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Tuesday, December 3, 2002
Work-Study Program Improved
UNC's program has become more flexible
By Eshanthi Ranasinghe
Staff Writer
UNC’s Federal Work-Study Program
is the most competitive it has ever been,
and officials promise that the improve
ments only have just begun.
In addition to the program becoming
Internet-friendly, several new job oppor
tunities were opened to students this
year and wages were increased.
At the beginning of the fall 2002 semes
ter, officials at me Office of Scholarships
and Student Aid implemented anew job
classification system for FWS students.
Under the new system, students are
paid wages set to their skill levels instead
of a flat rate.
“The goal of the job classification pro
ject was to establish a compensation sys
tem that differentiates among skill levels,
Congress Addresses Attendance; Religion
By Kemp Baldwin
Staff Writer
Student Congress will present the
Faculty Council with a resolution next
semester asking members to review and
revise their attendance policy to be more
tolerant of students who miss classes for
religious reasons.
Congress passed the resolution at its
last meeting, and Tony Larson, former
speaker of Congress, said he plans to
sign the resolution soon.
Larson said he was approached by a
student who was upset with the policy.
He said the student told him that
Chancellor James Moeser had come to
speak at N.C. Hillel and said the atten
dance policy only encourages - rather
than requires - faculty to allow students
to miss classes to observe religious holi
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abilities and prior work experience -
one that recognizes and pays for the
wide array of job responsibilities and
duties that a student performs,” said
Ann Trollinger, senior assistant director
for the student aid office.
In the new system, supervisors of work
study students are given control over the
amount paid to the students as long as it
stays within limits set by the office.
The system consists of four classifica
tions: pay levels SI through S4. Jobs
under the SI category, such as that of a
clerical assistant, require no experience
or previous training. Students can
receive wages of $6 to $7.75.
The highest pay level is S4, in which
students might be paid anywhere from
$11.25 to sl3. These students are
expected to perform advanced technical
services.
days.
Speaker Carey Richter will take the
resolution to the Faculty Council next
semester. She said although Congress
can’t force any changes, she hopes the
council will take the resolution seriously.
“Their policy hasn’t been updated since
1957, and this is just a statement,” Richter
said. “This is just a statement on behalf of
the student body that it is out-dated.”
Council Chairwoman Sue Estroff
wasn’t available for comment Monday.
Larson said Congress thinks the pol
icy is unfair because the University cal
endar seems to shadow the Christian
calendar. Breaks fall on Christmas,
Easter and Good Friday, while people of
other religions are forced to choose
between class and their faith.
“The breaks are called Winter Break
and such, but they always fall on these
“We wanted supervisors to have more
flexibility in setting wage rates,”
Trollinger said.
“Students are now being rewarded
for the level of duties that are being per
formed, and supervisors are now creat
ing positions that are academic-related
and career-related.”
In previous years, officials at the stu
dent aid office had one set wage, which
then would increase by 30 cents for each
year of work and by 40 cents for the stu
dent’s senior year.
For students employed on campus,
the most they could make was $8 during
their senior years. Asa result, officials
had to over-award funds by as much as
300 percent each year to achieve full uti
lization of funding.
“Before we had to offer a lot more
positions ... more than we had avail
able. ... (Now) the Office of Scholarships
and Student Aid is seeing an increase in
students accepting their awards,”
holidays while other religions aren’t
accommodated,” Larson said.
Mitchell Kaye, a member of N.C.
Hillel, said that most faculty members are
flexible but that he has friends who had
professors who weren’t accommodating.
Kaye said in previous years, Jewish
students had to break their Sabbath -a
day on which one is not supposed to
work - because exams were scheduled
on Saturdays. “I don’t think anyone
should suffer penalty for observing their
faith,” Kaye said. “But I don’t think the
holidays should all be days off because
we would never go to school.”
Larson said he thinks the policy needs
to be changed to ensure that people of all
faiths have the ability to practice their
religion without jeopardizing their
grades. “All it needs is a change in the lan
guage to make it not just encouraged - so
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News
Trollinger said.
“We feel that work-study wage rates
are now more competitive with off-cam
pus and other on-campus non-work
study jobs.”
Under the new system, students in the
FWS program sign up for jobs online
through Student Central and then go in
for an interview with the job’s supervisor.
Officials plan to expand the FWS
program to develop jobs for students
who do not qualify for student aid. The
Job Location Development program
should be in place by the spring semes
ter, Trollinger said.
“JLD is a part of the Federal Work-
Study Program but differs from the
existing program in that students do not
have to be eligible for financial aid in
order to participate in JLD’s newly cre
ated positions,” she said.
The University Editor can be reached
at udesk@unc.edu.
that if a student comes to a faculty mem
ber ahead of time, they can be assured
they can practice their faith,” he said.
But Larson also said Congress under
stands that all this must be done within
reason. “We are not asking for them to
write the calendar around every single
religious holiday,” Larson said. “We just
want them to allow students to practice
their faith unpenalized.”
Larson said this is the first resolution
of its kind that he could remember
Student Congress passing. But both
Larson and Richter said they believe the
Faculty Council will think seriously
about the resolution. Richter said,
“They’ve been great this year in terms of
student concerns.”
The University Editor can be reached
at udesk@unc.edu.
Lights to Boost Safety,
Beauty of Franklin St.
Construction part of downtown initiative
By Vida Awumey
Staff Writer
New benches have been placed on
Franklin Street and custom light poles
and fixtures soon will follow as part of
Streetscape, the Town Council’s plan to
reconstruct downtown Chapel Hill.
The Streetscape initiative has been in
operation since 1993 and is geared
toward achieving the Town Council’s
vision for downtown. The program’s
managers came before the council in
early November and requested funding
to implement their ideas for improving
the Franklin Street area.
The poles and fixtures will be added
to Franklin Street along with the four
benches already in place to begin recon
structing down
town Chapel Hill.
Curtis Brooks,
one of Streetscape’s
landscape archi
tects, said the
Chapel Hill Arts
Commission was
responsible for
selecting the bench
design. He said the
total cost of the
“The downtown area is the
front door to Chapel Hi 11...
that will encourage people to
spend time and money. ”
Jim Ward
Town Council Member
benches was about $3,500.
“They’re not comfortable, but it’s
art,” he said.
The Town Council approved Nov. 11
the installation of poles and fixtures that
will be custom-made by Duke Power
Company. Twenty lampposts will be
placed on the 100 blocks of East
Franklin and North Columbia streets at
a cost of $1.3 million for the entire light
ing plan.
Town Council members said they
decided to support option two out of
four choices proposed by town staff
because it will provide the best lighting
and is the most aesthetically pleasing.
“Option two allows for the most
focused lighting, and it is important to
raise lighting in downtown Chapel Hill
for safety issues,” said council member
Jim Ward.
The plan includes short, pedestrian
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tures to provide even lighting on streets.
Council member Flicka Bateman said
option two was the most attractive pro
posal and added that Streetscape is
important because it is helping the econ
omy of downtown Chapel Hill.
“It is good because downtown is the
area University alumni come back to
and also what visitors come to see,”
Bateman said.
Ward said the economic factors are
what helped him to decide which option
was best. “The downtown area is the
front door to Chapel Hill and the eco
nomic engine that will encourage peo
ple to spend time and money,” he said.
Bateman said council members
based their decision on the pros and
cons of each pro
posal rather than
the costs.
“Option two
was the most
expensive, but it
offered more flexi
bility in terms of
where the light will
shine,” she said.
Both Bateman
and Ward said
they are supportive of Streetscape.
“They are right on schedule, and we
need to continue to make downtown
attractive,” Bateman said.
Brooks said that the downtown repre
sents the community and that the
Streetscape program is money well spent
in efforts to improve the whole down
town. Brooks also said that the program
plans to reconstruct all of Franklin Street
and that it is 30 to 40 percent complete.
“The plan was to do all of Franklin
Street and across streets of Church,
Graham and Rosemary streets that have
not received as much recognition,” he
said. “But eventually, we will run out of
money, and we hope private endeavors
will come in to help with the recon
struction.”
The City Editor can be reached
at citydesk@unc.edu.