The Flawed Stipend System for CSOs
By Lichen Forster
On the surface, joining a CSO (Chartered Student Organization) seems like the best of both worlds. Join what is essentially a campus club, and get paid a sizable chunk of change for your contributions.
For those unfamiliar, UH Hilo has the following CSOs:
- Ke Kalahea (the publication you’re reading right now)
- Kanilehua (art and literary magazine)
- Hohonu (academic journal)
- Student Activities Council (SAC)
- University of Hawai’i at Hilo Student Association (UHHSA)
- University Radio Hilo (URH)
- Vulcan Video Productions (VVP)
- Board of Student Publications (BOSP)
- Board of Media Broadcasting (BOMB)
Advertising for positions in one of these organizations usually goes something like this:
“Join us! You can learn to write/edit/plan events/represent your college/deejay/make videos, and earn an “award for service” at the end of the semester!”
While participating in a CSO, students do have access to a lot of new skills. A lot of the folks who stay on (including me) talk about how they met cool people, added to their resume, and got pretty good compensation.
Those running CSOs are very careful not to call these positions “jobs,” because they aren’t: you don’t get paid every two weeks, and you aren’t entitled to the student worker health insurance package. But you are putting in work every week, and what most people are counting on getting out of it is the return on their investment: their “award for service” check sent out at the end of the semester. Many CSO team members view their work as a job, and give it the priority and dedication that title deserves.
“Working at a CSO, especially one like Ke Kalahea, really is like a job. We have deadlines, a never ending to do list, and a kuleana (responsibility) to make sure the product we produce is accurate and good quality,” said Pualani Ovono, Ke Kalahea Editor-in-Chief.
Celia Chmielowski former layout editor for Ke Kalahea. Chmielowski left the team after it was clear she would no longer be able to collect the stipend associated with her position
At the beginning of the year/semester/when someone joins a team, the CSO executive will send them an email sharing their tentative award amount. At the end of the semester, a processing email is sent out and students are instructed to consult financial aid to see if their award will have an impact on their aid package. In many cases, it won’t, but sometimes, it does.
Celia Chmielowski, former Ke Kalahea layout editor, had to leave the team this semester after issues at the end of last semester.
After a year of doing and enjoying layout, and getting her full award, financial aid told Chmielowski last semester that she was unable to collect her full amount. The office tried to work with her to get her full award by readjusting her “need profile” - having her submit the order form for her new laptop, and her airline tickets to and from the islands since she started her position. After multiple emails and finding year old receipts, Chmielowski was able to collect her full award, but was told that she wouldn’t be able to repeat the process the following semester.
“It ended up being a very labor intensive process to get the money that I worked for,” said Chmielowski.
“Losing someone in a position like layout is especially difficult because then I have to shorten everyone’s deadlines and up everyone’s responsibilities because of it, which isn’t fair to anybody,” said Ovono.
Ariel Siliado, event planner for Student Activities Council (SAC) since last summer, has had issues with her awards for a while.
“I tried researching into it about if it was worth claiming and lessening my loans, but it was so confusing and stressful that last semester I decided not to collect,” said Siliado.
She stays because she enjoys planning events and loves her coworkers, but has had to take on another job.
Ariel Siliado SAC Event Planner at an event last semester. Siliado has not been able to receive the 'award for service' during her involvement with the CSO
“Juggling school, SAC, and another part-time [job] doesn’t leave me with a lot of free time,” said Siliado. “I’m staying in SAC and my goal is to get more scholarships so I don’t collect financial aid and then I can start getting my stipend.”
According to the Financial Aid Office, whether or not stipends impact financial aid is specific to each student. They are considered “Other Financial Assistance” and, if paired with other aid exceeding the student’s “Cost of Attendance” or financial need, stipends will be adjusted. The office recommends contacting them once stipends become available.
While it’s important to disperse aid fairly, why is compensation for time, skills, and effort (work) being counted as financial aid?
Even if students weren’t having difficulty collecting their awards, the system still makes it difficult for students to take advantage of these opportunities. How many are capable of waiting to be paid for an entire semester? And if there’s no guarantee they actually will be paid at the end, teams are restricted further to members who have the time to work for free. This creates instability in teams, and for services like the student government, newspaper, and activities council, instability will affect the entire student body’s experience of college.
“We are literally the news outlet for UHH happenings from students’ perspective, and articles are a lot more than just looking at a website and paraphrasing the information found,” said Ovono. “They take a lot of time between finding out information through research and interviews to editing to formatting. And that’s not even including all the behind-the-scenes things just to keep the news publication running. Between all of that, it’s really like working a part-time job, and it’s not fair that we go into every semester not knowing if we will be compensated fairly for our work purely based on how much money we have for school.”