Solveig (Jorgensen) Lund
College is something that an individual is striving towards for their entire life. The objective is to do well and be successful. To complete a degree program, a student must be focused on being able to handle the time commitment and the continual workload. The college experience, as well as the needed time to study, can be challenging, oftentimes when a student has to support the financial obligations to attend college the overall work load and commitment increases. Many students have to work to support the cost of attending college. Solveig Lund indicated in her oral interview that she worked at the Olson Forum Desk while attending Concordia. (1) Ms. Lund discussed the benefits of having on-campus employment as part of her college experience.
Costs of attending college have increased since 1990 across the country. Concordia’s tuition has increased 254% since 1990, this is an annual increase of 10.6%.(2) This rise in tuition implies that a student must work during college to help pay for expenses. Levy reports that 40 percent of undergraduate students work during college. (3) At Concordia Engelhardt mentions that 65 percent of the students worked part time in 1985. (4)
When attending college, an individual must focus on schoolwork to ensure that assignments and projects are turned in on time. Furthermore, time management is an import skill to attain during college. The balance between handling the college workload coupled with an employment commitment requires a well-managed schedule. Attending college while working at the same time can be difficult for an individual. DeSimone concludes that a college student’s grade point average will decline the more hours a student works while attending college. (5) Warren, Lapore and Mare found similar results to the DeSimone study with high school students and grade point average declines based on part time employment. (6) (DeSimone “The impact of Employment”) Other studies by Tyler and Oettinger also show patterns of lower grade point values for students who work varying hours while attending high school. (7)
Having a job alone oftentimes can be a large commitment for a person. A job may cause a person stress due to performance expectations, scheduling conflicts, and time obligations. The ability to maintain a job, while attending college provides financial resources as well, gaining experience on balancing the role of a student with that of an employee. When someone has to work while attending college this can be time consuming and tiring, which may detract from studying.
When going to school and work is put together this adds up to a full time job commitment. School is technically a job in a sense as well; school is just a different kind of a work assignment. If someone is putting twenty to thirty hours a week at a job and then going to school everyday, this can be a long workweek. This causes the person to dedicate time to both “occupations”. This time commitment can build a great deal of stress and anxiety particularly when an individual does not have ample time to relax or spend time with friends. While attending college a person cannot over commit to other activities, which may cause time pressures resulting in missing class timeframes. Missing classes and/or getting off track with course work may cause a person to be frustrated and lead to a cycle of inactivity due to work-life challenges. If this occurs a person needs to make the needed adjustments so that school and work performances are not affected.
If a college student has an on campus job rather than one off campus, scheduling and workload balances may be a little easier. A person would not have to leave campus as often, which would allow more time to complete class assignments. Depending on the job that you get on campus, the employer may be more sympathetic to the needs of a student when exams, projects, papers or finals are present, as opposed to an off campus work situation. In many jobs, particularly those in restaurants, the pace is not compatible with an employee doing class related items during working hours.
College students face the dual role of going to school and having a job to finance their education. This situation forces the person to balance school with work. The ability to balance these two roles provides the person with a valuable set of work skills that will be used throughout one’s chosen career. The better a person is able to balance these two “occupations” the more successful he/she will be in the long term. This short term juggling will provide long term benefits for the person concerning time management, prioritizations, independence and work life.
The history of Concordia shows that students have worked while attending school. Current students have experienced large tuition increases, which require them to be employed to support the cost of education.
Essay by Meaghan Kagan
Sources
(1) Solveig Lund, “Solveig ( Jorgensen) Lund Oral History Interview, 2014,” Concordia Memory Project, accessed December 12, 2014, http://concordiamemoryproject.omeka.net/admin/items/show/729.
(2) Chronicle of Higher Education. “Tuition Over Time, 1999-2010.”(2014)
http://chronicle.com/article/Interactive-Tool-Tuition-Over/125043/
(3) D. Levy, “The Benefits of Working While Enrolled in College.” (2014)
https://www.edvisors.com/student-employment/jobs/benefits-of-working
(4) C. Engelhardt “On Firm Foundation Grounded: The First Century of Concordia College (1891-1991).” Concordia College. (1991) (Moorhead, MN.)
(5) J. S. Desimone“The Impact of Employment during School on College Student Academic Performance.” (2008) NBER Working Paper No. 14006, May.http://www.nber.org/papers/w14006
(6) J. R.Warren, P. C. LePore and R. D. Mare. “Employment During High School: Consequences for Students’ Grades in Academic Courses.”(2000) American Educational Research Journal. Vol. 37 (4). Winter pp. 943-969.
(7) J. H. Tyler “Using State Child Labor Laws to Identify the Effect of School-Year Work on High School Achievement.”(2003) Journal of Labor Economics.Vol. 21 (2). pp 381-408 and G. S. Oettinger "Does High School Employment Affect High School Academic Performance?"(1999) Industrial and Labor Relations Review. Vol. 53(1). pp 136-151.