Change Proposal: Graduate Assistantship Appointment Process

Financial support is one of the primary reasons graduate students choose to attend the University of Massachusetts Amherst. Graduate assistantships are the main form of that support. After examining the processing of graduate assistantship appointments, the project team found that the process is slow and often frustrating for students and staff. Those frustrations have many roots, some of which are: appointment forms require layers of approval; too many appointments occurring simultaneously can jam the system; no single office is charged with coordinating the process; timing of budget allocations for departments does not coincide with graduate recruitment and appointment periods.

In response to these concerns, the project team has recommended an overhaul of the assistantship appointment process. To enable departments to make more timely assistantship offers to prospective and continuing students, departments should be allowed to commit 75% of their current assistantship budget for appointments in the following year. Further, the pre-establish process for grant accounts needs to be simplified and made more accessible. This process allows departments to begin paying students for research work before funds for a grant arrive on campus. Organizationally, a set of interrelated working groups should be established to improve communication between offices and provide overall coordination of the process.

In the fall of 1998, more than 1200 late paychecks and a similar number of late excess checks were issued to graduate assistants. The proposed changes are expected to reduce the number of late checks issued to graduate students. The appointment process will also become more streamlined for departments and staff.

If you wish to comment on this proposal, please send e-mail to sfe@chancellor.umass.edu.

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