Academic Student Employees (TA/RA/SA)
Yes, you can hire at less than 50%. You should use the pay schedule listed in Schedule 2, and remember that the student will not receive insurance or tuition waiver benefits. Don’t forget that the student can only work for the percentage of time hired (e.g., if it’s not a 50% appointment, you can’t expect the same work effort/time as you would for a regular, 50% ASE).
Yes, there is an hourly work study RA position. These appointments do not receive tuition waivers or insurance because work study students must work less than 50%. If you want assistance with this, please contact the Office of Fellowships & Awards for more information.
Teaching assistants and staff assistants are paid at the hiring department salary rate; Research assistants are paid at the student’s academic home department rate. For more information, ,a href=”https://facstaff.grad.uw.edu/advising-resources/funding-management/administering-assistantships/ta-ra-salaries/information-about-salary-schedules-and-administration/>read the policies.
These are union positions and the workload requirements, along with other policies and procedures, are spelled out in the UW/UAW contract.
Graduate students enrolled in fee-based degree programs are eligible to be hired as ASEs and, if in eligible positions, receive GAIP coverage and full payment of course fees and the tech fee (no building fee is charged). However there is a specific difference from hiring a student who is in a tuition-based program. Tuition waivers provided from central resources are not available to pay fees for these students, so employing departments must pay the course fees directly to CC/PCE (course fees and tech fee only, not student fees that are normally paid by eligible ASEs).
Tuition
There are several steps to take:
- Waivers are usually not disbursed to the student’s account until shortly before the quarter begins. Have the student wait until classes begin and then check his/her account balance.
- Check to make sure that the student is registered for 10 credits (the waiver will not disburse at less than 10 credits).
- Check to make sure the student’s appointment is in an eligible category AND that it is entered into the payroll system.
- If the above are all correct and the tuition has not been waived, contact the staff in the Fellowships & Awards office to confirm whether or not a waiver was placed on the student’s account and how to resolve it.
If the fellowship is administered by (paid through) the UW payroll system, a student is eligible for a NRD waiver if he/she is registered for 10 credits and is paid at least $500 per month for five out of the six pay periods. Students with eligible appointments will have this waiver placed automatically. If you believe a student is eligible and the waiver has not dispersed by the beginning of the third week of classes, please contact the Office of Fellowships & Awards.
If the fellowship is not paid through the UW payroll system (i.e., the funding agency sends the payment directly to the student), then an NRD waiver is not available. However, if your department has a resource such that you can provide a $1250 stipend ($500/month over 5 pay periods) through the payroll system, then the student would receive the automatic NRD waiver.
Technically speaking, no, since students in such programs do not pay tuition. Instead, they pay program and course fees and have their charges and payments managed through CC/PCE. As such, they are not eligible for the various tuition waivers provided by the Graduate School (e.g., GSEE tuition waivers, Top Scholar tuition waivers, etc.).
Fee-based graduate students who are employed in eligible ASE positions must have their course fees and tech fee paid on their behalf. They should only be required to pay the usual student fees that all eligible ASEs are required to pay based on their eligible graduate student positions. Some fee-based academic programs that set aside revenues for student financial assistance can use those funds towards payment of fees; other programs will need to find available funds to pay those expenses. Employing units must work directly with CC/PCE to ensure that the course fees get paid through an eligible UW budget.
Enrollment
A Petition for Reduced Enrollment can be filed with the Office of Fellowships & Awards, however there are limited criteria for eligibility:
- The student has health problems which warrant a reduced credit load.
- A statement (signed, on letterhead) from a health care provider must be included. Details of the care/illness are not necessary; it needs to indicate that the provider is treating the student and recommends a reduced course load for X quarters. This letter is NOT included in the Catalyst process; it is sent directly to the Fellowships & Awards office at gradappt@uw.edu.
- Financial Hardship.
- Appointee will experience financial hardship if required to enroll in 10 credits (i.e., the appointment does not provide a tuition waiver or GAIP benefits because it is less than 50% FTE and/or less than 5 out of 6 pay periods OR is a fellowship/traineeship that doesn’t provide such benefits).
- Academic program in which the appointee is enrolled is specifically designed to be a part-time curriculum (documentation required from chair, GPC or GPA). (This criteria does not apply where student has taken all coursework and doesn’t need any more. It is only when the program curriculum is set up to be part-time.)
- Appointee will graduate this quarter and does not require full-time credits in order to graduate. This condition may only be used once in a student’s academic program tenure.
In summer elibility for RA/TA/SA appointments is maintained with enrollment in two credits. However, this policy does not override other enrollment policies in existence. Many other things – notably student visas, need-based financial aid, and deferral of existing student loans – may require enrollment in more credits, so students should always confirm with the pertinent offices if two credits will be sufficient.
Exceptions to the full-time enrollment requirement are Summer Non-registered Graduate Research Student Assistants (GRSAs). These are hourly positions for non-registered graduate ASEs to perform research work during summer quarter. As the title implies, students appointed in this category should not be registered at all. Information can be found at the UAW contract.
Fellowships
Unless the endowment agreement requires that tuition and/or benefits are covered, you are not required to provide those. If you are using the endowment to provide recruitment funding to new students, you may wish to consider requesting tuition waivers through the Graduate School’s biennial Top Scholar process.
- Non-resident differential (NRD) tuition waivers only: $500 per month, for 5 out of 6 pay periods
- Non-resident differential (NRD) tuition waiver and GAIP insurance: $800 per month, for 5 out of 6 pay periods (the payroll load rate will be charged to the student’s appointment distribution budget).
Top Scholar
Usually not. The Top Scholar categories are paid from different funding sources and are therefore not easily changed. If there is an extraordinary situation you can contact the Fellowships & Awards office to determine is a change is possible.
The only category that has some flexibility is block grant: it can be used for recruitment travel, recruitment top-off fellowships, or a combination of both.
The purpose of Top Scholar is recruitment of stellar students, so reassignment of a Top Scholar award follows these criteria:
- Okay to reassign: If the award can be offered to another uncommitted applicant and may make the difference in having the applicant accept the admission offer, and it is before the allocation deadline.
- Check with Fellowships & Awards for approval: if the award is to be offered to an applicant after the allocation deadline.
- Not allowable: Providing Top Scholar awards to continuing students.