325 Event Management, Vol. 18, pp. 325–336 1525-9951/14 $60.00 + .00 Printed in the USA. All rights reserved. DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.3727/152599514X13989500765844 Copyright © 2014 Cognizant Comm. Corp. E-ISSN 1943-4308 www.cognizantcommunication.com 1 Current address: Sport and Entertainment Management, College of Business, University of South Florida, Tampa, FL, USA. Address correspondence to Michael A. Odio at his current address: University of Cincinnati, 6310A CRC, P.O. Box 210068, Cincinnati, OH 45221, USA. E-mail: odioml@uc.edu Students make attractive employees for these cam- pus sport entities because they are easily accessible, are likely not seeking full-time employment, and are usually cheaper than hiring full-time employees for the same tasks. In most cases, these students are placed in customer service positions such as ushers, Introduction University campus sport entities such as athletic departments, recreational sports departments, as well as sports and entertainment venues rely heav- ily on students for labor (Kellison & James, 2011). FULL-TIME STUDENT, PART-TIME EMPLOYEE: CAPTURING THE EFFECTS OF SOCIALIZATION INFLUENCES ON AFFECTIVE COMMITMENT FOR STUDENT EMPLOYEES MICHAEL A. ODIO,* JANELLE WELLS,† 1 AND SHANNON KERWIN‡ *Department of Tourism, Recreation and Sport Management, University of Florida, Gainesville, FL, USA †Department of Sport Management, Florida State University, Tallahassee, FL, USA ‡Department of Sport Management, Brock University, St. Catherines, ON, Canada Student employees are a valuable human resource for university sports venues, recreation, and ath- letic departments. This study examines sources of socialization influence (i.e., orientation, cowork- ers, student supervisors, and administration) and their role in fostering the affective organizational commitment of part-time student employees of a university-operated sports and entertainment venue. The student employees’ organizational identity is used as a mediator to explain how socialization affects commitment. Results show that student supervisors and administrators as agents of socializa- tion are significant predictors of affective commitment and that organizational identity fully mediates the relationship between student supervisors and affective commitment and partially mediates the relationship between administrators and affective commitment. This finding is conceptually relevant given the part-time and transient nature of student employees, and leaders in this context typically represent stable figures that can help facilitate identity formation. Key words: Student employees; Socialization; Social identity theory; Relative tenure; Part-time employees