And I didn't graduate early because....?

I know this is totally unprofessional of me, and I promise it won't happen again, but anonymously vent I will. This on-campus job I applied for* in mid-July asked for a phone interview yesterday, to which I happily agreed because it's a job I would enjoy doing and I think I could do it pretty well.

I was so excited about it that I told the good people who offered me a different, lower-paying job at a café this morning that I'd have to wait and see about this other job first. Then the campus job (that took forever even to give me an interview) tells me they can't hire me because I'm a student.

Isn't that illegal?

I don't have the time, energy or willingness to devote to fighting it, but I'm annoyed that a job I would have done just as competently as an outside contractor (and for lower pay because it's a university) isn't available to me on grounds synonymous with "my paycheck would go right back to the university."



*by "applied for," I mean did about $50 of sample work for free, explained why and how I did the work in the cover letter, and researched relevant competitors. At least now I have an unpublished writing sample? Though I will be supremely peeved if they use the work anyway.

UPDATE: I've done some Googling, and it appears that my position as a student would not preclude me from entering an independent contract with the university, but my current employment with the university (in a different capacity) would.