Student Employment staff are available during college working hours without appointment to students and supervisors alike who need assistance with troubleshooting and/or training on Oracle functions related to student employment.
Questions about student employment? Log a ticket with AskHR: START
Retrieve, review, update, or create job description as appropriate. If updating or creating a new job description, send the final copy to studentwork@stolaf.edu to have it added into the Job Archive.
For equitable hiring and compliance purposes, new vacancies or created jobs must be posted.
Interview applicants and select the best candidate for the job based on the qualifications set forth in the job requisition.
A job offer (work authorization) must be made to the selected candidate. If a student is eligible for hire, an accepted job offer will generate a timecard for the respective position.
A STUDENT MAY NOT BEGIN WORKING WITHOUT AN ACCEPTED JOB OFFER AND TIMECARD.
In order for the entire hiring process to be satisfied, a student requires a work award and required employment paperwork. If student is not found under a supervisor’s “My Teams” tab in Oracle – or if there is a “pending” status next to the student’s name – this indicates the student does not have employment requirements fulfilled and they may not begin work.
Ordering a background check
Request a background check here.
Checking the status of a background check
If you would like to find out the background check status, you can contact Luke Wood directly at wood28@stolaf.edu.
Mass requests for background checks
Mass requests for background checks, 30 or more, please contact Luke Wood directly at wood28@stolaf.edu.
Important Reminders
It might be helpful to contact the students to remind them to complete this process in a timely manner.
Background checks can take up to 4 weeks to complete.
Please confirm whether you need a regular background check or a Kari Koskinen. A regular background check is the default choice for most student employees.
There may be times when you need to request a change of hiring manager or a change of wage for a student worker who reports to you. The following videos show you how to submit these requests to the Student Employment Office.
If you would like a student’s assignment to be ended and removed from your My Teams list, please reach out to studentwork@stolaf.edu.
For many departments and units on campus, it is common to rely on students and community members as volunteers. All volunteers on campus are required to complete and submit a Volunteer Form. In some instances, it may be necessary to have volunteers complete background checks. Please email Student Employment (studentwork@stolaf.edu) with questions or concerns about volunteers on campus.
All students are required to complete a general safety training that can be accessed via Moodle. The training includes a training assessment matrix, a video and a quiz. All three elements must be completed. Students may need help from their supervisor as they complete the training assessment matrix to ensure they understand any additional training that may be needed for the position. Please schedule any additional safety training by emailing Joe Udelhofen from the Environmental Health and Safety department at udelho1@stolaf.edu.
All first year students are sent the information to access the safety training at the beginning of the academic year. It is the supervisor’s responsibility to ensure training is completed annually for any returning students.
Directions for students to access Moodle course: Click “Enroll” at the bottom of the page. The first section on the course is the required safety training. The completion of the safety training will be paid so please log your hours under your current position in Oracle. The video and quiz will only need to be completed once per academic year. The training matrix will need to be assessed for any job you hold on campus as additional training components may be required depending upon the position.
Please review the Time & Absence process with new student employees who never participated in work study.
Hours should be logged after each shift the student works using the Time & Absence tile in Oracle. At the end of the pay period, the student and supervisor will need to review the timecard for accuracy and approve it. If there is an error, please reject the timecard with an explanation so the student can correct the error. Students shall not approve other students’ timecards except when approved by the Student Employment Office.
Establish expectations at the start of each academic year/summer. Manage student employee performance by using the GROW at St. Olaf model.
If a student chooses to end their employment, please notify studentwork@stolaf.edu right away and Human Resources will end the student assignment (job) in Oracle.
Type of Work Awards Required
The following policies derived from both internal operational procedures and federal/state guidance.
Students are allowed to work up to the following hours:
The following are general policies regarding student employment vacancies and labor needs:
Non-Need Based Work Awards
Students who does not meet the eligibility or was not assigned a “need-based” work award may request a “non-need-based” work award with the financial aid office if the following criteria are identified:
Note: Non-Need-Based work awards are assigned depending on the review of an individual financial aid profile. Not all students may be eligible for a non-need-based work award. Accepting such awards may alter or impact other existing awards. Confirmation/acknowledgement will be required.
Summer Student Employment
Summer student employment is not part of a financial aid package and is not impacted by a student’s work award or lack thereof. Summer job opportunities are available for all St. Olaf students. Students are paid on a bi-weekly payroll and must record hours in the Time Entry System. A supervisor will need to initiate a job offer. Summer student employment begins the day after final exams are completed in May and ends the day before the first day of class in September.
Summer payroll is separate from the Academic Year payroll and is funded directly by the department’s budget assignment.
Note: If a student is paid at a stipend rate, the rate will be converted into an hourly rate for student employment payroll purposes.
Summer rate of pay will follow the previous academic year wage structure.
The Office of Human Resources manages summer student employment. If you have questions regarding these guidelines or summer student employment in general, please email studentwork@stolaf.edu or call 507-786-3068.
Every St. Olaf international student is eligible for on-campus employment, up to 20 hours per week during the school year, and full-time during designated school breaks. International exchange students who are here for one year, and graduating international students are only authorized to work at St. Olaf until the last day of their final exams.
If an international student is returning to St. Olaf in the fall, they are authorized to work full-time for any on-campus employer that services students over the summer. This includes organizations like Bon Appetit and the Bookstore which normally hire students during the year to work on-campus. Summer research at St. Olaf is also considered on-campus employment.
Graduating seniors and returning students are eligible to engage in off-campus employment but MUST first apply for and receive authorization from the United States government system. Please direct all students who would like to intern, do research, or work off-campus to visit the Taylor Center to process their employment authorization paperwork.
International students should not be offered employment, even unofficially, in activities such as tutoring, babysitting, lawn care, playing music for a local church, working at any restaurant or retailer, etc. Even volunteer opportunities can be complicated for international students. According to U.S. labor laws, there is more to distinguish between employees and volunteers than whether an individual receives payment. Please direct all international students who wish to engage with the community off-campus to the Taylor Center.
Thank you for your help in protecting our international students’ future employment opportunities in the United States by working within these immigration regulations.
Email: dso@stolaf.edu