Lured by the convenience of an on-campus job, an overwhelming percentage of students funded by the College Work-Study Program choose jobs in school offices, libraries, and labs, instead of serving in jobs in the larger community outside of the school.

The College Work-Study Program (CWSP) pays 70 percent of the wages of needy students, provided that they work for a non-profit organization. This makes work-study students valuable to low-budget agencies which benefit from the work of college students. However, colleges and universities fall into the non-profit category, and at many--including Harvard--most or all of work-study students are snapped up by the numerous on-campus employers.

There seem to be many reasons why students choose to remain on-campus for work-study, the most common of which are the convenience of a job within the school and flexible hours. Proximity of work is a major factor to a student who is trying to balance a schedule of academics and activities as well as a job.

"It's the convenience of it," says director of student employment John Banfield, at the University of Pennsylvania. "It takes a while to get to work if you are working off-campus. People are worried about time for studies and other activities."

At Harvard, "probably less than a third" of work-study students work in off-campus jobs, according to Martha K. Baldwin, the off-campus work-study coordinator. Those that do work off-campus tend to work in hospitals and laboratories doing research rather than in agencies that directly aid the community, says Baldwin.

Although Baldwin says that there is no specific push for students to work in social service jobs, the Student Employment Office (SEO) here does much to make such jobs available. Students can get names of community service jobs from a bulletin board specifically for off-campus work-study, and SEO administrators say they are always pleased to have students work in the outside community.

"What we do here is keep an eye out so we know what local potential community services need students," says Martha H. Homer, associate director of financial aids for student employment. "We love to see students doing that and encourage them in any way we can." "Agencies in Boston are very receptive to work-study students," adds Baldwin.

Besides a fair number of Harvard students who work in Boston public schools and in Boys' and Girls' Clubs, most students are thinly scattered throughout the many community service agencies which advertise. These include work in programs to aid battered women and children, mentally retarded adults, and elderly people as well as jobs in agencies such as Greenpeace and Red Cross.

For example, there is one Harvard CWSP student now working for Greenpeace, which staffs work-study students from many Boston area colleges. They send information and announcements to Harvard and other schools in the hopes of attracting work-study students.

"The work-study program is excellent for Greenpeace," says Greenpeace staff member Daejanna Wormwood, a former work-study student. "We always enjoy having work-study and internships--this is how work gets done."

The Harvard SEO also finds jobs for students on scholarships from the Stride Rite Corporation, which funds 10 students in each Harvard class who are residents of the Boston area. In order to receive these grants from Stride Rite, these students must do community service in Boston. The students work four to six hours a week in prisons, schools, hospitals, and similar social service agencies.

Work-study candidates may also find service opportunities through Harvard's Phillips Brooks House Association (PBH). The house is primarily a volunteer organization, but 25 work-study students are now employed in and through the house. They work as fundraisers, program directors, and staff assistants in the PBH building, or work off-campus in one of the 23 programs sponsored by PBH.

"Any program could be work-study if a contract was awarded to administer work-study positions," says Greg H. Johnson '82, graduate secretary of the house. "Some organizations require work-study," Johnson says, adding that some agencies prefer students on work-study because they feel that they will be more responsible than volunteers.

Brooks House has sponsored CWSP since 1981, when it was accepted after much debate. Johnson says that the work-study students are very useful to PBH, and is glad to have students working in community service. "I think the work-study program was established to do this kind of work."

Work-study community service obviously benefits the agencies it serves and pleases Harvard administrators, but are the rewards great enough to make a less convenient, more time-consuming job worth it to the students themselves? "I think the ones that go off-campus have no desire to work in an office, and want to do more with their work-study," says Baldwin. "They choose it because that is what they want to do. Working on-campus, one may take an office job just to earn the money."