The people who swipe you into the dining hall, work the front desk at residence halls and even put books on the shelves in the library are all examples of students working at Eastern who help keep campus running. 

Teresa Jones, a human resource representative in the student employment office, said about 1,250 students work on campus, most of whom work in Housing and Dining.

Mark Hudson, director of housing and dining, said he believes that Housing and Dining is the largest employer of student workers on campus within a single department.

Housing and Dining employs more than 400 student workers in dining, between 80-90 desk assistants, 53 resident assistants and between 25-30 night assistants.

Besides the paycheck, there are many other benefits that comes with some of these jobs.

While Housing and Dining employs the most students, there are other options for students who are looking for something else.

Jones said there are options for students interested in on-campus employment in several areas of campus.

“Many departments have office jobs, clerical work to support work as with the technology areas.  Some students wash cars, work in the garage or do cleaning for facilities,” Jones said. “Booth Library offers a variety of work. This is just to name a few different types of jobs on campus.”

Jones said there are many benefits for students working on campus; she said the easiest part about having an on-campus job is not having to travel far for work. 

If you do not have a car, it does not matter because everything is typically in walking distance.

Jones said on-campus employers work around students’ schedules because they believe that school is the top priority.

“Students can work in between classes, a few hours in the morning and maybe a few hours in the afternoon on the same day,” Jones said.

Certain jobs, such as being an resident assistant, require a minimum GPA.

Hudson said incoming freshmen do not have a required GPA, since they do not yet have one established at Eastern.

Since these jobs are through the university, employers want to make sure students are excelling in their studies.

Hudson said Housing and Dining puts academics before work.

“There are times in a student’s life academic life that stress levels are higher and stuff like that, so we can be often times more flexible about switching shifts and doing things like that to make sure that you have enough time to attend to your academic work,” Hudson said. 

Most jobs on campus pay minimum wage, $8.25 an hour, but it depends on the type of job.

Each job has a different hiring process, but most jobs are listed on eiu.edu and can be found by searching “student employment.”

Kate Figlewski can be reached at 581-2812 or at kjfiglewski@eiu.edu.