Posted on: Friday, April 18, 2003

Student helpers to lose jobs

By James Gonser
Advertiser Staff Writer

An estimated 130 student helpers and interns who work for the state will lose their jobs by the end of the fiscal year under a directive from Gov. Linda Lingle's budget director, and the fate of 300 more is uncertain.

A letter dated April 14 from Kathleen Watanabe, director of the state Department of Human Resources Development; and Georgina Kawamura, director of the state Department of Budget and Finance, directs state department heads to fire all student helpers and interns by June 30 as a budget-cutting measure.

Some officials were preparing to notify their student employees when Kawamura said yesterday that some departments were exempt: the Department of Education, University of Hawai'i and the library system. The letter was only a "request" for those departments, Kawamura said.

About 130 students who work in all other state departments including Health, Transportation and Land and Natural Resources, are to be let go by the end of the fiscal year.

The letter makes no mention of any exemptions and caused major concern at the DOE and UH, which have been told they will not have to fire their students after all — though Kawamura said yesterday it would be appreciated if they would review the issue.

"Continued and worsening deficiencies in our financial resources have made it imperative to limit spending," the letter said. "Consequently, the employment of all Student Helpers and Student Interns will cease, no later than June 30, 2003."

The memo says no new student helpers should be hired after April 14 and all students should be terminated as soon as practicable.

Kawamura said the DOE, which includes the library system, and UH are governed by separate boards and do not have to comply with the directive.

State records show that 434 student helpers and interns work for the state excluding UH, which keeps its own count of students.

"We just sent them a copy of the letter to show them what the governor has released," Kawamura said yesterday. "However, I'm in the process of getting a clarifying memo off to both entities, the board and university, to let them know that we would appreciate if they could review the whole issue, but they are not mandated to follow the directive as our other departments are."

Keith Fujio, administrative services officer for the library system, said after receiving the memo he called both departments that sent the letter and asked how the libraries could get a waiver and was told to supply a written request.

"There is no way we misread it," Fujio said. "I want something in writing to say that you guys are exempted and there is no need to lay off anybody by June 30."

Fujio said he sent out a message to all 50 state libraries telling them to alert the students that they would soon be without a job.

"We didn't think it would be fair to spring it on to them at the last minute and have 160 students upset and not being able to plan well," he said.

Student helpers are paid $5.75 to $6.50 per hour to perform tasks ranging from filing, putting away library books and serving as parking attendants at Diamond Head State Monument.

Student interns may or may not be paid but receive college credit for their work.

Kawamura said the state spends $1.3 million annually on student helpers.

In a request for a waiver submitted yesterday, state librarian Virginia Lowell said with 71 vacancies and the ongoing freeze on hiring, losing the students would have a "severe impact on the efficiency of our day-to-day operations."

Fujio elaborated, saying it likely would have led to a further cutback in library hours.

In March, the library system's budget was cut by $500,000, or about 2.5 percent. In response, Lowell ordered all libraries to cut back to five-day, 40-hour schedules.

Kawamura said the state is looking for any way possible to save money with lower state revenue growth projections and an anticipated $119 million shortfall for the fiscal year ending June 30 and shortfalls expected for the next two years.

Kawamura said anything the DOE and UH could do to reduce the number of student workers would help the budget overall.

Reach James Gonser at jgonser@honoluluadvertiser.com or 535-2431.