1. Student Supervisors:
What We Need to
Know
A presentation by Crystal Boyce, the Student Supervisor of the College of
William & Mary’s Swem Library Circulation Department

2. Who are our student
employees?
Student employees at Swem:
◦ Interlibrary Loan ◦ IT
◦ Circulation ◦ Media
◦ Administration ◦ Reference
◦ Special
◦ Tech Services
Collections
◦ Serials, cataloging,
acquisitions
◦ Development
But who are your student employees?

3. Please select a piece
of candy from the
center of the table.

4. Group Activity
 When we go around the room, please say:
◦ Name:
◦ Position:
◦ What your student employees do:
 If you have a….
 Twix: best part about supervising students
 Starburst: most common problem when supervising
students
 M&M’s: thing you would like to see change

5. Financial Aid
 The Financial Aid  Financial aid packages
office coordinates indicate a particular
employment dollar amount, but this
opportunities available is not a limiting factor.
to students on campus.  Since campus
 Federal Work Study is departments are
a need based program reimbursed by
awarded as part of the financial aid, the limit
financial aid package. to the amount a
 Further, Work Study student can earn
funds are allocated would be determined
mostly to out of state by the hiring
students. department.

6. Minimum Wage
 Annual raises are Current
Pay
based on budget Minimum
Schedule
availability. Wage
1st year $7.25
2nd year 7.50
3rd year 7.75
4th year 8.00

7. The Tier System
a la Swem…

8. Tier System: Basic
• Tier 1: the basic entry level position at
which all student positions are
categorized by default
• Tier 2: responsibilities and training are
more defined and more integral to daily
functioning than Tier 1 SAs
• Tier 3: accountability to infrastructure
is incorporated into job description
• Tier 4: the highest level of responsibility
and accountability (also used for special
projects)

9. Defining the Tier
System
 Tier assignment based on the  Individuals receive annual
following: raises to account for increased
◦ Complexity of work experience and training.
 This requires a finite
◦ Experience
description of position
◦ Level of responsibility responsibilities and duties and
◦ Training requires that students not be
◦ Broadness/reach of asked to perform outside of
responsibility their assigned position.
◦ Decision making/judgment
◦ Consequence of
performance
◦ Timeliness of problem
resolution
◦ Impact of missing shift
◦ Level of supervision

10. Tier System Process
 Any new position would be
classified as Tier 1 by default.
 Supervisors must submit written
justification for a higher tier
assignment to the Admin
Assistant.
 If job description is straight
forward, Admin Assistant assigns
an appropriate classification and
notifies supervisor; otherwise the
Student Employee Committee will
meet to assign a classification.
 Supervisor can appeal to
Director’s Council to change a
classification if they do not agree
with decision.
 Appeal must be in writing with a
copy to the committee.
 All documentation will be kept by
Admin Assistant.

11. Campus
Policies

12. Eligibility & Hours
 Eligibility
◦ Full time students@ W&M
◦ Fall and spring: enrolled full time
◦ Summer: enrolled full-time or planning to return in fall
◦ Cannot work past graduation
 Limitations on Hours
◦ 20 hours/week during fall and spring
◦ Individual departments can require a minimum or maximum number of hours
◦ Breaks, interims, summers: up to 40 hours/week
 Schedules and Attendance - Flexibility and scheduling varies by department
 Probationary Period – at least the first 30 days of employment

13. Active Employment
 Breaks
 Lounge privileges
 Visitors
 Computers
 Equipment
 Access codes and
passwords
 Raises
 Continuation of
employment

14. Student Paperwork

15. Worker’s
Compensation
 Take care of injury
 Notify supervisor of
injury ASAP
 Use same procedures
for reporting staff
on-the-job injuries
 Most students will
seek medical
attention at the
Student Health
Center

16. Direct Deposit
 All new student  SunTrust Bank (with
employees should a branch right next
sign up for direct to the W&M book
deposit store) brokered a
 Don’t need a VOID- deal with W&M to
ed check – can use when all employees
bank statement with were required to
routing and account have direct deposit –
number special deals for WM
 Checking or savings people
account  Contact Ms. Michelle
Smith at SunTrust
(564-1480) or WM
Payroll Ops

17. Hiring Forms
 Student  Dates on I-9 and
Employment Student
 Federal I-9 (online) Employment form
 W-4 must match and
should be dated
 Virginia W4
within 3 days of
 Confidentiality turning into
 Direct Deposit Deloris/Financial
 Emergency Contact Aid
Forms are on the Financial Aid webpage
http://www.wm.edu/admission/financialaid/typesofaid/employworkstudy/do

18. Managing Student
Employees:
The Circulation Version

19. Managing 30+ students per
semester has taught us a number
of valuable lessons – here’s our
chance to share them with you!

20. RESPECT
 Treat the students as you would have them
treat you.
 Further, expect them to show you the respect
you deserve.
 Remember that for many of our students, this
is their first job, so many of the job skills we
might expect/hope our students to have will
need to be developed.
 Remember that we have work-related jargon
that our students may not understand, so try
to make instructions clear by avoiding jargon
during training.

21. Balancing Work &
Classes
 Most departments only  While it is not our
offer student hours responsibility to ensure
between 8-5, which leave our students are
the student evening open balancing their work and
for studying and academic load, we also
clubs/organizations. cannot expect incoming
 However, all students (especially
departments must freshmen) to understand
consider the student’s the new burdens they
academic course load will be taking on.
when determining work  We recommend
schedules. freshmen work only 5-7
hours per week.

22. Common Student Employee
Problems
 The student employee who complains
 The student employee who procrastinates
 The student employee who resists change
 The student who is dishonest
 The student employee who violates library rules
 The student employee who violates university rules
 The unmotivated student employee
 The student employee with low morale
 The disloyal student employee
 The student employee with absenteeism problems
 The student employee with personal problems
 The student employee with personality problems

23. Common Student Employee
Problems:
What this really means
 The student who will no call/no show
 The student who doesn’t have good work etiquette
 The student who is constantly late for work
 The student who calls out of work often
 The student who does homework while at work
(instead of other work)
 The student who disappears or avoids work in
general
 The student who hangs out with friends while
working

24. Effective
Management
 Most unpleasant responsibilities of
management are disciplining and
terminating student employees
 Corrective discipline is designed to make
employees aware of misconduct or poor
performance and to give them the
opportunity to correct their behavior or
improve their performance
◦ Verbal warnings
◦ Written warnings
◦ Suspension
◦ Termination

25. Prevention
 Realize that many problem student
behaviors can be prevented by using
proper training techniques and making
sure that the student worker fully
understands his/her job description.
 Provide the student with written
expectations to include job
responsibilities, hours to be worked, and
any information the student will be
responsible for knowing while working.

26. Problem Resolution
 Situations,  Keep track of student’s
circumstances, and the work. This allows you
people involved differ to monitor (and thus
from one problem to reward) good behavior
another. or to keep track of
 Evaluate everything (and thus deal with)
individually and problem behavior.
decide what actions  Have a system in place
are the most that standardizes what
appropriate. to do when problem
 Know your own behaviors arise, so that
limitations. no student can
complain about special
treatment.

27. Resources
 The Swem Student Handbook (https://
swem.wm.edu/forms/student-employee-handbook-acknowledgement)
 Complete Guide for Supervisors of Student
Employees in Today’s Academic Libraries by
David A. Baldwin and Daniel C. Barkley. 2007
 Effective Management of Student
Employment by David A. Baldwin, France C.
Wilkinson, and Daniel C. Barkley. 2000
 “Managing Student Employees” by Alberta
Davis, Emily Okada, Rebecca Stinnett, and
Bara Swinson. Indiana Libraries, vol. 24, no. 1