Any student seeking campus employment must fill out Form I-9, according to the Financial Aid Office. Employees must provide documents that prove identity and employment authorization as part of the hiring process. Not every student brings enough acceptable documents, which may hinder on-campus employment.
Employees of the St. Lawrence University Financial Aid Office deal with student employment. Associate Director of the Financial Aid Office Nicole Adner sends out an email to first-year students every August outlining the documents needed if a student wishes to gain employment on campus. “They can’t work if they don’t have the documents,” said Adler.
The United States Citizenship and Immigration Services uses Form I-9 to verify paid employees’ identities and legal authorization to work. Officially, it is called employment eligibility verification. It is up to employees, such as St. Lawrence University, to have every hired person complete Form I-9 and present the acceptable documents.
Different combinations of documents are allowed if both identity and employment authorization are verified. For example, a passport meets both requirements. If a student does not own a passport, they can use a driver’s license to prove identity and a social security card or a birth certificate to prove employment authorization.
Physical copies of identification must be present for verification. Students need to have copies of the required documents mailed by family members, or they will need to pick up the documents. “Usually there are about half a dozen or so students every year who have a problem with it,” said Adler.
Shelby Maguire ’24 was one of these students. Maguire, who started working in admissions this semester, was unfamiliar with the documents needed for Form I-9 until she went to the Financial Aid Office. Despite being hired, Maguire could not work until she had the proper documents. “It took a bit more time trying to get them from my parents in the mail,” she said.
Maguire’s mom, Hedi Maguire, works in Human Resources for a resort hotel in New Paltz and is familiar with Form I-9 for new hires. “It’s important to know no matter where anyone goes when they are applying for a job when they get hired everybody is required to fill out the I-9 form,” she said.
At the hotel Hedi Maguire works at, there are several employed SUNY New Paltz students. These student employees run into the same problem of not having physical copies of required documents. While at college, the students need a family member to mail documents for them.
Hedi Maguire had some safety concerns about mailing official documents to St. Lawrence. Unlike her daughter, she knew the I-9 requirements. “My plan was for her to have it since she had talked about possibly getting a job, and I just totally forgot about it,” she said. They mailed the social security card through USPS in a secure mailer, and it was returned home after family weekend.
USPS recommends that important documents, like a social security card, passport or birth certificate, be mailed with additional safety services. Currently, USPS offers different levels of security in their mail, with extra protectionary measures costing more.
For the time it was still on campus, Shelby Maguire kept her social security card in a drawer to avoid misplacing it. “I would have forgotten about it if I wasn’t reminded to give it back,” Maguire said.
Assistant Dean of Student Life and Director of Student Activities John Robert O’Connor did not know of anything on campus that students could use to store important documents. “There are no lockboxes available on campus, at least not at the moment,” he said. If a student wants an extra protectionary measure for valuables, they will need to purchase it themselves for their dorm room.
The admissions office is below the Financial Aid Office in Payson Hall. As a student worker in admissions, Shelby Maguire can hear other students filling out student employment forms. Occasionally, Maguire hears students in the same situation as her earlier this semester without the proper documents with them. “They have to come back at a later date,” she said. “It’s hard because a lot of kids don’t know they need those forms.”
Under campus employment on the St. Lawrence University website, the Financial Aid Office requests that students bring a U.S. passport/card or photo ID along with an original social security card or original birth certificate. On the first-year program list of items to bring, a government photo ID and a passport are the only documents listed. If students only look at this
list, they may not know to bring the proper documents for student employment, especially if they do not own a passport.
For people who had problems with bringing the proper documents, there is a bright side. “Once you fill it out once, you don’t need to do it again,” said Adler. Unless your form of ID expires, the I-9 form does not need to be filled out again at St. Lawrence. Then, it is okay to leave your social security card at home.