Graduate assistantships provide a supervised opportunity for graduate students to gain experience in teaching or research while receiving wages.

The University views graduate students serving in assistantships first and foremost as students. Consequently, the goal of any assistantship must be to aid the student in the successful completion of the graduate degree.

Graduate students who serve in a graduate assistantship are paid in accordance with the wage authorization established each year by the Office of the Executive Vice President and Provost and published on its website.

In addition to wages, graduate students who serve in a graduate assistantship may receive tuition support through tuition remission and adjustment awards and may be eligible for a health insurance subsidy. (For more information regarding the health insurance subsidy, see Section 7: Health Insurance Subsidy.)

Graduate students who are on leave or on Affiliated Status are not eligible for graduate assistantships.

1. Types of Assistantships:
   

   1. Graduate Teaching Assistants (GTAs):
      Effective July 1, 1988, the Board of Visitors defined a full-time graduate teaching assistantship (GTA) for salary purposes as twenty work hours per week for the academic session. For laboratory and discussion sections, eight contact hours per week of supervision are considered to be a full work load; for multi-section courses, six credits per semester (i.e., two sections of three credits each) are considered a full work load. In all cases, the remaining hours (i.e., to reach the twenty hours/week work load) include time for maintenance of office hours, consultations with students, administration, grading of papers, preparation time, or other such duties as may be assigned.

      GTAs have instructional assignments in classrooms or laboratories. In general, GTAs have responsibility for a range of activities that include:

      • leading lecture and classroom activities connected with a single section of a multi-section course that is under the general supervision of a faculty member;
      • leading discussion sections or problem sessions associated with courses that are taught by a member of the regular faculty;
      • leading laboratory sections under the general supervision of a regular faculty member who has responsibility for the course.

      Other duties can include holding office hours, grading tests and other assignments, and responding to student questions in person and electronically. GTAs are expected to prepare sufficiently for each class or lab.

      An advanced doctoral student hired to teach an undergraduate course or courses without the supervision of a faculty member should be employed as a faculty wage employee, not a graduate teaching assistant. See policy PROV-026: Faculty Wage Employment.

      Graduate students are not allowed to serve as an instructor for courses carrying graduate credit, although they may, in exceptional circumstances, with dean’s permission, be assigned as teaching assistants to a course carrying graduate credit (see Section 2: Qualifications). Graduate students hired on an hourly basis to provide other types of academic support, such as grading tests or other short-term projects, are not graduate teaching assistants and are not eligible for tuition remission.

   2. Graduate Research Assistants (GRAs):
      GRAs conduct academically significant research related to their academic program and their development as future researchers, with a minimum of supervision, under the guidance of a faculty member. Graduate students hired on an hourly basis to conduct short-term research, organize conferences, or provide other types of academic support are not graduate research assistants and are not eligible for tuition remission.

2. Qualifications:
   Students receiving any type of assistantship must be enrolled full-time in a graduate degree-granting program at the University and must possess an excellent academic record.

   In addition, all GTAs, per the accreditation requirements for the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools Commission on Colleges (SACSCOC), are expected to:

   • have a master’s degree or 18 graduate credit hours in the discipline they are teaching;
   • receive direct supervision from a faculty member experienced in the teaching discipline;
   • participate in regular in-service training; and
   • undergo planned and periodic evaluations.²

   In the event the dean elects to support GTAs with fewer credit hours than specified by SACSCOC, the dean must retain documentation that justifies the qualifications of the individual GTA. This documentation may be subject to periodic audit.

   GTAs are not normally assigned to courses carrying graduate credit. Deans may grant exceptions for graduate students who have completed at least 18 credits in their discipline and who have substantial knowledge or expertise in the subject matter. In all cases, GTAs must demonstrate mastery of course content. Rationale for exceptions and the dean’s approval must be documented and maintained on file in the dean’s office. This documentation may be subject to periodic audit.

   GTAs may not be enrolled in courses for which they are assigned assistantship responsibilities.

   All prospective graduate teaching assistants whose first language is one other than English are required to take the SPEAK test. For more information, contact the Center for American English Language & Culture.

   Visiting graduate students may, in exceptional circumstances approved by the dean, serve as GTAs (see policy PROV-012: Financial Aid to Non-Degree-Seeking Students).

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   ²Faculty Credentials: Guidelines, SACSCOC, 2006.

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3. Supervisory Responsibilities of the Institution:
   Each graduate assistant should be supervised by a faculty member in performing the activities associated with the graduate assistantship.

   If the graduate assistant is a GTA, the supervising faculty member will be the faculty member responsible for the course or lab. The supervising faculty member of a GTA is responsible for:

   • designing the course content and publishing a course syllabus;
   • determining the grading policy;
   • providing in-service training for all GTAs assigned to the course; and,
   • evaluating the progress of the class and the GTA.

   For any type of graduate assistantship, the supervising faculty member or the department chair will notify the graduate assistant in writing of any decision that affects the graduate student’s academic or assistantship status. This includes advance notice of evaluation procedures and a summary of the evaluation.

   The graduate assistantship may be suspended or terminated if the supervising faculty member or department chair has cause. Stated causes for termination include, but are not limited to: professional incompetence, unacceptable performance after due notice, unethical or unlawful conduct, misconduct that interferes with the graduate student’s capacity to perform the responsibilities of the graduate assistantship effectively, the graduate student’s failure to make adequate progress on his/her degree, and falsification of credentials or experience. In the event of suspension or termination from a graduate assistantship, any tuition benefits awarded in conjunction with the assistantship will remain in effect for the term. Benefits committed for future terms may, however, be withdrawn, along with commitments for future assistantships. (See Procedure 3: Disciplinary Suspension or Termination.)

4. Appointment Restrictions:
   To ensure that graduate students make steady progress toward degree completion while serving in an assistantship, the University imposes the following restrictions:

   • A graduate student may hold the equivalent of no more than one full graduate assistantship at any time; and
   • A graduate student who receives a full assistantship normally will not engage in other employment, either inside or outside the University (graduate students and their advisors may request an exception to this restriction in accordance with the provost’s wage authorization document).

5. Notice of Reappointment:
   Unless specified otherwise in the assistantship appointment letter (see Procedure 1: Appointment to a Graduate Assistantship), a graduate assistantship is for a single academic term only. Schools and departments are encouraged to notify graduate students at least six weeks before the end of the academic term as to whether or not they will be appointed to a graduate assistantship in the subsequent term, even if exact responsibilities or funding sources cannot be defined at that time.

6. Qualified Assistantships and Tuition Remission:
   Each academic term, the University provides tuition remission to those graduate students who serve during that term in a qualified assistantship.

   The payment of in-state tuition and all required fees should be made from the same source of funds from which the student is paid. For GTAs, this source is usually tuition revenue (through a state restricted award). For GRAs, this is usually a grant or contract.

   If sufficient funds are not available or payment is not allowable from the same source of funds, the department chair or the dean should identify another source of non-general funds from which to make the payment. For students receiving wages as both a GTA and a GRA (see Section 6a, Tuition Remission and Multiple Sources of Pay).

   1. Tuition Remission and Multiple Sources of Pay:
      If a student's assistantship is “split-funded,” that is, the student is either receiving wages as both a GTA and a GRA or receiving wages that are funded from multiple sources of funds, payment should be made from each source of funds, proportional to the wages paid from each source. The percentage of tuition remission paid from a grant can be no more than the percentage of work for which the student is being paid from the grant.

      For example, a graduate student who is dedicating one-quarter of her/his time as a GTA (approximately five hours per week) and three-quarters of his/her time as a GRA (approximately fifteen hours per week) should receive one-quarter of his/her remission payment from a non-grant source and three-fourths from the grant that paid her/his wages as a GRA.

      Graduate students who receive part of their wages through an assistantship that is at least half-time (and therefore qualified for tuition remission) and part through a position that is not an assistantship (for example, a graduate student worker or employment with another University office, such as the University Library or Student Financial Services) should receive tuition remission entirely from the source of funds that is paying the wages for her/his qualified assistantship. For example, a half-time GRA who is also working as a student employee in the University Bookstore would receive full tuition remission from the grant that is paying her/his wages as a GRA.

   2. Tuition Adjustment:
      Graduate students who are out-of-state students and who earn at least $5,000 in wages over the course of the fiscal year as a GTA or GRA may be awarded full or partial tuition adjustment for that term to pay the difference between the in-state tuition paid by tuition remission and out-of-state tuition. Full adjustments may be granted to qualifying graduate students to the extent that resources are available in the school or department.

7. Health Insurance Subsidy:
   A graduate student must be offered the health insurance subsidy if he/she earns at least $5,000 in wages over the course of the fiscal year as a GTA or GRA.

   Schools wishing to provide health insurance to graduate students who do not meet the qualifications defined above may do so by processing a health insurance subsidy through the Student Information System (SIS) using non-general funds.

   Schools wishing to supplement the single-coverage plan may award a stipend to the student sufficient to fund his or her health insurance premium.

   The following students do not qualify for the health insurance subsidy:

   • graduate students employed only in other capacities by the University (such as a graduate student worker or a work-study employee or graduate students hired as instructors on the academic non-tenure-track faculty); or
   • students enrolled exclusively in the first professional degree programs offered by Law, Medicine, or Darden (students enrolled in these schools may be qualified if they are enrolled either in a Ph.D. program in the school or in certain dual graduate degree programs and meet the criteria defined above).

   The amount provided on behalf of each qualified graduate student as a health insurance subsidy is defined as part of the University’s annual budget process and may be less than or equal to 100% of the premium for single coverage under the University-sponsored student health insurance program. Annually, the University evaluates the cost of the single coverage premium for all eligible students versus available University resources and reserves the right to reduce the subsidy to less than 100% if necessary.

   The health insurance subsidy is non-transferable and non-refundable; unused subsidies cannot be refunded for their equivalent cash value.

   A student may cease to qualify for the health insurance subsidy for reasons including but not limited to:

   • The student withdraws from the University during the course of the academic year; or
   • The student is not employed in the capacity that was anticipated at the start of the academic year (i.e., the student was expected to serve in a qualified graduate assistantship during the spring semester, but in actuality was not employed in that capacity).

Before September 15 of each academic year, if a student ceases to qualify for the subsidy, the University will cancel payment of the student’s health insurance subsidy. After September 15, if a student ceases to qualify after s/he has been offered the subsidy and has enrolled in the student health insurance plan, the University will not cancel its payment of the student’s subsidy.

8. Grievances:
   A graduate student who wishes to bring a complaint related to a graduate assistantship, including a complaint related to a disciplinary suspension or termination, may do so within ten (10) calendar days of the date on which the decision being contested was communicated to the graduate student, in accordance with the grievance procedure described below (see Procedure 4: Grievance Procedure).

   Complaints of discrimination or harassment, that is any complaint that the student has been subjected to discrimination on the basis of age, color, disability, gender identity, marital status, national or ethnic origin, political affiliation, race, religion, sex (including pregnancy), sexual orientation, veteran status, or family medical or genetic information by the University, are not appropriate for review under the grievance procedure described in this policy and are handled under policy HRM-009: Preventing and Addressing Discrimination and Harassment (PADH), HRM-010: Preventing and Addressing Retaliation, and the related complaint procedures maintained by the Office for Equal Opportunity and Civil Rights (EOCR).

   Reports of sexual assault, sexual exploitation, intimate partner violence, stalking, or sexual or gender-based harassment are not appropriate for review under the grievance procedure described in this policy and are handled in accordance with policy HRM-041: Policy on Sexual and Gender-Based Harassment and Other Forms of Interpersonal Violence and its appendices.

   Disciplinary actions taken against GTAs/GRAs as a result of an investigation pursuant to HRM-009, HRM-010, or HRM-041 do not qualify for review as a grievance under this policy.