HR Coordinators

Student Employees (SN/ST/GN/GT)

Student Employees at the University of Alaska

Who are our student employees and how do they play a part in UA's missions?

At the University of Alaska our student employees are a valuable part of our workforce.  Working at the University provides our students with on-the-job training and real-world experience that they can use after they graduate.  

The resources below will provide you with important information about student employees.  The basic information you will need to submit job forms, process electronic submissions, and make changes to your students’ assignments is outlined in the tabs below. 

Please refer to the Student Employment Procedures and UA Board of Regents’ Policy P09.05.020 for even more details and guidelines.

Student employee feeding muskox calves.

Student employees (SN/ST) are students enrolled at the University who are paid on an hourly rate.  They can be non-declared, undergraduate, or even graduate students.  Read on for more information on their requirements:

Enrollment Requirements:

  • During the academic year, students must be taking at least 6 credits (part time).  
  • During the summer, students do not have to be currently enrolled, but they do need to either enroll for fall or show intent to enroll in fall.

GPA Requirements:

  • Students must have and maintain at least a 2.0 GPA to be employed as a student employee.
  • If students are in good academic standing, they may apply for a waiver form which will allow them to work up to 40 hours per week.

Work Schedule Restrictions:

  • While classes are in session, students may work up to 20 hours per week. 
  • They may work more hours during the winter and summer breaks, up to 40 hours per week.

Student Waivers: 
It may be possible to employ a student who doesn’t meet the enrollment or GPA requirements, or who works more than 20 hours per week during the academic year.  Complete a Student Waiver for your campus and submit it to HR with their documents.

Please note, students working on certain visas will have different restrictions for enrollment and work hours. Work with the Personnel Team for more information.

Graduate Student employees (GN/GT) are students enrolled at the University who are paid using a stipend, or bi-weekly pay.  Typically their employment also involves some or all of their tuition being waived.  They must be enrolled as a graduate level student at one of our campuses.  Read on for more information on their requirements:

Enrollment Requirements:

  • During the academic year, the enrollment requirements vary by campus.  During the summer, students do not have to be currently enrolled, but they do need to either enroll for fall or show intent to enroll in fall.   
  • For more information, please work with the Graduate School for your campus: 

UAF Grad SchoolUAA Grad School

Student GPA requirements:
Students must have and maintain at least a 2.0 GPA to be employed as a student employee.

Work Schedule Restrictions:

  • While classes are in session, students may work up to 20 hours per week.
  • They may work more hours during the winter, spring and summer breaks, up to 40 hours per week. 

Don’t forget! Graduate students can be set up to be paid hourly as a SN or ST employee. Please review those situations that may qualify and work with your campus Graduate School for more information.

The Federal Work Study program provides jobs for undergraduate and graduate students with financial need.  The student’s eligibility for this program is determined by their current FAFSA application.  FWS funds can cover 50% of the wages you would normally pay to the student, and even up to 100% for certain programs.

Federal Work Study process diagram.

For more information, please contact your campus FWS Office or review the guidance for hiring a FWS eligible student through myUA.

 Student employees are generally exempt from both Medicare and Social Security taxes when employed during the academic year, provided they meet certain IRS requirements:

  • Enrolled part-time (6 credits for SN/ST & 4.5 credits for GN/GT)
  • Working 20 or less hours a week

Being non-taxable does not mean that a student is not liable for income tax, but their wages are usually so low that income tax is not withheld from their paycheck.

Exception:  

Students can work more than 20 hours a week when classes are not in session and not be taxable.  Some examples of breaks include winter and spring breaks. To work more hours,additional paperwork may be required for Graduate Assignments (GN); Student employees (SN) will just report the additional hours on their timesheet.

Work During the Summer

During the summer, your student employees may be taxable (ST/GT) or non-taxable (SN/GN), depending on their summer enrollment and the number of hours they work.

Summer Enrollment Status     

Hours Worked

Taxable Status     

Not taking classes

20 or less per week   

Taxable

Taking 6 or more credits

20 or less per week   

Non-Taxable   

Not taking classes    

More than 20 hours per week   

Taxable

Taking any number of credits   

More than 20 hours per week   

Taxable

 

After your recruitment has been completed and the Offer Card is approved you are ready to submit your New Hire packet to HR! Use the sections below for more information on how to submit this paperwork to HR. 

For information on student recruitments please review the TA article in Spoke. 

All New Hires require at least a Job Form, Offer Card, appointment letter and I-9. But what constitutes a New Hire? What about a rehire?  In which situations do you need hire documents? Take a look at our Spoke article When are New Hire Documents Needed? for the answers to all these questions and more!

Similarly, there are forms required for student hires which are not required for other types of employees. Do you know What New Hire Documents are Required for Student Employees?

Feel free to browse the Student Employment Procedurefor a comprehensive look at hiring student employees at UA!



PCNs to Use
How to Complete a Job Form
Sample SN Job Form
Sample ST Job Form
Sample GN Job Form
Sample GT Job Form
Student Salary Schedule
EXPL Information

  • GN E-Class

  • GT E-Class

  • SN E-Class

  • ST E-Class

  • Example GN New Hire

  • Example GT New Hire

  • Example SN New Hire

  • Example ST New Hire

Job Form Submission - New Hires & Re-Hires

Need help with putting together your hire packets in Adobe? Take a look at our Adobe How-To Guide!

If your employee has direct deposit, which is highly encouraged, their pay is usually received by midnight on Friday morning. If they are receiving a paper check, they can expect to receive it by Monday of the following week.

Direct Deposit For New Hires

If you have a new hire employee that would like to set up direct deposit, but does not have a single sign on account, please direct them to use this link. They will need to create an account. Once their account is created they will be able to login and complete the direct deposit form.  

W4 Form Online

Importance of Updating the Employee's Address

If your employee will not be signing up for direct deposit for any reason, please make sure their address is up-to-date. Checks sent to out of home addresses cannot be recut and the employee will have to wait for a family member to mail it to them. There is also a fee for the re-issuing of lost paychecks.

Change Address Online

When do we make changes to existing employees?
After an employee is hired and settled in their jobs, there will come a time when you have to make changes. These can range from changes to the number of hours per pay period to changes in pay. Following the steps below will help you with basic changes. If you ever have questions or more complex situations, please be sure to reach out to your Generalist or email Personnel.

Turnaround Job Forms: What are they?
Turnarounds generate a job form based upon entry that has been done in Banner. It looks just like a job form, providing the accurate information currently set up in PEAEMPL and NBAJOBS. It is easy to make updates to the turnaround, route for signatures, and turn into HR. Using turnarounds also makes it easier for the Personnel team to know exactly what things are changing.

See our Printing a turnaround document for instructions on printing your turnarounds!

How to Complete a Job Form (NEEDS UPDATING)
Job Change Procedures
PCNs to Use
Student Salary Schedule
EXPL Information
Job Form Submission - Existing Employee Changes

Supervisors and Timesheet Approvers can be set up by departments in Banner. Having a proper Timesheet Approver allows the timesheets to be completed and submitted by employees through Web-Time Entry. Designating someone as a Supervisor carries over to myUA and impacts organization charts, performance evaluations, and allows supervisors to monitor their employees' training statuses.

Banner 9 NEA2SPE / NEA2SPR
I can't see my Supervisors in NEA2SPE anymore

What is Federal Work Study (FWS)?
The Federal Work Study program provides jobs for graduate and undergraduate students with financial need.

Eligibility: Students must be eligible for federal financial aid as determined by completion of the Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA).

Pay rate: Working conditions are similar to regular student employment.

How to apply: Job placement is similar to regular student employment.

Federal Work Study

EPAF Instructions



Submitting Backup Documents
Setting up supervisors
Labor Distribution Change (LDCH) EPAF Training
UAHR - NTRROUT Reference Page
How Can I get Access to Submit an EPAF or Termination?
How to Update Employee Org's in UA Online

EPAF Questions:
If my student is currently at less than 1 Hrs/Pay and they are going to continue at less than 1, can I do an EPAF to extend them? 
No. You will need to do a CONX Job form; because Hours Per Day must be 1 or more, you would need to enter the EPAF as 10 or more Hours per Pay for the EPAF to go through.

  • Example GN Start Job

  • Example GT Start Job

  • Example SN Start Job

  • Example ST Start Job

  • Stop Jobs

Additional student assignments
Coordinating with other departments
Updating e-class if conflict

Yes! As long as they have been accepted as a student for the Fall semester and plan to register for at least six (6) credits, they are eligible for student employment. 

Required training can be found on the Labor and Employee Engagement training page.

Yes, students are able to work up to 80 hours per pay period during the summer.

Yes. Students can work more than 20 hours a week during breaks without changing their e-class from SN to ST.  

You do not need to submit a job form for the SN employees. As long as they have an active job, they can code the additional time to their timesheet. They can start working more hours as soon as their classes have finished.

For more information about student employment, please review the Student Employment Procedures.

Yes. If they already have an assignment that goes through the break and they are not going to be working any additional hours nothing else is required. 

If they are going to be working additional hours and have an assignment that goes through the break, you will need to submit an IFTE job form to increase their hours for the break and an RFTE job form to reduce their hours back down for the spring. If they do not have an assignment that goes through the break you will need to submit a start job form for the break time period. 

They can work over 40 hours for the period during the break without changing their taxable status. The job form will need to have the hours they are going to work per pay period, i.e. 80, but the E-Class will be GN.

No. Student employees (GN/SN) cannot hold other types of positions at the same time. Please see the Employee Compatibility Crosswalk for more details.

 Yes, however, students cannot work over 20 hours per week total during the academic year without a waiver (the waiver requires good academic standing and results in a taxable status).

Students will have to balance their hours between both jobs. Departments will have to work together to make sure arrangements are acceptable and possibly to coordinate job forms.

Yes. Both undergraduate or graduate students can be hired into Student Assistants A, B, or C positions, as long as they meet the GPA and Credit requirements per the Student Employment Procedures.

Please submit a request in Spoke regarding what needs to be corrected. Give us as much detail as is possible in your Spoke ticket so that we can assist you as best as we can. Remember, you are always able to attach documents to your Spoke ticket, if applicable in your situation.

Job Form Submissions

Submission of job forms and supporting documentation is done through NextGen. Use the links below to submit your paperwork to UA Human Resources.

New Hire & Rehire Submissions Existing Employee Changes
This envelope is for employees who have never worked for the University of Alaska before, as well as those who are returning. These individuals are inactive in PEAEMPL. This envelope is for employees currently or recently employed by the University of Alaska. These individuals are active in PEAEMPL.


EPAF Submissions

Submission of supporting documentation for EPAF transactions is done through NextGen. Use the link below to submit your EPAF supporting documentation to UA Human Resources:
EPAF Submission Envelope