Frequently Asked Questions about the
Student Employment Form (SEF)

What is the Student Employment Form (SEF)?
The Student Employment Form (SEF) is the pink form that supervisors use when hiring or re-hiring a student. This form authorizes our office to hire a student into a specific job for a specific department.

How do I get an SEF?
The SEFs are obtained from our office. Generally, we will send SEFs to you when you open a position in our office. If you need an SEF any other time (when re-hiring a student, for instance) you may call us to request some.

How do I use the SEF?
When hiring or re-hiring a student, fill out the SEF and give it to the student to bring to us. It is very important that the student bring the SEF to our office.

How do I fill out the SEF?
The SEF is divided into three sections: Hiring Information; Job Information; and Signatures.

• Hiring Information: This is the top section, and is for data specific to the employee. Fill in the student ID, name, address, e-mail, and phone number of the person you want hired. Directly below this, fill in the intended effective date, the rate the employee should make, and the pay-type (work/study, non-Work/Study, graduate assistant). Unless a student is being re-hired in to the same position, the rate should fall within the range listed for the job.

• Job Information: This section should already be completed for you. It contains a the Job Code and Title, Department Number and Name and a description of the job. You may make changes to this, however remember that many students may be working under this job description, so changes you make here will affect the job description for those students as well.

• Signatures: The bottom portion of the SEF will need to be signed by the employee, supervisor and department head.

How often do I need to fill out a new SEF?
For most of your student employees, only once or twice a year. We have two employment terms, Academic year and Summer. The Academic year term runs from Aug. 16 to May 31. The Summer term runs from June 1 to August 31. If a student will work in both the academic year and summer, they will need a new SEF and W-4 at the beginning of each term.

What happens after the student turns in the SEF?
When the student brings us their SEF, we will have them fill out any necessary paperwork and get any additional info from them that we need. After that is complete, we will have the SEF reviewed and notify you when the SEF is approved. Approval usually occurs within 24-48 hours from the time receive the SEF, although incomplete/inaccurate SEFs may delay approval. You will receive a notification via campus mail after your SEF is approved, and you may call us to check the status of an SEF as well.
After you've been notified that the SEF has been approved, you may begin having the employee work.

Can I send you an SEF?
Generally not, unless someone from our office has said that it can be sent. Usually, however, it is necessary for us to see the student when they are being hired.

Does the SEF need to be on pink paper?
No, as long as it's a valid SEF. We print them on pink paper to easily differentiate them from the many white pieces of paper in our lives, but that's simply for convenience.

I need more SEFs because I'm hiring several students. Can I photocopy an SEF?
Certainly.

Could somebody fax me a copy of the SEF?
Certainly.