Last semester, several problems with the Student Affairs Business Office were brought to the public eye.
“We were accused of not paying people,” said Amir Mohammedi, associate vice-president of student affairs.
Mohammedi said that the pay period is at least four weeks, but can be up to six weeks, depending on the employee’s hiring date. He said it takes four weeks for processing after payroll deadline, but if someone was hired in between deadlines, it takes four weeks plus the number of days until the next deadline to get paid.
Mohammedi said that the payroll must be transferred to the University payroll office, to Charleston and back to the University payroll office. He said that all universities operate this way.
Janice Hardman, Mohammedi’s assistant, said that problems reported by the four students were not SABO’s fault.
“When we investigated, one person listed ... was not a student; the second one (problem) was about the length of time for a paycheck,” she said. “The third one was complaining about taxes, but it was a problem of working in the summer of versus when taxes were deducted. The fourth one happened to quit a position to where her paycheck had to be adjusted.”
Hardman and Mohammedi both said that these problems are not SABO problems.
“All four were not something SABO did incorrectly, they were just situations that happen normally with the paycheck when different situations occur,” Hardman said.
Mohammedi said that the office has future plans. He would like to see the payroll transfer done electronically, “pioneering this and be one of the first universities to accomplish this.”
“Our hopes are to cut at least two weeks off,” Hardman said.
“The future is promising, especially with the good people we have in the student affairs payroll office,” Mohammedi said. “The student employment center is another area that vice president (for student affairs) Kenneth Gray and vice president (of administration and finance, of human resources) Scott Kelley have discussed to be located in the student affairs for further efficiency and effectiveness in the area of payroll University-wide.”
He said that all the processing of the students will be done in the student employment center, and work in conjunction with all the departments in student affairs and University human resources.
“It’s for the convenience of the students,” Hardman said. “If you work at The Daily Athenaeum and then you may also have a job at engineering you would only have to be processed once.”