Student Employment

The Federal Work Study program provides jobs for undergraduate and graduate students with financial need, allowing them to earn money to help pay educational expenses. The program encourages community service work and work related to each student's course of study. Students may explore off-campus employment opportunities with non-profit organizations who have signed agreements with the school.

After a referral is submitted and approved students awarded with this fund will see Federal WS On Campus (FWSON) or Federal WS OFF Campus (FWSOFF) with an award total for the amount they are eligible for the fall and spring semester.  

Eligibility Criteria

• Must have a current FAFSA on file and be eligible for aid 
• Must be degree seeking
• Must be in good academic standing
• Must be enrolled in and maintian at least six (6) credit hours of enrollement during the fall and/or spring semeste
• An I9 and W4 must be completed prior to employment referral being submitted. Documents need to be filled out in person in the Student Financial Services office (for new or first-time student employees)

**The employer (Colorado State University Pueblo) must ensure that the employee completes Section 1 of Form I-9 by his or her first day of work for pay. Employees may complete Section 1 of Form I-9 at any time between acceptance of a job offer and the first day of work for pay.

Hiring Process

• Review job postings
• Contact supervisor for more information about the position (or to set up an interview) 
• If hired for the position your supervisor will submit a referral for employment
• Once you can see your approved referral in your PAWS account via the Student Employment tab, you can begin working 
• Reach out to your supervisor about any contract or timesheet questions or issues

Losing Work Study

• Earnings exceed the work study award
• Work is performed during class time
• Drop below six (6) credit hours
• Change in financial aid eligibility
• Are placed on financial aid suspension
• Working over 20 hours (Saturday-Friday)
• Reporting hours not worked on official timesheet

The Colorado Work Study program provides jobs for Colorado resident undergraduate students with or without financial need. Funding is provided to the University by the Colorado General Assembly. No-need positions are available upon request, but there are a limited amount of funds so the request must be made by March 1 for each forthcoming school year.

After a referral is submitted and approved students awarded with this fund will see Colorado WS Need (COWS) or Colorado WS NO Need (COWSNN) with an award total for the amount they are eligible for the fall and spring semester. 

*Please note that individuals willfully misrepresenting information provided in applying for Colorado student aid funds are subject to penalty of Colorado law.

Eligibility Criteria

• Must have a current FAFSA on file and be eligible for aid 
• Must be degree seeking
• Must be in good academic standing
• Must be enrolled in and maintian at least six (6) credit hours of enrollement during the fall and/or spring semeste
• An I9 and W4 must be completed prior to employment referral being submitted. Documents need to be filled out in person in the Student Financial Services office (for new or first-time student employees)

**The employer (Colorado State University Pueblo) must ensure that the employee completes Section 1 of Form I-9 by his or her first day of work for pay. Employees may complete Section 1 of Form I-9 at any time between acceptance of a job offer and the first day of work for pay.

Hiring Process

• Review job postings
• Contact supervisor for more information about the position (or to set up an interview) 
• If hired for the position your supervisor will submit a referral for employment
• Once you can see your approved referral in your PAWS account via the Student Employment tab, you can begin working 
• Reach out to your supervisor about any contract or timesheet questions or issues

Losing Work Study

• Earnings exceed the work study award
• Work is performed during class time
• Drop below six (6) credit hours
• Change in financial aid eligibility
• Are placed on financial aid suspension
• Working over 20 hours a week (Saturday-Friday)
• Reporting hours not worked on official timesheet

Some departments on campus hire students and pay them directly out of their funds. This type of employment is not considered a financial aid award, but is counted as income when filing for financial aid in the next year.

Eligibility Criteria 

• Must be degree seeking
• Must be enrolled in and maintian at least six (6) credit hours of enrollement during the fall and/or spring semeste
• An I9 and W4 must be completed prior to employment referral being submitted. Documents need to be filled out in person in the Student Financial Services office (for new or first-time student employees)

**The employer (Colorado State University Pueblo) must ensure that the employee completes Section 1 of Form I-9 by his or her first day of work for pay. Employees may complete Section 1 of Form I-9 at any time between acceptance of a job offer and the first day of work for pay.

Hiring Process

• Review job postings
• Contact supervisor for more information about the position (or to set up an interview) 
• If hired for the position your supervisor will submit a referral for employment
• Once you can see your approved referral in your PAWS account via the Student Employment tab, you can begin working 
• Reach out to your supervisor about any contract or timesheet questions or issues

Losing Work Study

• Work is performed during class time
• Drop below six (6) credit hours
• Working over 20 hours a week (Saturday-Friday)

International students attending CSU Pueblo under an F-1 visa status may be hired for employment in an on-campus position if the following requirements are met. Throughout the duration of their employment students must be:

• degree-seeking
• enrolled full time for their degree
• have an I-9, W-4, and I-20 on file with Student Financial Service
• copy of government issued social security card while filling out I-9 form

The student is not permitted to work until the above requirements are met, there is an approved referral, and the student can see their timesheet in PAWS.

International Student Employment Checklist

Number and type of positions

International students may only have an employment contract for one student hourly position at a time. However, students may have both a student hourly and stipend contract if the stipend does not require the student to work additional hours and only supports the student in endeavors they are already pursuing, such as:

• Student research
• An extracurricular activity (i.e. Associated Students Government)
• Supplemental pay for an existing student hourly contract

At no point will a student be allowed to have more than two contracts at the same time.

Student Financial Services will monitor stipend-funded referral requests for international students to ensure they meet the above criteria.

Maximum hours

Students are not allowed to work more than 20 hours total per week at any point in the academic year, including scheduled breaks from courses (i.e. spring break, summer, etc.). The work week begins at 12 a.m. on Saturday and ends at 11:59 p.m. on Friday. Both students and supervisors are responsible for tracking these hours weekly.

Student Financial Services will audit international student hours monthly. If a student works more than 20 hours per week, the following procedure will be followed:

First violation:
The supervisor and the student will be notified and further educated about their responsibility to track hours. They will also be informed that further infractions may result in the student being reported to SEVIS.

Both students and supervisors are required to attend training before any employment contracts will be approved.

For student hourly/stipend you do not need to be registered in summer courses, but must be registered in 6+ credit hours for the following fall semester.

For Federal you must be in a minimum of 3 credit hours for summer and already registered for 6+ credit hours for the following fall semester. 

You may only work up to 20 hours per week during the summer.

Summer Work Study:

Summer work study funding is based upon remaining Federal work study funds from fall 2024 and spring 2025.  Final summer funding will not be finalized until May 15th.  You can submit your allocation request below, but please be aware that you are not guaranteed your requested allocations, but we will do our best to accommodate your request!   

• Students must be entering timesheet records daily to ensure accuracy
• Students must not exceed twenty (20) hours per week, these 20 hours are shared per number of positions held. Work week begins Saturday 12:00 a.m. and end Friday at 11:59 p.m.
• Students must have their timesheet filled out and ready for supervisor approval by the last day of the month. Timesheets must be approved by the Supervisor no later than 5:00 p.m. on the third (3^rd) business day of the month.  Late entry or late approval of student’s timesheets will delay a student's paycheck by one month
• Student's should check every month that their timesheet was approve by the 3rd business day by their supervisor. If your hours have not been approved, contact your supervisor

Entering Work Study Hours

In addition to the student employment programs above, the CSU Pueblo Career Center offers employment services to current students and alumni from the University. They assist students with professional employment, internships, career planning, and career coaching.

These services include: résumé and cover letter development, interviewing skills, how to search and apply for internships, and strategies on how to conduct a self-directed job search. The Career Center coordinates all on-campus recruiting by employers and coordinates the annual Career, Internship, and Education Fairs.

Per the Colorado Healthy Families and Workplaces Act (HFWA), employers must provide 1 hour of accrued, paid leave per 30 hours worked.  Student employees earn 1 hour of sick leave for every 30 hours worked. 

 Sick leave can be used for the following health and safety needs:

• Inability to work due to a mental or physical illness, injury, or health condition.
• Obtaining preventative medical care (including vaccination), or medical diagnosis/care/treatment.
• Needs due to domestic abuse, sexual assault, or criminal harassment including medical attention, mental health care or other counseling, legal or other services, or relocation.
• Care for a family member who needs the sort of care listed above.
• During a public health emergency, a public official closed the employee’s workplace, or the school or place of care of the employee’s child.
• Effective August 7, 2023: Bereavement, or financial/legal needs after a death of a family member; or
• Effective August 7, 2023: Due to inclement weather, power/heat/water loss, or other unexpected event, the employee must
  • Evacuate their residence, or
  • Care for a family member whose school or place of care was closed.

 Guidelines that should be followed by both students and supervisors:

• Students do not earn annual leave. Sick leave should only be used for one of the qualifying events listed above. 
• Leave must be used responsibly and requires advance approval of the leave request, when foreseeable, by the supervisor. Leave that is not foreseeable (i.e. illness, accident, etc.) still requires a request be submitted immediately upon the student’s return to work.
• Sick leave can only be used for time that a student was scheduled to be at work.
• Medical certification will be required for absences of more than 3 consecutive days or shifts. An example of medical certification would be a note from a doctor excusing the student from work.  Supervisors should keep this information on file. 

Beginning in January 2024, student employees will also be eligible for FAMLI+.  FAMLI+ was approved by Colorado voters in 2020 and does differ from FMLA.  FAMLI+ is paid leave, FMLA is unpaid, job-protected leave (which students do not qualify for).

CSU Pueblo has partnered with Sun Life to manage our claims.  Please keep this link or document for your files for reference, as it has all the pertinent information regarding the Colorado FAMLI leave program with Sun Life:  https://p1.aprimocdn.net/sunlife/60ba2cad-004a-464d-bce2-b05e00edf5b7/co-pfml-notice-ee-contrib-original-file.pdf. 

What is SERP? View the SERP - Medicare Information Slides and Q&A

• SERP & Medicare Information Slides
• SERP & MEDICARE Q&A

Background checks will need to be submitted for students in specific positions related to: money handling, working with minors, driving a company vehicle, and/or are dealing with sensitive information.  If your positions has been identified as meeting these criteria you will need to submit a Student Employment Background Check Authorization via Formstack. You cannot begin working until the background check has come back and you have received confirmation from you supervisor that it is completed. 

To confirm your student employment referral, please sign electronically. By signing this letter, you are giving consent for Colorado State University Pueblo to conduct a background check on you; this background check will be performed by HireRight. You will receive email/text communication from HireRight to submit your information for the background check. Your referral approval is contingent upon review and approval of your background check, pursuant with the Background Checks for Employment Purposes policy.

Allocations for work-study positions are contingent upon available funding. To request allocations for your department, you must submit an Allocation Request Form.  SFS will let you know when requests are available to submit.

Allocations are established for both the fall and spring semesters. Therefore, when submitting your request, please indicate the desired number of positions for each semester.

Once the total number of allocations is determined for your department, the distribution of these allocations will be managed by your department, rather than the SFS.

Summer Allocations are determined in April of the academic year and the number of allocations are dependent upon remaining Federal funding from the fall and spring semester.  Requests will be made through a seperate Allocation Request Form for summer only.

FALL/SPRING 2025-2026 Allocation Request Form 

• All supervisors will be prompted yearly to acknowledge in AIS that they have read the Policies and Procedures for Supervisors of Student Employees handbook before they can make updates to Student Employment. 
• Update and maintain your department's job descriptions.
• Obtain approval to announce your department job descriptions (CRA may be required).
• Confirm with the potential student employee applicant(s) that they are actively enrolled in at least six (6) credits for the semester.
• Confirm with the potential student employee applicant(s) that they are work-study eligible, student can confirm via PAWS award offer.
• If a potential student employee applicant(s) cannot confirm work-study eligibility, then consult with SFS.
• Screen and interview potential student employee applicant(s).
• Upon the offer of employment, generate Student Employment Referral in AIS before student employee begins working (CRA may be required).
• SFS must review submitted referrals for eligibility and will e-mail supervisors when referrals have been approved. Students must not start working until the supervisor receives referral approval.
• Ensuring each student signs, a “Student Employment Acknowledgement” that defines expectations.
• Review time recorded for accuracy. Requiring student employee(s) to log in and out of work each day ensures accuracy.
• Confirm weekly that student employee(s) has not worked more than twenty (20) hours per week. Remember the workweek begins on Saturday.
• Approve and submit time recorded by student employee(s) to Payroll, by 5:00 p.m. on the 3rd working day of each month (It is recommended this be done on a daily basis). Late timesheets will delay a student's paycheck by one month! (CRA may be required).
• Your permission is required if your student employee(s) works when the scheduled class has been canceled or ended early. Documentation must be obtained prior to the student working, from the professor that class was canceled or ended early.
• Your permission is required if your student works beyond regular University hours.
• Monitor student employee(s) earnings. Your department will be charged for earnings that exceed the student employees’ work-study award(s)!
• Conduct evaluations for your student employee(s) at the end of each year, or upon termination.
• To end date/terminate a student employee contract, please fill out the Student Employment Performance Evaluation Form.

• Policy and Procedures for Supervisors of Student Employees
• Submitting a Referral
• Approving Timesheets
• Student Employment Acknowledgement
• Submitting a Job Description
• Submitting an Announcement
• Student Employee Performance Evaluation
• Non-Student Hourly Authorization Form
• Anti-Discrimination
• International Student Employment Checklist
• Entering Work Study Hours

Rationale for changes to stipend usage: 
Paying students an hourly wage is more appropriate than providing a stipend when the students are performing tasks or providing services that directly benefit the institution or organization. IRS and labor regulations require that compensation for work performed, whether part-time, temporary, or project-based, must be classified as wages and treated accordingly, including appropriate tax withholdings and reporting. An hourly wage ensures compliance with labor laws, accurately reflects the nature of the students’ contributions, and provides them with the protection and benefits afforded to employees. Unlike stipends, which are intended to support educational participation without any service obligations, wages appropriately recognize and compensate students for their time, effort, and the value of their work. 

Stipend definition:  

A stipend is a fixed sum of money provided to individuals, students in educational programs, workshops, or training projects to support their attendance or participation. Unlike wages, stipends are not compensation for services rendered and are not tied to an employer-employee relationship. They are intended solely to help defray personal and educational expenses such as tuition, fees, books, supplies, and living costs. According to IRS regulations, any payment made in exchange for services is considered a wage and must be treated as such. Therefore, stipend recipients cannot be considered employees. 

Position Types: 

Hired through Student Financial Services (SFS): 

• Stipend – Applies positions that do not require specific services in exchange for payment. Examples include research positions, fellowships, and 3+2 students who do not qualify for Graduate Teaching or Research Assistant positions due to their student level (see below). 

• Hourly (includes work study) – Applies positions that require tangible hours with an expectation of past, present or future service.  

• Hourly/Stipend Hybrid – Applies in positions that have an hourly component for actual time work and a stipend component to defray other costs. An example includes being on call without an expectation of a specific number of hours worked.  

Hired through Human Resources:     

• Graduate Teaching Assistants (GTAs) - Applies to positions for graduate-level students who assist in the provision of education services to undergraduates. Responsibilities may include grading papers, leading discussions or lab sessions, or independent teaching of a class. Students in a 3+2 program may perform these duties at the graduate director’s discretion; however, they must be hired through SFS and receive stipend pay. 

• Graduate Research Assistants (GRAs) - Applies to positions for graduate-level students who typically work with a professor on a project of importance to the student’s scholastic endeavors. Students in a 3+2 program may perform these duties at the graduate director’s discretion; however, they must be hired through SFS and receive stipend pay.