All work and no play: Pull between jobs and classes leaves little room for anything else

Samantha+Erpenbeck%2C+a+Junior+early+education+major%2C+works+the+rock+wall+desk+n+the+Johnson+Center+on+Thursday.+She+works+an+average+of+16+hours+a+week+to+earn+extra+money.+Photo+by+Scott+Hannigan

Samantha Erpenbeck, a Junior early education major, works the rock wall desk n the Johnson Center on Thursday. She works an average of 16 hours a week to earn extra money. Photo by Scott Hannigan

By Garrett Wymer

Add 33 work hours and 14 hours of classes together, and the result is one hectic week that many students at UK face.

Before the fall semester, employees at the Johnson Center were allowed to do homework during slow hours of business, but not anymore, said social work senior Brad Long. Long works 33 hours per week as a desk attendant at the Johnson Center while taking 14 class credit hours.

“I work a lot of morning shifts,” he said. “So that’s when I got a lot of my homework done.”

Long now has to complete homework during his off hours, but said he knows employees should focus on their jobs.

“I understand where they’re coming from,” Long said. “We have to put the customers first.”

Ron Lee, director of campus recreation, said the homework policy was decided on over the summer. Lee said he understood how sitting at a desk for hours can get boring, but employees should pay attention to the students.

“It’s kind of tough for (them), because not a lot of them have much to do for those four-hour shifts,” Lee said. “But you’re being paid to do a job. It’s important that you pay attention to your duties and to the students.”

Lee said response to the rule change has posed few problems.

“Most of all, our student employees understand (the policy),” Lee said.  “They realize it does make sense.”

Natasha Hill, a nursing freshman at Bluegrass Community and Technical College, said she works about 16 hours a week at Commons Market on South Campus, but balancing work and school is not too difficult for her.

Hill said her job is to serve food to the students, work the register and  make sure everything is clean and everyone is satisfied.  She said her job description does not include time for homework.

“I study in between all my classes,” Hill said. “And at night, my days off, the weekends — basically any free time that I have.”

History senior Jourdan Coyle is a full-time student, resident adviser at Blanding IV and a Starbucks employee.

Coyle said performing her school and work act has become as routine as glancing in one of her three planners.

Coyle works 15 hours a week at Starbucks, which she had to get permission to do since resident advisers are not typically allowed to work more than 10 hours a week outside of their dorm duties, she said. Coyle said she also still has time for her sorority, Delta Phi Mu, and to volunteer with the Violence, Intervention and Prevention Center.

Coyle said that it is possible to work on homework while on duty in the dorms, but it involves risk.

“There are constant interruptions,” she said. “It always seems like when you have a test the next day, something comes up, something happens—Murphy’s Law.”

Coyle said in a major with a lot of reading, she must do her homework on the weekends when she is not working.  That way, she will not have to worry about it when she is on desk duty.

“You can’t do this job and depend on cramming,” she said.