Pol Le, New Editor—

Denison has raised the student wage from $10.30 to $12.30 starting December 2022 as a reflection of the increase in cost-of-living expenses. This is also thanks to the advocacy of lifeguard students working at the Trumbull Aquatics Center. 

The head lifeguards took the initiative by emailing the administration for a raise in hourly pay due to the severely understaffed situation at the pool. 

“All the head guards contacted the administration, and we said that we needed to see changes,” Isabella Pereira ‘25 said. She is currently one of the head guards at Denison. According to protocol, there must be four people rotating every 15 minutes between three lifeguard chairs and the office. 

The head guard will stay in the office. They have to ensure participant safety through vigilant scanning and responding to all emergency situations as first responders during all hours of operation. 

However, because their department doesn’t have sufficient staffing, Pereira said that all the head guards and her faculty employer have to sit at the chairs for their full shift. With no rotations, it’s hard for students to keep their attention on the pool at all times. This would hinder them from responding quickly should an accident present itself.

To Pereira, being a lifeguard is more demanding than many other jobs on campus.“We cannot do homework on the chair. We have to be CPR certified. You have to participate in monthly training, so if an emergency happens, we guide people doing what we gotta do,” she said. 

The increase in wages is good news for the majority of students, but it still fails to incentivise lifeguard applicants in the future. Pereira explained that the guards are looking forward to the tiered wage structure being implemented by the administration. They are aiming for hourly pay of lifeguards for 15-16 dollars and head guards for 17-18 dollars because that is the only incentive for people to work for the athletics department as a lifeguard. 

The tiered wage structure will be taken into consideration through student input by Nicole Saunier. For now, the new wage increase is a commitment of the Administration and the Student Life to ensure that students are fairly compensated. 

For many international students, this is a great relief to their financial plan. 

“I start working for more hours during December because of the wage increase, mainly to cover the cost of the upcoming winter break,” Draco Bui ‘26 said. “It’s quite frustrating that international students cannot stay at school during this holiday season, so I would need to pay for traveling, food, and rent during this time.”

More than that, the wage increase gives students an incentive to find jobs on campus that benefit their career development in the future. These job experiences can be included in their CV, which gives them the advantage to find jobs after graduation. Hence, the annual increase in hourly pay is crucial to support student employees to cope with inflation and career progress.