Work-study programs get boost from Congress

No longer just for cafeteria work, the college work-study program pays graduate students for practicum hours and research assistantships too.

By Bridget Murray
Monitor staff

To pay her monthly bills during graduate school, Carol Williams squeezed a paying job into a schedule already packed with classes and practica.

A student in the PsyD counseling psychology program at Our Lady of the Lake University in San Antonio, Texas, Williams shuttled back and forth between various practicum sites?at one off-campus site she counseled firefighters and police officers for $10 a session?and the sessions were few and far between. 'It was basically money for gas,' she says.

At another on-campus counseling center she counseled low-income Hispanic people for no compensation. Help from loans and teaching assistantships still didn?t cover all her expenses, so she took on consulting work at local nursing homes.

'I was scurrying for money wherever I could find it,' she says. But if Williams were to repeat her graduate years today, she?d have a way to seek recompense for those unpaid practicum hours. Thanks to new language APA has secured in the reauthorized Higher Education Act of 1965, she?d be eligible for as much as $10 an hour?or at least minimum wage?for her work counseling community residents.

Under the provision, graduate students in departments receiving work-study funds can earn money for their practica and research assistantships through the federal college work-study program, a student assistance program in which students work for a salary or hourly wages. Students must apply for work-study money through university departments, which receive varying amounts of funding, depending on the institution. The new HEA language increases psychology departments? access to those funds.

The only stipulations of the provision are that the student qualify for work-study assistance, and that the practicum or research work being done meet departmental and university definitions of 'community service.' Williams says she definitely would have tried for the benefit.

'It would have been wonderful to have the opportunity to earn financial reward and credit toward psychology instead of having to earn money by picking up a less psychology-related job [in nursing homes],' says Williams, who, as chair-elect of the American Psychological Association of Graduate Students (APAGS) and a co-chair of its Advocacy Coordinating Team, also helped bring about the win.

Winning the new provision took dogged work from APA?s education advocacy team and congressional testimony from Jill Reich, PhD, executive director of APA?s Education Directorate, as well as support from Rep. Buck McKeon (R?Calif.) and Sen. Paul Wellstone (D?Minn.). Reich and APA?s Chief Executive Officer Raymond D. Fowler, PhD, presented Wellstone and McKeon with awards of appreciation in July. Working with APA, Wellstone and McKeon also helped psychology students gain increased access to other financial assistance programs, including the Graduate Assistance in Areas of National Need, Minority Science Improvement and Perkins Loan Cancellation programs.

But the work-study win involves the most funding and students, opening graduate psychology students? access to an enormous pot of money, according to Nina Levitt, EdD, APA?s director for education policy and others who helped with the effort. Congress funded the program at $830 million in fiscal year (FY) 1998 and will likely increase the funding considerably in FY 1999, says Ellin Nolan, APA?s policy consultant.

The fight for assistance

In an effort to ease growing financial pressure and the crushing debt burden on psychology students like Williams, APA?s Education Directorate has spent the past year urging Congress to step up its support for graduate education. Compared with fields such as medicine or nursing, psychology has limited access to graduate assistance funds, says Scott Hamilton, a student at Indiana State University and co-chair of the APAGS advocacy team.

'Students in psychology, unlike their colleagues in law, medicine and business, don?t have exceptionally high income potential,' he says. 'Assistance is especially important for us as graduate students because we spend as many as seven and a half years to get a doctoral degree as well as having to do a practicum and internship. That all involves a lot of financial obligation.'

Seeking to bolster psychology students? access to financial aid, APA?s Education Directorate and the APAGS advocacy teams bombarded members of Congress with phone calls and personal visits as they debated the reauthorization of the HEA. Wellstone was an important ally because of his stalwart support for mental health. Part of his goal in supporting APA?s proposed work-study language was to enable more psychology students to pursue field-relevant work, says psychologist Robin Buhrke, PhD, a legislative aide in Wellstone?s office.

'Having more work-study money available for graduate students will allow psychology professors to create more research and apprenticeship jobs for students,' says Buhrke. 'We hope this will allow students to do work that helps their careers, rather than work that just puts food on the table.'

McKeon also helped ensure the inclusion of the new work-study language. He agreed with APA that the old language failed to denote whether work-study covered graduate students? practica and internships. '[The lack of clarity] led to some confusion for students and institutions,' says his legislative aide, Sally Stroup. 'Clarifying language was needed.'

How work-study works

Participants in the work-study program don?t receive their paychecks directly from the federal government. Each campus receives a share of the federal money to dole out as it chooses.

Currently, the work-study program benefits far more undergraduate than graduate students. On the 3,200 campuses that participate, only 6 percent of work-study students are graduate students. And the program traditionally applies to campus work in the cafeteria and library rather than off-campus community service.

The new legislative language that APA fought for broadens the program?s focus to include graduate students and off-campus work. The language specifies that graduate students as well as undergraduates can access work-study funds. And they can use it for internships and research assistantships on and off-campus, as long as their work aids the community, says Nolan.

Finding work-study jobs

Graduate students eligible for work-study can now earn money and at the same time gain research experience and credits toward their degrees, Nolan says. Previously, for example, a graduate student tutoring local elementary school children probably wasn?t getting compensated. Now she can receive work-study money for the work if she qualifies for the program, if the psychology department approves her work at the off-campus site and if the work obviously benefits the community.

Jobs that qualify as community service include child care or support services to senior citizens or people with disabilities. (Under new HEA provisions, campuses must designate at least 10 percent of their funds for community service.) Students can also seek work-study funds for research assistantships.

Ultimately, says Carol Williams, this arrangement will benefit psychology students and the communities they serve. 'You?ll see positive ripple effects from the stipends for community service,' says Williams, 'shorter waiting lists for clients, longer hours from students and more community services that stay afloat.'