Editorial Board
When the Fall 2026 semester began, dozens of student workers returned to jobs across campus expecting their paychecks to arrive as scheduled. Instead, many are saying they have worked for weeks without compensation, exposing a payroll approval process that senior university officials now acknowledge suffered from widespread failures and gaps in communication.
A review conducted by The Collegian staff members found reports of missed and/or delayed pay from students working in Admissions, Student Development and Residence Life, the Information Center, Connelly Library and Campus Engagement & Recreation. Several students voiced they had worked throughout the first four weeks of the Fall 2026 semester without receiving compensation.
The delays come despite many student employees relying heavily on campus jobs to cover everyday expenses. Among students surveyed by The Collegian, several rated their dependence on their campus income as a four or five out of five. Some of the same students (those working anywhere from six to 20 hours each week) reported receiving no pay for work completed so far this semester.
The issue appears to have affected both new and returning student employees.
Senior Vice President of University Strategy Dr. Greg Nayor confirmed that university officials became aware that some students had not received paychecks at the start of the semester.
“We absolutely did have some students who did not receive their paychecks to start the fall term,” Nayor said. “I will say two things: 1) If any one student did not have their paperwork processed on time, or did not receive their paycheck when they were supposed to, it is unacceptable; and 2) I am not sure we have a major problem as much as we have a process that needs to be improved.”
According to Nayor, student employment paperwork requires five levels of approval before students can be added to payroll: a designated supervisor of the student worker, Student Financial Services to verify federal work study or budget eligibility, the student worker, Human Resources and payroll. The forms must be completed annually, even for returning student workers.
Despite the multi-step process, students were permitted to begin working before those approvals were finalized. “A really big part of the problem is that students were told to start working before this was approved,” Nayor asserted. “That is a problem.”
That revelation raises questions about how students were authorized to begin work and why safeguards designed to prevent payroll issues in the first place had failed. Nayor expressed the system as lacking sufficient notification mechanisms and that “there needs to be more feedback loops in place…rest assured, it will be fixed moving forward.”
The university has not provided a total or estimated count of how many students have been affected by the delays.
As of publication, university officials are now reviewing the hiring and payroll process and plan to implement additional oversight measures, including improved communication channels and clearer timelines for approvals.
