Members of Congress unanimously agreed Jan. 24 to receive no salary until a new budget could be passed. If Congress fails to make a decision within the next two months, automatic sequestration (or spending cuts) will be activated that will cause the federal work-study program to lose 8.2 percent of its budget.

Sequestration would result in automatic spending cuts that would cause many programs to lose money, including a total cut of $2.95 billion to the Department of Education.

Peter Williams, professor of economics and finance at UNA, said the automatic spending cuts serve as motivation for Democrats and Republicans to work toward compromise, but the process is being stalled by both parties being unwilling to trust each other to be fair in writing new legislation.

“The threat of sequestration was put there to tell the public that (members of Congress are) going to work,” Williams said. “The way these cuts were designed was to hurt everybody, which is what you want when two parties don’t agree. This gave them an incentive to come to a solution.”

Williams said he has not seen any action that would lead him to believe Congress will make an agreement by the deadline.

“This is an economy that has a lot of people suffering not only at the federal, but at the state level,” he said. “This is very unfortunate. It looks like a lot of people are cautious about the solution we are going to get and whether or not it will look good to students.”

UNA sophomore Jordan Hyche said he believes sequestration will affect every aspect of his college lifestyle and that many other students will feel the same burden if the automatic cuts go into effect. He said his biggest concern would be finding an off-campus job.

“I think spending cuts are commonplace when it comes to universities as a whole, so when talk of the threat of less funding for on-campus jobs came about, I was not surprised,” said Madeleine Frankford, a UNA junior. “I rely solely on my federal work-study job at UNA’s campus. Without it, I would have to readjust and find supplemental ways of maintaining my (already college-student low) standard of living.”

Frankford said she is concerned that students with federal work-study jobs will have to take out more loans to pay for school, making them gain more student debt. She believes that any student, regardless of political affiliation, can relate to needing to make money to survive while trying to stay out of debt.

“While, yes, working on campus is my main source of income, to me it is more than that,” Frankford said. “In a way, I have an upper hand to non-student workers because of the connections I get to make daily with the leaders of our university that are the ultimate link for me to be able to get where I want to go in life. I can replace an income, but I can’t replace the relationships I have built through my experiences working on campus.”

Olivia Jones, also a UNA junior with a work-study job, said she, too, would hate to lose what pay and connections she currently has in the event that sequestration affected jobs at UNA.

“I have no choice in the matter if the spending cuts is probable but it’s quite upsetting to know my $7.50 could be diminished or decreased at any moment,” said Jones. “I don’t ask for much but for what any other white collar worker has, and that is to have an opportunity to work in something I love and get paid.”