With the way the year 2025 is unfolding, it appears as if there are only uncertainties behind every corner. The way the U.S. government is currently running things, it appears like the finish line to the “American Dream” is being pushed farther and farther away every waking day.
Around campus, Pipers can see many of the effects brought on by this change, haunting our friends and classmates. One of the most noticeable changes made around campus is the number of students losing their work study hours or positions in every department.

Flashback to 2023
In June 2023, Hamline was experiencing budgeting shortages and had to make some cuts to make room for other programs deemed more important by the administration. One of the proposed budgets to cut was the Hamline work study program. The work study program is a federally funded program at colleges and universities to offer part-time jobs to enrolled students. Work study programs have been a source for many students' income — and often their only source of income.
Since these cuts to Hamline’s work study program two years ago, there have been many problems that had not arisen until a few months after the original decision to make these cuts, with most of the issues coming from the St. Paul minimum wage increase that happens every year.
Since Hamline coincidentally falls within the St. Paul borders, Hamline has to follow the minimum wage laws set by the city. When Hamline decided to cut funding to the work study program, the minimum wage was only $15.00, but as the years passed, the minimum wage in St. Paul rose slowly. Starting Jan. 1, 2025, the minimum wage in St. Paul increased 40 cents per hour, taking the minimum wage from $15.57 per hour in 2024 to $15.97. A 40 cent increase might seem like a “steep” increase, but retrospectively, since 2022, the St. Paul minimum wage has only in total increased by 97 cents per hour.
When reached out to, the Hamline Office of Finance and Administration declined an interview on this topic.

What does this mean for Hamline students?
With a slight wage increase from 2024 to 2025, this means two very important things for the Pipers — fewer hours for student workers, and most importantly, fewer student worker positions to fill. With a work study position as a type of financial aid, students are only allotted a set budget to reach before they “max out” their work study award. On campus, a lot of departments try to avoid maxing out of a work study by decreasing the number of hours per week that a student can work.
During the spring semester, all departments around campus experienced having to cut hours for their current student positions and had to temporarily pause filling positions due to the lack of budget.

An example of these effects was when the Anderson Center or Walker Fieldhouse front desks remained empty due to a lack of student hours to cover these areas. Within the last few months, a noticeable change in student worker positions has been in the athletic department. The athletic department was notified before the semester break that the hourly minimum wage in St. Paul and student workers' wages needed to be adjusted accordingly.
“To clarify, there were no budget cuts. … Our student workers have a set amount of federal and/or state work study dollars they were awarded in August,” Head Athletic Trainer Tara Dooley said via email. “… Once their work study award dollar amount has been used, we cannot continue to pay them. They can stay on to work if they want, uncompensated. Because of the wage increase, students' work study funds 'ran out' in a shorter amount of hours worked than in previous years.”
Within the recent months, the athletic department has been hit with the effects of the work study budget cuts from 2022. The most notable of these cuts has been their Student Athletic Trainer positions. A student athletic trainer is expected to assist the athletic trainers in things such as rehab exercises, treatment and making sure items are fully stocked before games or matches.
Senior Brittney Draeger, who has been a student athletic trainer since 2023, was one of the students who experienced losing her job due to the work study cuts and “running out” of her work study money. Draeger first experienced these cuts back in 2023 when returning from her summer break ready and refreshed to begin her sophomore year.
“My freshman year I had work study, all of a sudden my sophomore year came and I was told that I wouldn't have it anymore, I don't really know why,” Draeger said,.“I was a little devastated when I found that out because I loved working in the [Athletic Training Room] with the athletic trainers, athletes and coworkers. I ended up talking with Blaine [Birtzer] about my situation and he vouched to Beth [Rittler] for me to stay. Beth allowed me to come back each year — my sophomore, junior and senior year— by grandfathering me in, since I had worked the year prior and was such a great worker.”
Draeger thought this solution and compromise from the athletic trainers would be the end of her work study troubles, but two years later, she is experiencing this issue on a whole new level — she lost her job entirely, which was her only source of income.
“I was told in February, I think, that my hours had to be reduced due to the budget. The week of March 24, I was told that I would not be able to work anymore shifts, with the exception of working the track meets that we host, because that's when the most help is needed with the athletic trainers and SMAs. They like to have all hands on deck for big sporting events like that,” Draeger said.
However, not every student athletic trainer has experienced the cuts that Draeger did. Sophomore Keegan Terrone, who began working as a student athletic trainer this year, said he did not experience any cuts to his hours since the wage increase.
"It depends on the week but my hours have not changed and I make $15.97 an hour,” Terrone said.

So What Happens Next?
Now that we understand and are able to see the effects of the cuts Hamline made to the work study position, what could this mean for the years to come?
Seeing first hand how cutting back work study hours is affecting the students' income and hours worked the past few years, one can predict that it will only become increasingly worse over time. The minimum wage will only increase in St. Paul every year even if it is only by cents, but this increase in minimum wage and defunding the Hamline work study only means that students will run out of their given work study dollars quicker — meaning fewer hours worked, less income and the plausibility of having to over work themselves working second, third or fourth jobs all while being a full time student. It also cuts real-life application learning opportunities for students.
“Well I don't have a job or source of income anymore, but that's not really the point. I truly enjoyed working with all of the athletes and learning about all their different injuries. With working there for so long, seeing the progress that athletes made doing their rehab … it was just so amazing. The athletic trainers taught me so much too, I really enjoyed learning about the human body and why we work the way we do … even though I am an elementary education major, I found it all so interesting and fascinating,” Draeger said.
The students will not be the only ones being directly affected by the choice to cut work study positions; departments will be struggling too. Many departments around the Hamline campus run off of the backs of the student workers. Student workers largely help run the Bishop’s Bistro, Leo’s Corner and the campus Starbucks as well as helping in full time departments such as Conference and Event Management, Institutional Advancement and the Athletic Training Department. Fewer student workers in these full time departments means the full time faculty and staff will have to put more time and effort into the tasks the student workers once did for them.
“I really do think this job helped me break out of my comfort zone and helped shape me into a more confident individual and this will for sure carry on into my teaching career. I have nothing but good things to say about this job, just sad that I can't finish out the rest of the semester working with athletic trainers and athletes,” Draeger said about her time as a student athletic trainer.