MADISON REIBER
reibermj@lopers.unk.edu
COVID-19 is causing financial uncertainty for the world. This includes the local students who need their work-study jobs to pay their bills. UNK has implemented a plan of action to help with the damages.
Many UNK students have jobs on campus with positions such as intramural refs, lab monitors, tutors, campus radio broadcasters and undergraduate studies participants. Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, students are finding themselves out of work.
“I have created an emergency paid administrative leave policy related to COVID-19,” said University of Nebraska President Ted Carter in a press release. ”Effective immediately and subject to supervisor approval, University of Nebraska employees may take up to 80 hours of administrative paid leave in the event of self-quarantine, quarantine or care of an immediate family member, childcare resulting from school closures or other related scenarios.”
As for UNK, many jobs will be altered or have reduced hours. For example, campus rec will be changing and reducing the hours that students will be paid.
The UNK computer labs are changing the lab monitor hours. The lab monitors are allowed to log the hours that they would work on a normal day and will still be compensated, despite not being able to work.
Undergraduate studies have been changed. The research week will now be all online and submitted on April 10. Students will still be compensated at the end of the term as usual.
Radio students will experience change as well. Now that sports are no longer happening, KLPR will play music on the radio and keep listeners posted on the COVID-19 crisis.
“We will still hear from students, just in a bit of a different format,” said KLPR General Manager Ford Clark. “The station still operates with our automation system, so we will still be on the air. The student workers will still get paid, as I understand it. I am currently working with our Sports Director, Austin Jacobsen, to come up with some sort of programming.”
The status of UNK work-study jobs is subject to change as the situation develops in the future.
