About Graduate Assistantships
The purpose of a graduate assistantship is to:
- provide a professional development opportunity consistent with a student's educational objectives
- provide financial support for a graduate student within the context of academic program or grant-related tasks.
The assistantship is to be performed for a set period of time during which the student is expected to pursue academic and/or professional activities toward the advanced degree.
- Types of graduate assistantships
- Obtaining an assistantship
- Performance and renewal evaluation criteria
- Appeal process
Nature of Graduate Assistantships
Duties of the graduate assistant are assigned by the academic program chair/head, graduate committee chair, administrative supervisor or others.
- Graduate assistantships are a special part of students' professional and academic/educational training.
- Graduate assistants are expected to be assigned relevant professional and academic experiences that may include, among other tasks, teaching or assisting in a course (under the supervision of a director or mentor), grading for a course, assisting in an academic program-sponsored laboratory or instructional center, assisting a professor on a research project, professional conference development, tutoring, or development of administrative skills.
- All projects must be supervised by a member of the graduate faculty, administrative staff or principal investigator. No graduate assistant should be assigned to a project which is primarily clerical or housekeeping. A portion of any project may have clerical elements, but all projects should incorporate decision-making, judgment, analysis and evaluation skills.
- Students on graduate assistantships are discouraged from exceeding 20 hours per week of work for more than one semester from all sources both on and off campus during the period of the assistantship.
- Recipients of graduate assistantships may qualify for additional funding through competitive fellowship awards.
See also the guidelines regarding intimate relationships with graduate students.