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Graduate Assistantship Processing. Guidelines and tips Academic Year 2007 Contact person: Kelly Caples: caples@umbc.edu. Principles of Graduate Student Support through the Awarding of Assistantships.
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Graduate Assistantship Processing Guidelines and tips Academic Year 2007 Contact person: Kelly Caples: caples@umbc.edu
Principles of Graduate Student Support through the Awarding of Assistantships • 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 theGraduate School. • All graduate assistants maybe 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.
Definitions of Assistantship Terms • Full-time Assistantship* • Stipend,Health Insurance, and Tuition Remission included • Assistant works exactly 20 hours per week • Half-time Assistantship* • Stipend, Health Insurance, and Tuition Remission included • Assistant works exactly 10 hours per week • Partial Assistantship* • May include oneor 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
Guidelines for Graduate Assistantship Processing • General • 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.
Guidelines for Graduate Assistantship Processing - - AWARDS • Awards • All assistantships must have an award letter on file to 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.
Guidelines for Graduate Assistantship Processing - - AWARD LETTERS • Summarized Requirements for Award Letters: • 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)
Guidelines for Graduate Assistantship Processing • Health Insurance • 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
Student Selects the Insurance Plan he/she wants Completes STUDENT HEALTH ENROLLMENT FORM DEPARTMENT sends Enrollment Form + 1 copy Include EMPL ID# GraduateSchool Kelly Caples Guidelines for Graduate Assistantship Processing Health Insurance Paper Flow
Guidelines for Graduate Assistantship Processing • Tuition Remission • Requirements: • 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.
Guidelines for Graduate Assistantship Processing • Tuition Awards… • 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.
Graduate Assistantship Deadlines • Award Letters must be submitted prior to or with tuition remission and/or health insurance forms. • Registration Deadlines: • 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.
Graduate Assistantship Deadlines • Tuition Remission Forms • 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): • Summer Sessions I & II June 1 • Fall Semester August 15 • Spring Semester January 13
Graduate Assistantship Deadlines • 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. • 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.
Forms • Here are links to information regarding Assistantships: • 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’): • Award Letter • Tuition Remission • Tuition Award • UMBC Health Insurance Enrollment • UM,B Health Insurance Enrollment • For UM,B enrollment forms, please contact Kelly Caples at caples@umbc.edu
Notes & Tips • 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.
