Your Guide to Getting a Campus Job

by Madeline Mosher

Last year, 1,600 Cedarville students worked on campus, according to Cedarville’s website’s Jobs on Campus page and human resources assistant Jennifer Cochran. If you’re interested in joining this legion of moneymakers, read on.

You have an advantage over last year’s army, who, according to Cochran, didn’t have access to much student employment information online. To answer this problem, people from the Business Division, Enrollment Management, Web Services, Marketing and Communications and programmers joined forces to create a shiny new student employment website.   

“One thing we are doing to enhance and to provide better education for the students is to pull [the student employment website] out from under financial aid and just provide a general student employment website, where it’ll be a dedicated student employment website, a dedicated student employment office,” Cochran said.

The website will help you along the first leg of your money-making mission, which is, naturally, finding a job. It will encourage you to take initiative in your job search, said Cochran. Not all the jobs out there make their way to posted job listings.

“Some departments have their own recruiting activities, so be proactive, network with departments, network with student employees on campus, and be proactive in your effort to secure a job on campus,” Cochran said.

Completing Tax Paperwork

Once you’ve been offered a job (congrats!), you need to fill out tax paperwork, namely the W-4, the federal tax form, a state tax form (if it applies), and the I-9 form, explained director of payroll Cindy Weir, and Cedarville’s Jobs on Campus page.

“[The I-9] proves two things: number one, your identity, and then two, your ability to work in the United States,” Weir said.

It requires a selection of documents. Here’s some choices:

1. An original passport, or

2. An original social security card and a picture ID, or

3. An original or certified copy of your birth certificate and a picture ID

If you’re an international student, you can still work on campus. You just have to complete a few more steps.

You need to fill out the same tax forms as domestic students, and obtain a social security number, said coordinator of international student services Brenda Reid.

With Reid, you can schedule a time to visit the social security office to apply for your number. You don’t have to get yourself there, either. Reid’s office provides transportation.

When you go to the office, said Reid and Cedarville’s website’s International Students Welcome to Campus page, bring these documents:

1. A letter from the international office

2. A letter from your employer, which needs to

a. Name and describe your job

b. Tell when you start

c. State how many hours per week you are expecting to work

d. Provide your supervisor’s name, signature, and contact information

3. Your passport

4. Your I-20 form

5. Your I-94 form

6. A completed social security application

Then, you have to be patient. It takes up to two weeks to receive your number.

So get out there. Those 1,600 troops won’t wait for you.

You can find Brenda Reid in BTS 218 or email her at breid189@cedarville.edu.

Most of this information, excluding that for international students, can be found on the new website: https://www.cedarville.edu/Offices/Student-Employment.aspx.

Under student resources, you can find a link to the CU Hired email. You can use that for questions, or visit the student employment desk at the information desk in the upper SSC on Monday through Friday from 1-4:30 p.m.

Madeleine Mosher is a sophomore journalism major and a Campus News Co-editor for Cedars. When she’s not complaining about homework or having a snack, she enjoys coffee, words, and rock ‘n’ roll.