Student employees are struggling after the Market at Alvin’s adjusted their hours due to the coronavirus (COVID-19).
Despite the university closing, campus food services like Alvin’s and the caf will be staying open for those students who must remain on campus for the remainder of the semester.
Elham Younesi, music performance sophomore and Alvin’s student supervisor, said Alvin’s will be open from 10am-2pm for the rest of the semester. Younesi, who is an international student from Iran, will be staying on campus for the rest of the semester. During this time, she will not be allowed to work at Alvin’s.
“No one really works there right now except the manager or just like one more supervisor to help her,” Younesi said.
Teddy Edgar, music theater senior and former employee at Alvin’s, said the manager is usually one of the only Alvin’s employees who works during university breaks.
“Usually what they do in these kinds of situations is it’s usually just at most supervisors, but usually it’s just Michelle, who’s the manager downstairs,” Edgar said.
Michelle Gaffney, director of retail, was unavailable for comment.
Younesi said because she is an international student from Iran, United States law won’t allow her to apply for unemployment.
“I know that the people that are citizens of the United States, they can ask for unemployment, and Alvin’s will pay them even though they’re not working, and that doesn’t work for me because I’m an international student,” Younesi said.
Younesi also said being an international student means she can only work on-campus jobs.
“I’m allowed to do on-campus jobs only, so it’s like, other places to work on campus are closed now too, so it’s like I don’t have any options,” Younesi said.
Edgar said students could try and find work in campus office jobs.
“I know the campus is probably going to need a lot of help with like writing emails to people and organizing paperwork and stuff like that,” Edgar said.
Edgar also said he’d advise students to not work at Alvin’s anyway due to what he thought was unsafe cleanliness.
“If you’re going to work there, you’re going to be in a lot of bacterial spots of the campus that aren’t clean or tended to, so I would really highly look at jobs that are more safe, that are more computer-based,” Edgar said.
Kristina Patterson, film production senior, said she knows other international students who are in similar situations.
“I know quite a few of them that weren’t able to go and run home before everything shut down and are essentially just stuck here and their only source of income was what they worked at their work study, and having that taken away from them makes things a lot more challenging,” Patterson said.
Younesi said while her situation is frustrating, she is trying to be positive.
“It’s very stressful, but like, the whole country, like the whole world, is being influenced by this virus. I’m not the only problem,” Younesi said.
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