This is the opinion of the writer and does not necessarily reflect the views of La Voz News.
The lack of employment on campus has only gotten worse.
Job opportunities on campus are scarce. During my two years at De Anza, the only person I knew with a campus job was a friend who worked in the cafeteria — now managed by Pacific Dining.
The Federal-Work Study program has limited spots; district jobs are also short in availability. The Community Education Division has no current job openings, the library lacks any application path and the Student Success Center has an incredibly competitive and limited employee pool.
Tutors at the center are required to attend a class, training and meetings for their employment, adding extra workload.
The process is complicated. While workshops and support do exist, they are lengthy, confusing and sparse.
The lack of a centralized system, or any system at all, to keep track of openings and opportunities is the issue. Handshake shows many offerings for off-campus jobs, but does not list on-campus jobs.
Even places with applications do not show if positions are open. Students submit their applications, sitting in backlogs for quarters on end.
The cafeteria, the most viable option for many, switched to Pacific Dining last year on July 1. Since then, fewer students have been employed.
The most affected group are international students. They can only work on-campus with authorization from the International Students Programs office or U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services, and have to pay more than local students.
Students are also doing worse financially with rising economic costs, especially gas prices.
Public transportation currently faces budget cuts; students may have to save up for a car or take taxis. Extra transportation off-campus can be avoided with more employment options on-campus.
The college is not entirely at fault. The cafeteria switch came after a long period of dining service deficits. Funding is becoming less accessible — costs increasing everywhere also increases costs for the college.
There must be action to create a better system for finding campus jobs.
Keeping the college website up-to-date is one job that could be implemented, considering how many pages contain outdated information.
For now, students can also apply for scholarships, grants and programs such as the Higher Education For AB 540 Students fellowship. These may not offer as much as a stable job, but it’s better than nothing.
While the situation seems hopeless, students can explore other options in the short term and push for change in the long term.
Things can improve, but only if we do something about it.
