INTERNATIONAL STUDENT HANDBOOK - Macalester College

Resident Assistant Policy
If you are planning to be a Resident Assistant (RA) and you have student employment as
of your financial aid package, please note that your RA position is your student employment
award. This position is the ONLY student employment position you will be able to
work on campus. There are no exceptions to this policy for the following reasons:
The Residential Life job description requires spending 15-20 hours of work per week; federal
regulations prohibit student from working more than 20 hours per week; you will be
receiving higher compensation than other areas of student employment, so your aid award
will have a higher proportion of work in it; if you were to have any additional work, it
could change your financial aid eligibility adversely.
Non-Aid Student Employment (otherwise known as ‘No-need student employment’).
The student employment program exists to help financially needy students. The only time
a student can be employed who does not demonstrate financial need is if the position is a
Tier II or Tier III job and requires a higher or specific skill. An example of an approved noneed
position is a preceptor. A preceptor has to have taken and received a specific grade in
the course they are precepting in and must also carry a specific GPA. This type of position
could be filled by either a financial aid or no-need student. Policy is, that even in a no-need
available position, given equally qualified candidates, that the position would go to the financial
aid candidate based on the factor that there is a known need.
Jobs that any student can be easily trained to perform are graded Tier I, or do not require
higher or specific skills. These types of jobs are only available to financial need
students. No exceptions.
There are also some jobs on campus, for example, Facilities Management and Café Mac
that have all Tier II and Tier III jobs, but these jobs do not require higher or specific
skills and are therefore only available to financial need students.
For more information go to the Student Employment website at
http://www.macalester.edu/studentemployment/
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