At the Chancellor’s Roundtable held on Nov. 18, Director of Human Resources David Miller announced UW-Eau Claire’s plan to cap the number of hours student employees are allowed to work.

According to an article in The Spectator, students will only be allowed to work a maximum of 25 hours per week on campus, cumulatively in the case of multiple jobs.

“This really hurts students who need a lot of hours to be able to fund their education but aren’t able to because of the cap on the number of hours they can work,” one member said.

This policy is a direct effort to meet the Affordable Care Act restrictions which requires employers to provide health insurance for students who work 30 or more hours a week. If these changes aren’t made by the beginning of next year, the UW-System with face $48 million in penalties.

“Your well-being and your employees’ well being should be at the top of your list because if people aren’t healthy they can’t do the work that you need them to do,” another member said.

The same article reported that all students, even those who have previously received a stipend, will be paid hourly.

Many members of The Spectator Editorial Board expressed specific concerns regarding this new payment method’s impact on the publication, as well as other student organizations that do not have set hours where one can clock in and clock out.

“Fundamentally, I don’t think the rule is that terrible, however the effect it’s having upon its students is that it’s encouraging us all to be fraudulent and report that we aren’t working as much as we do,” another member said.

The Spectator Editorial Board voted unanimously against the new university policy.