Despite not yet reaching the maximum allowed hours, Quinnipiac work-study students in the admissions office are experiencing significant cuts in their assigned hours as the year ends.

This year, the admissions office hired more students due to increasing applications of incoming freshmen, according to Joan Isaac Mohr, vice president and dean of admissions. The more applications that come in, the more work needs to be done.

“This year because we received 5,000 more applications than we had last year. We had hired more students early on that would help with the mail in particular,” Mohr said. “That process was very heavy from September through March and then as we got into April. That portion of our work here is much slower.”

Senior Director of Financial Aid Dominic Yoia stated freshman work-study students earn $2,000 per year, while upperclassmen earn $2,200 a year.

Junior Victoria Cabral is granted federal work-study and has worked in admissions since her freshman year. Recently, Cabral’s hours were cut significantly.

“I went from working 12 hours a week to three hours a week and I’m nowhere near making my amount allowed,” Cabral said.

This has never happened before, according to Cabral, and admissions hired extra workers with less to do in the office.

“We hired more people because we had a glut of work with all the paper that goes through here. We needed more help, but we were down to the point of lots of people here with nothing to do,” Mohr said. “So at that point, we pulled back the hours that we had expanded and we did it fairly because everyone got reduced a bit.”

Mohr explains work hours were evenly cut back among students. However, Cabral says she hasn’t reached her maximum amount earned.

“I’m given a lot of financial aid and this is what I’m using to pay groceries,” Cabral said. “How am I supposed to go from almost making $200 every week to less than $50?”

According to Mohr, students are only being assigned less hours because there is less work that needs to be done at this point in the year.

Freshman Caitlyn Martin works for the day visit program in admissions when prospective students shadow a student’s typical day at Quinnipiac. Martin organizes the visits, makes schedules and responds to voicemails. She didn’t see her hours cut.

“Because the program was still going on and there was only a significant amount of us working, they had to let us continue to work or else it would not get done,” Martin said. “Whereas in the office and for tours, cutting the amount of people who were in the office was not highly affecting the work getting done.”

Cabral is one of the many student workers affected by the recent cutbacks.

“I don’t think they understand the impact it has on us,” Cabral said.