Transcript Graduate Assistantship Processing

Graduate Assistantship
Processing
Guidelines and tips
Academic Year 2007
Contact person: Kelly Caples:
[email protected]
06/06/07
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Principles of Graduate Student Support
through the Awarding of Assistantships
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Graduate assistants are provided financial support to serve as teaching assistants (TA),
research assistants (RA), or a general Graduate Assistant (GA) while undertaking graduate
study. Assistants may not work more than 20 hours per week during the academic year
without written permission from the Associate Dean of the Graduate School.
All graduate assistants may be offered health benefits (UMBC or UMB plans only) and/or
tuition remission.
Full-time assistants must be offered health insurance (UMBC or UMB plans only) and
tuition remission. All other assistantships are considered partial assistantships.
Priority of full assistantships should be given to doctoral students. Awards to master’s
students may include partial salary compensation and/or health benefits and/or tuition
remission.
Programs are responsible for attracting the best graduate students with the resources
available to them. The list of categories available to use within the assistantship programs
are minimum amounts. Programs may offer higher levels of support but must still stay
within their pool of resources. No additional funds are available from the deans.
The GA budget is managed at the departmental/program level. Departments/programs are
responsible for payment of all stipend, tuition, and health costs they award to assistants.
Departments/programs will also be responsible for reporting their spending from their GA
accounts at the end of each semester. Any overspending will be deducted from the
following year’s funds. Any under spending will be carried forward.
Success of this decentralized GA program will be assessed by campus Ph.D. production and
throughput, increased diversity, and inclusiveness in the graduate program’s profile. This
refers to attracting and retaining more domestic students, women, and minority students
in those programs where said students are underrepresented.
These funds are primarily state funds that are assigned to the University. Review of the
accounts will be on a periodic basis, but at least every two years. The funds are subject to
availability and may be reassigned as needed in the future.
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Definitions of Assistantship Terms
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Full-time Assistantship*
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Half-time Assistantship*
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Stipend,Health Insurance, and Tuition Remission
included
Assistant works exactly 20 hours per week
Stipend, Health Insurance, and Tuition Remission
included
Assistant works exactly 10 hours per week
Partial Assistantship*
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May include one or any combination of two benefits
(stipend, insurance, tuition)
Must still work a minimum of 10 and a maximum of
20 hours per week
* All assistantships require an Award Letter
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Guidelines for Graduate Assistantship
Processing
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General
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All graduate assistants must be enrolled full time every semester.
Full time equals 48 graduate units. A full time assistant working 20
hours per week is given 24 units for the assistantship. Therefore a
full time assistant must register for 24 additional graduate units. A
half time assistant working 10 hours per week is given 12 graduate
units for the assistantship. Therefore a half time assistant must
register for an additional 36 units. Any graduate student working less
than 10 hours per week will not be awarded units for their work and
must register for 48 units in order to be considered a full time
graduate student.
You will need Microsoft Office to use all of our forms, including the
award letter. Please do not convert forms to any other software
package.
Urgent: All graduate assistants must have a notice of separation
form completed at the end of the year and submitted to the Graduate
School if the assistant is NOT returning to your department.
Please remember that the social security number and chart string
information are required on every form submitted to the Graduate
School for assistantship processing.
ALL assistantship forms and documentation go to Kelly Caples,
Graduate School.
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Guidelines for Graduate Assistantship
Processing - - AWARDS
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Awards
 All assistantships must have an award letter on file to
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qualify the assistant for any of the benefits reserved for
GA’s. The award letter must contain the same information
as the example on our website.
It is preferred that the sample award letter be used for all
assistantships. This format is much easier to record data
from and will assist us in more accurate record keeping
for the departments and campus.
Please list all types of assistantships the graduate student
will hold during the fiscal year. Each teaching, research or
general assistantship should be listed with beginning and
ending dates, stipend, and benefit information. These
may be incorporated into one award letter.
All full assistantships require an award letter, stipend,
tuition remission, and health insurance. Partial
assistantships require an award letter and must include at
least one of the three: stipend, tuition remission, or
health insurance.
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Guidelines for Graduate Assistantship
Processing - - AWARD LETTERS
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Summarized Requirements for Award Letters:
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Stipend amounts (annual or hourly) must be clearly stated in
terms of the annual amount the assistant is to receive. This
includes the amount for 9 or 12 months plus any summer or
incentive salary. Hourly assistants should be stated as a
maximum salary for the entire 12 month period.
Actual beginning and ending dates (not just semester or
month)
Number of hours to be worked per week by assistant (10 or
20)
Type of assistantship (GA, RA, TA)
Amount of tuition remission awarded
Health insurance awarded
Assistant’s full name and social security number
Department’s chart string for funding source (this number
will be charged for all benefits listed in award letter)
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Guidelines for Graduate Assistantship
Processing
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Health Insurance
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The Graduate School sends the Health Insurance
enrollment forms to UHS (UMBC plan) or HR (UM,B
plan). UHS and HR send the forms to the providers.
We do not have access to the insurance information.
Please contact either UHS or HR for information
about the actual coverage.
Health insurance enrollment forms must be sent in
duplicate with PeopleSoft emplID number.
All Health forms and documentation must be
submitted to Kelly Caples in the Graduate School.
Only current health forms with the actual rates will
be accepted. Forms are on our website and are also
linked at the end of this presentation
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Guidelines for Graduate Assistantship
Processing
Health Insurance
Paper Flow
Student
Selects the
Insurance Plan
he/she wants
Completes
STUDENT
HEALTH
ENROLLMENT
FORM
DEPARTMENT sends
Enrollment Form + 1 copy
Include EMPL ID#
Graduate
School
Kelly Caples
06/06/07
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Guidelines for Graduate Assistantship
Processing
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Tuition Remission
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Requirements:
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Assistants must be registered for their classes prior to
the first day of classes
Full time assistants must be registered for 24 units and
half time assistants must be registered for 36 units
Tuition remission forms can be found in our
presentation on the Graduate School Website
All spaces must be completed: forms missing
information will be returned to the department
Signatures of the student and the graduate program
director must be on the form. The approving authority
may NOT be the staff member processing the forms.
Number of credits should be what the assistant is
eligible for as stated in the student’s award letter. In
the event the assistant registers for additional credits,
you will only have to notify us rather than submit
another form.
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Guidelines for Graduate Assistantship
Processing
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Tuition Awards…
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may not be given to Graduate Assistants. Remember that you
can give any number of credits on a remission as long as you
have the funds and they are stated in the award letter.
must have original authorized signature just as the award
letters and remissions require
do NOT give the student in-state status or assistantship status.
Tuition awards are based on dollar amounts and not credits.
The department may give the award at a dollar amount they
can fund; the student will be responsible for the difference at
whatever rate they are billed.
may be given to any graduate student not employed as a GA.
They do not have to be employed by the department and
therefore the Graduate School does not need verification of
employment.
require the memo found in this presentation and on our website
require the student to be registered before you submit the
tuition award—awards for non-registered students will be
returned to the department. The due dates for tuition
remissions apply to tuition awards.
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Graduate Assistantship Deadlines
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Award Letters must be submitted prior to or
with tuition remission and/or health insurance
forms.
Registration Deadlines:
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Graduate students must be registered on or before
the first day of classes each semester.
Graduate Assistants NOT registered by the freeze
date may lose their assistantships---please make
sure all graduate assistants are registered as early
as possible to avoid potential billing problems.
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Graduate Assistantship Deadlines
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Tuition Remission Forms
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Late tuition remission forms result in
delayed loan reimbursements and late
fees to the assistants.
Due Dates (forms should be to Kelly Caples
before the following dates):
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Summer Sessions I & II
June 1
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Fall Semester
August 15
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Spring Semester
January 13
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Graduate Assistantship Deadlines
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Health Insurance forms
These dates are absolutely the last day the forms should be in—forms
submitted after these dates are subject to being rejected for processing.
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UMBC Plan:
 Fall Semester– BEFORE August 19
 Spring Semester - BEFORE January 20
 Summer Session I or II – BEFORE July 1
UM,B Plan:
 Fall Semester – BEFORE
August 19
 Spring Semester – BEFORE
January 13
 Forms submitted to UM,B after the 15th of the month
will result in no coverage until the following month.
There are no exceptions to this schedule.
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Graduate Assistantship Categories
Master’s Level Students
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Minimum Stipend
Teaching Aide
$12.87 per hour
Administrative Aide
$12.87 per hour
Laboratory Aide
$12.87 per hour
RA, TA, or GA – full time
$11,324 for academic year
RA, TA, or GA – half time
$5,662 for academic year
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Graduate Assistantship Categories
Doctoral Level Students
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Minimum Stipend
RA, TA, or GA – 9 month
$14,566 for academic year
RA, TA, or GA – 12 month
$17,261 for academic year
Dissertation Award
$7,283 for one semester plus
one or two credits of 899
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Forms
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Here are links to information regarding
Assistantships:
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Assistantship Policies and Guidelines
Asssistantships and Funding
These are the links to all forms you will need:
(Right click on the link and go to ‘Open Hyperlink’ or ‘Hyperlink > Open’):
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Award Letter
Tuition Remission
Tuition Award
UMBC Health Insurance Enrollment
UM,B Health Insurance Enrollment
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For UM,B enrollment forms, please contact Kelly Caples at
[email protected]
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Notes & Tips
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Graduate Assistants may work additional hours
per week during the Summer Sessions. This
decision is their departments and Graduate
Program director. The number of additional
hours is based on their contracted schedule.
A tip for scheduling your start and end dates
for assistants: it is much easier to set up
these dates based on the payroll schedule if
possible. It makes the process much more
streamlined for the payroll preparer if the GA
starts at the beginning of a payperiod.
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