Who Works on Campus?

Abstract

On-campus employment is a high-impact practice for student retention, postgraduate success, and employability. This study engaged with twelve years (2007-2019) of student employment data from a large R-1 university to determine who has access to this high-impact practice and explore which types of students become on-campus employees. Aggregate totals suggest juniors and seniors, White students, and women access on-campus employment at far greater levels than men or students of Color. However, intersectional analyses by race and gender suggest students from certain racial and gender groups are consistently over or underrepresented in on-campus student employment. Implications for gender and racial equity in on-campus hiring practices and postgraduate support for students of Color are addressed.

Keywords

• college students
• student affairs
• student employment
• high impact practices
• students of color
• colleges