New program assists academic departments, offers students jobs

Kingsley Burns, The Oklahoma Daily

Marilyse Figueroa, English writing senior, cuts letters for the Psychology department bulletin board Thursday, Sept. 20 in Dale Hall Tower. Figueroa was working as part of the student worker assistant team, a work study program informally known as SWAT, which provides departments with free temporary student workers.

OU’s Financial Education and Counseling Center is killing two birds with one stone with a program that provides jobs and work-study opportunities to students and offers free help to academic departments.

The Student Worker Assistant Team program provides academic departments with filing, mail campaigns, data entry and general office duties.

“[The program] helps students earn a living as well as network to other departments,” coordinator Shanna Stanton said. “It helps departments who are low staffed with tasks.”

Students work anywhere from five to 15 hours a week depending on their schedules’ flexibility, said Stanton.

“It’s mostly independent work,” English writing senior Marilyse Figueroa said. “It’s flexible, and I go right after classes.”

Work-study students are paid directly through the Financial Education and Counseling Center, and departments can reserve students one to twelve days in advance by going to Financial Education and Counseling’s website, Stanton said.

The application for work-study through the program is unavailable at the moment, Stanton said.

Lindsay Bodman

Lindsay is a former staff member of The Oklahoma Daily who worked as Campus Reporter.