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Graduate Assistants / Graduate Assistant Obligations and Duties

All graduate assistants – whether supported with university funds or grant funds – are subject to the same obligations with regard to abiding by FERPA and confidentiality rules, attending the GA Orientation and the GEDS in-service sessions, carrying out their duties at the standard of faculty professionalism, and so forth.

Graduate assistants, of whatever sort, may not serve as clerks, secretaries, office assistants, or handle routine administrative tasks. Their work should be focused on providing instruction to undergraduate students and/or on research in support of either academic or scholastic goals.

Graduate assistants with fewer than 18 hours may not teach or carry out any instructional duties that are not under the direct supervision of a faculty member.

Any GTA who is teaching a stand-alone course or lab – who is the instructor of record – must have a personnel file in Academic Affairs. This file must be entirely complete before the GTA steps foot in the classroom.

The research in which a GRA can appropriate engage is any that serves either academic or scholastic needs. A GRA can assist in any research that faculty members qua faculty members engage in, and a GRA can assist in any research that allows a department or other administrative unit to accomplish its goals relative to providing for, or enhancing, instruction or faculty research.

Graduate assistants normally will be offered positions only to cover the normal duration of their programs of study, given full time pursuit of that study. In rare cases, programs may elect to offer a graduate assistant position to, say, a student pursuing a master’s degree who is entering her third year. If a program chooses to do this, it must be with the consent and support of that program’s department and college.

All graduate assistants must be evaluated by one of the following individuals: the department chair, the program director, the grant’s Principal Investigator, or the faculty member to whom they are assigned. Who should do the evaluation should be decided at the college level. This evaluation should be done every semester. ISQs cannot be used to evaluate any graduate assistant except GTAs who are instructors of record.