GSAD-901 - Graduate Assistants (formerly PR06)

To provide a structure for graduate assistantships that allows graduate assistants to give appropriate attention to both academic progress and assistantship responsibilities.

Purpose

To provide the definition of and policies for appointing Graduate Assistants.

Scope

All graduate students appointed to graduate teaching, research, or administrative assistantships; graduate traineeships; or graduate fellowships.

Policy Statement

  1. Graduate assistantships are provided to degree-seeking students enrolled in residence in the J. Jeffrey and Ann Marie Fox Graduate School at The Pennsylvania State University as aids to completion of advanced degrees. Graduate assistants are students, and graduate assistantships provide pedagogic and educational experiences designed to make students better instructors, researchers, and scholars. As such, graduate assistantship appointments should be related to the graduate student's disciplinary field and, wherever possible, tied to the student's program of study so as to contribute in a relevant manner to the student's professional development. To effectively make such a contribution, the supervisor of the assistantship necessarily serves in a mentoring role, which requires regular interaction, close communication, and feedback with the graduate assistant, including clear expectations for satisfactory fulfillment of the assistantship activities. Assistantships may require activities in the classroom, in the laboratory or other research environment, or in other areas on campus, with the opportunity for professional development further benefiting from and enriched by the scholarly environment of the University. Graduate assistantships include a stipend, tuition remission, and a subsidy for the premium for the student health insurance plan (SHIP) for Penn State.
  2. ELIGIBILITY:

The Pennsylvania State University operates on a semester calendar system. The period of instruction each fall and spring semester is 15 weeks. Graduate assistants are appointed for 18 weeks each semester, for, on average, the number of hours per week appropriate to the assistantship appointment type (e.g., quarter-time, half-time or three-quarter-time). All graduate assistantship appointments are made for one or two semesters and/or for the Summer Sessions. Students are expected to be involved in assistantship activities for an approximate total of 18 weeks per fall and/or spring semester during the dates indicated on their Terms of Offer, not including official University holidays, campus closures (including for inclement weather, etc.) and during spring break and the Thanksgiving holiday break. Under particular circumstances, primarily for students whose first semester will be during the summer sessions, students may be appointed to traditional graduate assistantships during the summer session for a period of up to 12 weeks. However, in most cases, students are appointed as Summer Lecturer/Researchers during the summer sessions, see GSAD-905 (previously PR17).

There may be exceptional circumstances such as with specialized maintenance and/or data collection from research animals, where assistantship activities must be conducted during University holidays/closures and cannot be delegated to other individuals, or when an experimental protocol runs over months and cannot be interrupted or suspended to allow time away. In such circumstances, the graduate student should be made aware prior to the start of the assistantship appointment involving the affected period, and other time away should be arranged in exchange. Students should consult with the following individuals as needed to address any concerns about a request that assistantship activities span University holidays/closures: assistantship provider, adviser (if not the same individual), graduate program chair, college/school administrator for graduate education (typically an assistant/associate/senior associate dean). Finally, if preferred or if necessary, when the previously mentioned individuals cannot assist, the Associate Dean for Graduate Student Affairs in the Fox Graduate School serves as ombudsperson for Graduate Students and is available to discuss any student’s specific situation.

Preference in renewals normally is given to those students who have shown superior aptitude in the performance of assistantship activities and in academic progress. A graduate assistantship may be terminated prior to completion of the full term of the appointment if the student fails to meet departmental standards as described above, following due process procedures as described in GCAC-804 Procedures for Termination of Assistantships Due to Inadequate Performance.

    Minimum Stipend Requirement:

Grade 12 is the current Required Minimum Stipend Grade for Fall/Spring appointments (see Table of Stipends). For students to be supported on an annual basis, units should seek to provide additional support and/or scholarship funding during the summer that meets or exceeds the equivalent of a grade 12 half-time graduate assistantship for the fall, spring and summer semesters, a 12 month period. Grades below 12 (i.e., 9, 10 and 11), Grade 27, and Quarter-Time and Three-Quarter Time appointments may only be used with prior approval of a Variable Rate Form by the Fox Graduate School, Office of Graduate Fellowships and Awards Administration.

All graduate assistant appointees are paid monthly on the last business day of the month. Direct stipend deposits are mandatory and are a condition of each appointment. For the fall semester, graduate assistants will typically be paid 1/5 of the semester stipend at the end of August, September, October, November, and December, respectively. For the spring semester, graduate assistants will typically receive 1/5 of the semester stipend at the end of January, February, March, April, and May, respectively. Students on assistantship during summer session will be paid half of their stipend at the end of June and half at the end July.

Appointments are submitted in accordance with stipends grades authorized in the Table of Stipends for Graduate Assistants. See the Schedule of Graduate Assistant Pay Dates for pay dates and the portion of the stipend paid each month of the appointment.

Payments made in June for Summer Session can be pre-payments against the following year's budget. This option can be entered on the Neocase form when completing the summer appointment request.

The privileges of graduate study are the same for all graduate assistants within the same assistantship appointment type with credit limits that depend on whether the graduate assistant is enrolled in a research degree program (leading to the M.A., M.S., or Ph.D.) or in a professional degree program (e.g., M.B.A., D.N.P. M.P.S., M.Arch. etc.). The table that follows shows the number of credits that normally may be scheduled for each semester or session for a given degree type and within an appointment type: For graduate assistants enrolled in a research degree program (M.A., M.S., or Ph.D.)

Fall/Spring Summer
Graduate Assistant - Quarter-Time 9-14 5-7
Graduate Assistant - Half-Time 9-12 4-6
Graduate Assistant - Three-Quarter-Time 6-8 3-4

For graduate assistants enrolled in a professional degree program (e.g., M.B.A., D.N.P. M.P.S., M.Arch. etc.)

Fall/Spring Summer
Graduate Assistant - Quarter-Time 9-18 5-15
Graduate Assistant - Half-Time 9-15 4-12
Graduate Assistant - Three-Quarter-Time 6-12 3-9
  1. The credit load and the average weekly hours of assistantship activities are properly balanced in each semester, and the total credit load over a period of the appointment (i.e., fall/spring or summer) conforms within the specified limits.
  2. The total number of credits scheduled during the period of appointment is consistent with the type of degree program and appointment.
  3. Students should always be given an appointment level (¼-, ½-, or ¾-time assistantship) that does not compromise their ability to meet the degree requirements of their program and assigned no more than the normal average weekly hours of assistantship activities for that appointment level, not including activities related to their degree requirements.
  4. An exception made in one semester or summer session will be compensated for by a suitably modified credit load in the subsequent semester or summer session, so that, on the average, normal progress is maintained at a rate falling within the limits above. Failure to do so may jeopardize the student's academic status.

Graduate Assistant tuition will be charged at a reduced graduate assistantship tuition rate. Flat rate dissertation fees will be charged for graduate assistants registered for 601/611. Graduate assistant tuition and flat rate dissertation fees are paid for by the appointing unit. Learn more about graduate assistant tuition rates.

A graduate assistant may perform classroom or laboratory instruction, research, or other activities. The tasks assigned to a graduate assistant often are identical in nature to those required of all candidates for the advanced degree sought. If all of the assistantship activities assigned to the graduate assistant are required of every degree candidate in the applicable graduate degree program as a condition of receiving the degree, it must be noted in the Terms of Offer and on the Neocase appointment form. If all of the activities assigned to the graduate assistant are required of every degree candidate in the applicable graduate program as a condition of receiving the degree, state and local taxes will not be withheld.

Graduate assistants should not be expected or required to complete additional hours of assigned assistantship activities beyond the average weekly hours for their appointment type (and not including those required for their degree, as indicated above); in the exceptional circumstance that this does occur, other time away from the assistantship should be arranged to allow the average weekly hours to match the respective appointment type (quarter-time, half-time, or three-quarter-time) over the duration of the appointment.

Additional compensation may be paid to a graduate assistant by the University for additional hours of activities only with special, advance approval of the administrative head of the unit in which the assistantship is held and the head of the student’s graduate program, with the primary considerations being that the additional hours of activities not compromise the student’s academic progress, or their assistantship responsibilities. If the additional hours are not related to the assigned assistantship activities, a wage appointment should be used, whereas if they are related to the assigned assistantship activities, the appointment type should more appropriately be changed (e.g., from a half-time to a three-quarter-time appointment), rather than adding the additional hours as wage payroll.

EXAMPLE: A graduate student is appointed to a half-time Research Assistantship conducting research for their dissertation and may, with prior approval, perform 10 additional hours of duties a week as a ticket clerk at the Bryce Jordan Center on a wage payroll appointment.

Complete the Graduate Assistant/Fellow/Trainee Request form in Neocase, found under Manager Tools on the Worklion website, for all new graduate assistantship appointment requests, changes to existing appointments or reappointments. All appointments must be processed by HR Shared Services (HRSS) in Workday. Background checks are required of all new graduate assistant appointments, as well as those that were previously appointed and had a break in service. They will be initiated in Workday and managed by HRSS and the student. Onboarding will be managed by HRSS or the College or Campus’ designated Onboarding Partner.

  1. For those students appointed through the University as graduate assistants, the responsibility for submission of graduate assistantship appointments rests with their graduate programs. Graduate program staff should ensure all applicable eligibility requirements for the proposed appointments are met.
    1. In instances when graduate assistantship funding is managed outside the home graduate program, the funding unit may process the appointment at their discretion, but the graduate program must confirm recipients’ academic requirements for holding the graduate assistantship appointment are met. Graduate programs, Financial Offices of the colleges/units, and funding units should work together to facilitate the appointments. This is particularly important for correct posting of pay and effort/labor distribution, and to avoid duplicate appointment entry.

    Procedures

    Further Information

    Guidelines:

    Revision History

    Approved by the Vice Provost for Graduate Education and Dean of The Graduate School, Feb. 3, 2021. Effective immediately.