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Career Services

On Campus Employment

On-campus student employment provides paid work-experience for Cabrillo students and ensures that Cabrillo departments fill roles that support campus operations. In addition to valuable work-experience and a paycheck, student employees also receive benefits like a flexible work-schedule and the opportunity to develop relationships with staff who provide mentorship and ultimately may serve as professional references. On-campus departments benefit from the unique perspective of student staff, who as both students and employees are able to create better connections between the work and services provided at Cabrillo College.

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Hiring a Student

Knowing where to start in the hiring process can feel daunting, but there are generally three ways supervisors find a student assistant:

  1. They already have someone in mind.

  2. They reach out to the Financial Aid Office regarding Federal Work Study for a list of eligible students that match their needs.

  3. They utilize the Seahawk Job board. This is the most equitable way to advertise your role and find the biggest pool of eligible candidates as ALL Cabrillo students have a Seahawk Job board account.

The hiring process is as follows:

  • Find an eligible student. If you don’t have one in mind, post on the Seahawk Job board If you need an account for yourself or your department, contact the Student Employment Coordinator.

  • Submit a completed and signed Student Assistant Assignment Form to studentjobs@cabrillo.edu at least 2 weeks prior to the start date.

  • The student will be sent a welcome email and all of the onboarding steps they will need to complete, which include online forms, an identification verification process, and fingerprinting they will need to complete on campus at the Sheriff’s Office.

Our office endeavors to get the welcome email out to students within 2-3 business days of receiving the Student Assistant Assignment Form, but how long fingerprint results take to return or how long it takes the student to complete the onboarding paperwork is out of our control.

  • Once the student has completed all of these steps, they and the supervisor are notified that the student is cleared to work. Students MAY NOT work until all steps are completed and they and the supervisor have received the cleared to work email.

Student Eligibility

  • Being enrolled in at least 6 units during Fall and Spring and if a student is only working for the summer, they must be enrolled in at least 1 unit during the Summer session.

  • Maintaining ‘Good Academic Standing’- including both GPA and course completion.

  • Students must remain in good conduct with no pending conduct issues.

  • While a Student Assistant may have multiple Student Assistant roles at one time, they can not have multiple types of roles at once. (ie they can not be both a Short-Term Hire for one role and a Student Assistant for another role)

  • Must be able to meet other employment requirements, including, but not limited to Federal Employment Authorization (I-9).

Cabrillo's Board Policies (including Administrative Procedure 7270) lays out many of the policies surrounding work eligibility as a student assistant on campus including:

Time Cards

  • Supervisors are responsible for sending completed time cards to the Payroll Office or the appropriate Work-Study Office for processing, on or before the closing date each month (usually the 20th).

  • If a student has multiple work assignments in different departments, they must complete a separate time card for each department.

  • Total combined hours must be less than 8 hours a day and 20 hours a week.

  • There are two different time cards utilized on campus: Student Assistant Time Cards and Federal Work Study or CalWORKs Time Cards

Time Cards are issued by the Business Office on campus. Supervisors can access these through the Business Office's Internal Forms (requires Cabrillo account sign-in). Once downloaded, fillable pdf timecards can be distributed to student assistants directly.

Pay Rates for Student Assistants

  • $16.00

    Student Assistant I

    This is the entry/trainee level position. Duties are those which may be readily learned by an individual with limited or no previous knowledge or experience in the work assignment. Works under close supervision and receives training on the job. Students in this category may be assigned to any department or program on campus. Performs related work as required.

  • $16.50

    Student Assistant II

    This is the intermediate level position. Duties generally require a semi-skilled individual with some training or experience. May require previous knowledge of the work area and/or experience with tools, equipment or computers. Works under close supervision. Performs related work as required.

  • $17.00

    Student Assistant III

    This is the specialist level position. Duties generally require an individual with specialized skills or abilities and experience in a specific college program or project area. Often requires ability to communicate skills or expertise to others. Works under general supervision. Performs related work as required.

  • $17.50

    Student Assistant IV

    This is the technical and specialized level position. Duties generally require an individual with technical and specialized skills or abilities and experience in a specific college program or project area. Often requires ability to communicate skills or expertise to others. Works under limited supervision. Performs related work as required.

Frequently Asked Questions

Student Assistants

  • For every 3.5 hours worked, employees are eligible for a 10 minute paid break. When this is 4 hours or more, it is bumped up to a 15-minute paid break.

  • For any shift greater than 5 hours, an unpaid break of 30 minutes must be provided.

  • Student Assistants are given 40 hours of sick leave after the student employee reaches 90 days of being employed.

  • Sick leave is to be used in cases of individual illness for pre-arranged shifts, not to exceed the usual schedule requirements.

  • Student assistants do not receive a pay-out of sick leave once leaving employment at Cabrillo. However, should the employee return to work at Cabrillo within 3 years, they would not have to wait 90 days to be granted their sick leave again.

  • Yes, you can work more than one job on campus. However, the total number of hours you work weekly may not exceed 20 hours a week, more than 8 hours in a day, more than 5 days in a row Monday through Sunday. If working more than one job, it is important that your supervisors are aware of your other job so your schedule is not in violation of these requirements.

  • You must maintain enrollment in 6 or more units to meet work eligibility requirements. Failure to complete 6 units with a passing grade or continuing to work after dropping below 6 units may preclude future employment as a student employee. Please notify the Employment & Internship Office as soon as possible if you are considering dropping below half-time status so we can work with you to preserve your employment, if possible. Not notifying us in advance may require you to immediately stop working.

Yes, any generally accepted reason to discontinue employment may result in your employment with the college being immediately terminated, including:

  • Misrepresenting yourself on your application or hiring materials

  • Poor performance

  • Failure to work scheduled hours

  • Lack of available funding

  • Not following College rules and regulations

  • Submitting false hours on a time card

  • Working more than the hours allowed by the Student Employment Program

  • Employees are at-will and can be let go without cause.

  • Student Employees are not eligible for staff parking permits. You can use your student parking pass, when eligible, to park in the student parking lots, or locate (free) street-parking around campus, such as on Soquel Drive.

Frequently Asked Questions

Supervisors

We encourage departments to do their best to provide flexibility in creating a work schedule that does not distract from a student assistant's responsibilities as a student. In addition, the following schedule restrictions need to be met:

  • While in classes, student employees may not work more than 20 hours/week (total, across all of their roles).

  • During Spring, Summer, and Winter break, employees may work up to 30 hours/week, provided there is departmental need.

  • In all cases, student employees may not work more than 8 hours in a single day.

  • Student employees may not work more than 5 days in a row, in a single week.

  • For payroll purposes, please round all shifts/scheduled hours to the nearest quarter hour.

  • New students are eligible to start work one week prior to the semester in which they are starting classes.

  • Graduating or transferring students from Spring or Summer Semesters are eligible to work up until one week after the Summer Semester is over.

  • Graduating/transferring students from Fall semester are eligible to work up until the business day prior to the start of Spring Semester.

  • Continuing students (defined as being enrolled at least halftime in the previous semester and registered in at least 6 units the subsequent Fall or Spring semester) are eligible to work continuously during any breaks during semesters.

  • Student assistants do not need to be enrolled in summer classes to work over the summer. They either need to be graduating/transferring after Spring/Summer or be enrolled in both the Spring semester before the Summer Term and the Fall Semester following.

  • There are a myriad of federal, state, and local employment laws, in addition to Cabrillo District policies and procedures that are related to employment. The Student Employment team is checking to make sure each and every one of these requirements can be met for an individual student employee before they are authorized to start work. Allowing an employee to start work before the Student Employment team has granted clearance means Cabrillo, as an employer could be in violation of any number of legal requirements and also opens up the student employee to unsafe employment, as they could be working without protection (i.e. Worker's Compensation).

  • This is a Board policy requirement. You do not need to be in the student employees' line of sight, but rather need to be present on campus and available to support in the event of an emergency. If you are unable to be on-campus with your student employee(s), then you must designate another staff member (needs to be another Cabrillo employee who is not another student assistant) who is your employees' on-site contact.

  • When collecting timecards from your employees, please review them for accuracy. Timecards are considered a legal record so it is important that we are being diligent about accurately recording when employees were or were not working. Once you have signed off as a supervisor, it goes to the applicable Administrator for the budget that you are using. Please consult with your Appropriate Administrator around departmental deadlines for timecard submission and about your budget. Once completed, they should be sent to timecard@cabrillo.edu.

  • Please submit a Student Employee Change form (linked above). These forms need to be submitted at least 3 business days before the 19th of the month in order to be implemented for the current pay period.