Graduate Student Handbook

Many graduate students in the Program receive financial assistance in the form of fellowships, teaching assistantships, and/or research assistantships.  Students should recognize that financial support from the GIDP is a privilege and is not guaranteed.  In order to receive financial aid, it is necessary to be considered a full-time graduate student, which requires registration for a minimum of 9 units each semester.  Students are encouraged to seek out funding from a variety of sources; the Graduate College has online resources which can facilitate this effort.  Students are also strongly encouraged to apply for Research Assistantship support through faculty and fellowship awards from local and national agencies.

Teaching Assistantships carry teaching assignments in various departments and programs across the campus.  When you are awarded a teaching (or research; see below) assistantship, you essentially become a student employee of the University and must sign an employment contract, called the Notice of Appointment (NOA).  A copy of the NOA is given to the student to sign, and it should be read carefully.  Some of the key points for the student mentioned in the NOA include:

• Must be enrolled for a minimum of 6 graduate level units, or the minimum required by your department or program.  (The Statistics GIDP requires registration for a minimum of 9 units.)

• Maintain a cumulative GPA of 3.0 or higher.

• Limit hours per pay period (two calendar weeks) to the required guidelines of your FTE (0.50 or 0.25; see Item #5, below); if you are on a 0.50 assistantship the maximum number of hours worked per pay period is 40; if on a .25 assistantship the maximum number of hours worked per pay period is 20.  Students on F-1 or J-1 visas are limited to a maximum total of 40 hours per pay period.

• Perform duties—whether teaching or research—to the best of your abilities. You may be subject to termination before the end of your appointment is your performance is not at acceptable levels.

• Understand that assistantship appointments are not automatically renewable and may be subject to funding availability.  There should be no expectation of employment beyond the dates listed on the current NOA.

The Graduate College also requires that all Graduate Teaching Assistants engaged in direct student contact whose native language is not English and who are not U.S. Citizens or Permanent Residents provide verification of proficiency in spoken English. Current regulations view this as either a passing score (50) on the Test of Spoken English (TSE) administered by the Educational Testing Service (ETS), or the SPEAK test administered by the University. Verification of a successful test result is required before a Graduate Teaching Assistant’s hiring documents may be processed.

In addition to the key points established by the Graduate College, above, the GIDP in Statistics has an additional set of guidelines which must be followed by students on Teaching Assistantships.  These are:

• Students working as Teaching Assistants are classified by the University as student workers; therefore there is no provision for sick or medical leave time.  If a TA becomes ill and cannot teach or meet her/his class responsibilities, s/he must inform the course supervisor and the TA coordinator immediately, and s/he must make the necessary arrangements for coverage of the class/responsibilities.  In the extreme circumstance of being incapacitated to the extent that a TA cannot teach for an indefinite or extended period of time, the University will require the student to resign from the Teaching Assistantship.

• There is no vacation time for Teaching Assistants.  Time off during the semester is only allowed for the most exceptional family situations (e.g. death, serious illness) and must be kept to the minimum number of days possible.  Obviously, the TA must inform the course supervisor and the TA coordinator if such a situation arises.

• TAs will not be paid for time taken off during the semester and for payroll purposes must report any time away to the business office of the sponsoring department or program.

• Graduate Assistants classified as employees of the GIDP must complete an Electronic Time Record (ETR) every pay period. The ETR is then approved by the Supervising Instructor or Professor. Failure to submit the ETR or receive Supervisor approval will prevent the Graduate Assistant from receiving her/his paycheck.

GIDP students may at times be confused about their status when they are Teaching Assistants in another University department or program.  The GIDP recommends that students view the teaching and services they provide as a form of “contract” between the student and the department or program.  (A similar sort of arrangement often occurs with employees of consulting companies in the commercial sector).  While you have a TA contract with another University department or program, you must follow their (and the University’s) rules and procedures with regard to your teaching performance.  We call, however, for GIDP students to always conduct themselves as citizens of, and ambassadors for, the GIDP in Statistics, since they are governed by all the GIDP’s academic policies and requirements, irrespective of the source of their financial support.

Research assistantships can come from grants and contracts to faculty members and generally require research related to the grant or contract.  Individual faculty or campus training programs administering the research position(s) may have specific requirements that students must meet in order to be eligible for funding.  The nature of financial support for graduate students can vary year to year. Continuation of research assistantships from non-GIDP sources is always at the discretion of the Principal Investigator of the grant, regardless of the number of years of prior funding.  All other aspects and responsibilities for Research Assistants are similar to those discussed above for Teaching Assistants, including the stipulations of an NOA.

University Fellowships, for which competition is heavy, are available mainly to first year students; these carry no explicit teaching or research obligations.  All support is contingent upon meeting Graduate College requirements, which include maintaining at least a 3.0 grade point average.

There are opportunities for students to obtain external fellowships of various kinds from funding agencies such as the U.S. National Science Foundation (NSF), other various Federal Depts. and Agencies, and private foundations.  See http://grad.arizona.edu/Prospective_Students/Financial_Resources/.  These fellowships are prestigious, financially advantageous, and can speed up time to graduation.  Students are strongly encouraged to apply for these awards.  Ms. Georgia Ehlers, Coordinator of Internships & Community Engagement at the Graduate College, will be pleased to assist you.  

The University has strict regulations governing academic year employment limits.  These are described in the University’s Graduate Assistantship Hiring Manual, available on the Graduate College website or from the GIDP office.  A “full-time” TA or RA position is designated as 0.5 FTE (FTE stands for Full-Time Equivalent employee or student).  That is, one-half of a 40-hour work week.  The term “full time” TA is perhaps confusing, since it designates only 20 hours of work/week.  The University and the GIDP view this as comprising only half of the graduate student’s weekly effort, because students are expected to spend the “other” half of their time on coursework and attendant scholarly pursuits as part of their graduate education and training.  Indeed, graduate students given “half-time” TA or RA status with reduced duties are usually designated as 0.25 FTE.

The Graduate Assistantship Hiring Manual states that to maintain student employee status, graduate students are limited to no more than 30 hours per week total employment; this includes their Graduate Assistantship (either TA or RA) position, and any additional on-campus employment during periods of enrollment.  But note:  “full-time” (0.5 FTE) TAs or RAs cannot seek or accept additional on-campus employment opportunities, since for a graduate student 0.5 FTE status is viewed as working full time (despite the confusing use of the “0.5 FTE” terminology).  Such a student could not, e.g., accept an additional 0.25 FTE position as a TA or RA that brings their total contracted workload up to a 30 hour work-week, even though the Graduate College maximum allows for up to 30 hours of service.  (To reemphasize, 0.5 FTE status is viewed as working full time; indeed, no responsible professor or sensible department will take on a student with external 0.5 FTE status as a part-time TA or RA.)

It is possible, however, for a graduate student to have partial support from one source, e.g., a half-time TA (0.25 FTE), and to acquire further support from another source.  The 30 hour-maximum could then become pertinent, if, say, the GIDP were to approve extra hours—usually termed supplementary compensation—for performing special tutoring assignments.  In this case, the employment contracts become a little more complex, and students in such situations should endeavor to work closely with the GIDP’s Graduate Coordinator, in order to make sure that all University regulations are satisfied.

The guidelines reviewed above all center on how a GIDP student should conduct herself or himself, i.e., one’s professional conduct.  Professional conduct not only involves a commitment to follow the letter of an assistantship contract’s requirements, but also implies that proper respect be given to the spirit behind these requirements.  Award of a TA or RA is a privilege, not a right.  Irresponsible actions exhibited while serving the GIDP and the University not only damage the student’s own reputation (who will want to hire you as TA in the future if you are known to disrespect rules?), but ultimately damage the reputation of the GIDP.  TA and RA positions are exciting opportunities for graduate students to develop professional skills that will carry through the rest of their careers.  Enjoy them and benefit from them, but on no account abuse them!