Students Juggling Work and School

In 2011, the US Census report determined that 71 percent of our nation’s almost 20 million undergraduate students were working. Colleges often recommend that students work no more than 10-15 hours per week, but many are clocking much more. But when it comes to student employees of the 24-hour Strozier Starbucks location, it was not the amount of hours students worked that we were curious about but rather how working into the wee hours of the morning affected school work. Of the three employees we interviewed, they all said that the late hours were an added stress factor; stating that they have all experienced being scheduled late hours the night before a test often forcing them to put sleep on the back burner in order to study. This is unfortunate but what would the rest of us do if Starbucks wasn’t open 24-hours, sometimes the line is at it’s longest at 1am during busy weeks like midterms and finals. This is often the case because students are either working or in classes during the day, and this makes all-nighters a normal part of college. But Starbucks is doing their part to take a huge weight off of the backs of their part time and full time employees who would like to earn a college degree. This is being done in collaboration with Arizona State University through Starbucks College Achievement Plan; they are working to make is possible for their US employees working an average of 20 hours per week to choose from over 40 undergraduate degree programs to be completed online through ASU. Starbucks CEO states, “In the last few years, we have seen the fracturing of the American Dream. There’s no doubt, the inequality within the country has created a situation where many Americans are being left behind…” there are too many cases where college students working in order to support themselves while pursuing a degree which eventually causes them to fall behind. The company says this is better than giving employees a $2 pay raise. Starbucks compares it to the saying “giving a man a fish vs. teaching a man to fish”. But it is clear the influence Starbucks has on our culture as American students outweigh those risk. We attend a university where students provide enough demand for three separate Starbucks locations on one campus, to the point that the university has decided to keep one open 24-hours knowingly scheduling student workers. We just can’t get enough!