Dear Editor,
My roommate was recently hired to a part-time staff position at Ball State University as a night auditor. He was told he was contacted because he was the most qualified candidate for the position and was told he would be paid $8 an hour for his services.
Not that this should matter in the first place, but during his interview he was never asked if he was a student. Later, when he was asked whether or not he was a student - after he was hired, I will add as a side note - he told the truth and said that he was, in fact, attending school.
Barring the fact that the ad he answered did not state that students were ineligible, he was punished for being a student by the university, which threatened to cut his pay to the minimum wage allowed to student-employees.
The fact that he's a student cut his worth - and as a result, his pay - although he was the most qualified applicant, which offended him, and rightly so, I might add.
I, myself, was offended at the notion. We, as students, are not second-class citizens, and to be called worthless - by action, if not words - is an insult to us as human beings. That the best-qualified person can be forced to take a pay cut based on this standard alone is morally reprehensible, even if it is legal.
Upon being asked to take the pay cut, my roommate refused the new terms. This only proved to exacerbate the situation, for reasons unknown to him or me. His logic in doing so was sound: Why should he be forced to take less pay for doing the same job? He is no less qualified, nor does he have any less experience than he had when the job was offered to him at $8 per hour. The university's response was to terminate him. Being that Indiana is an at-will employment state, and the reason for firing him was legal, we have no official recourse. However, the fact still remains that it was discrimination, and the act is ethically abhorrent.
Not only is this letter a humble request that the university change its current policy, it also intends to pressure legislators to protect us, the students - to bring to their attention that a problem does exist, and there is still a group being discriminated against in this country.
Bryan St. John
Senior
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