Beginning Wednesday, May 21, students will no longer be allowed to work more than 30 hours a week at their on-campus jobs.

All university employees are employed under the Board of Regents, which are under the Affordable Care Act. The ACA requires that all employers give employees health insurance to those who work over 30 hours per week. Because of this, the university is limiting students to work less than 30 hours to avoid paying for several students’ insurance benefits. The ACA began March 31 for all employees according to Marc Serrett, the assistant vice president for human resources. Serrett said that from May 21, 2014 to May 22, 2015 non-permanent faculty will be under the ACA.

“It’s an initial measurement period,” Serrett said. “To see who we need to offer benefits.”

According to the BOR, this would help determine if seasonal or non-permanent employees should be considered full-time employees.

Students that work hourly and are employed by the university will be affected by the time limit.

“It’s an issue for students who have multiple jobs on campus,” said Binnewies Hall Community Assistant Nick Reagan.

According to the BOR in a document regarding the ACA written on Feb. 27 students that are a part of a work-study program will not have their hours working for a program count towards the 30-hour minimum. The document also states that “[a]ll other hours of service for which a student employee … is paid … are required to be counted as hours of service”. 

“A lot of students will lose hours because of it, making it tougher to pay for college,” said bookstore employee Kyle Rokeh.

The 30-hour limit is applicable to not only hourly student workers, but the staff members of residential life.

The BOR made a recommendation for students working within residential life or another job that required the employee to be on-call, that they “use a reasonable method for crediting hours of service for which the employee is scheduled to work and scheduled for any on-call hours…”. This provided frustration for Reagan, as he had an additional campus job along with being a CA.

“No matter what if we have another job, they have to have money on reserve for our insurance,” Reagan said.

According to Reagan, CA’s are no longer allowed to have any other campus employment.

With the ACA affecting the students, it also affects full-time employees.

“I think that even though it appears to be more negative toward part-time employees like us, overall it’s a good thing,” Rokeh said. “Everyone now has health insurance with their employer if they work full-time, which I think is the way it should be. No law, act or plan can please everyone, but I think this helps out a lot of people who didn’t have health insurance before.”