Southwestern Launches Online Timecard System

Candace McCormick, junior elementary education major at Southwestern, signs in to her job at the cashier window.

A new campus-wide timecard system launched this week, beginning Monday, Aug. 13. Rather than using traditional timecards, hourly workers at Southwestern Adventist University are now expected to sign in online at sam.swau.edu.

The new system will reduce workload, minimize the possibility of human error and increase efficiency, according to Charles Lewis, director of Information Technology Services and Edna Yanez-Perez, business office cashier.

To use online timecards, people must be eligible to work on campus and need to have their supervisor list them in the system as a worker.

During holiday, students may wish to work on campus. If they were enrolled at Southwestern during a previous semester, then they are labeled as “active un-enrolled.” They have until the end of registration next semester to be listed in that category. If they don’t enroll for spring semester, they will be removed from the system and must be manually added if they wish to continue work.

Students will still be able to work for more than one department. This system will prevent workers from clocking into more than one department at a time. It will also force new workers to turn in an I-9 form. “Sometimes people forget, and it’s very important,” says Lewis. “This gives them a three-day grace period to turn their I-9 in. Then if they haven’t, they can’t clock in.”

According to Lewis, this system will also solve a problem that international students face. The federal government has limited international students to 20 hours of work per week. Online timecards will keep track of hours so that students won’t work more than they are legally allowed to.

According to Lewis, online timecards has been a project ITS has wanted to do for a long time. However, in order for it to work properly, first they had to build a student payroll system, and then other projects pushed the timecard system further down the priority list. This spring, the timecard system was once again placed first on the priority list so that it could be finally completed.

Even though the new system promises great things, because it is new, there is always the possibility of details going wrong. “I’m always worried,” says Lewis. “I’m worried because this is the first time we’re rolling this out. People are always going to have questions. It would not surprise me if we have to scramble some glitch that someone found, but hopefully not.”

Regardless of any concerns Lewis might have, there are many, including Yanez, who are happy the system is finally here.

“IT department has been working on this for a few years,” says Yanez. “We just want to get up to speed with the rest of the world. It’s better this way.”

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