing of on and off-campus jobs for students, visit http://www.k-state.edu/careercenter/students/jobs/.
