Funding

Ph.D. students who indicate they require funding at the time of application are typically awarded an assistantship as part of their acceptance to the program. The assistantship pays a stipend in the Fall and Spring semesters, provides benefits, and includes a tuition waiver. The Department currently offers five years of funding, which is contingent on state and university budgets as well as the student remaining eligible through the evaluation process (described above) and satisfactory work performance.

Should students need funding beyond the five years, they may apply for assistantships in the Department (if available) and elsewhere in the University.

It should be noted that the contracts for assistantships in the Department are offered for specified terms, either for one semester or one academic year. Although it is the Department’s policy to support students who are in good standing academically as long as is possible, there is no contractual obligation beyond the limits specified on the contract. The Department is dependent on the State Legislature to fund Assistantships, and therefore all funding is contingent on and tied to the annual state budget.

While completing required credits for the degree, students must be registered for at least nine credits to receive an assistantship, unless a special waiver is granted by the Graduate Studies Committee. Forms to request a waiver are available in the Graduate Office.

Be aware that most online classes at UMass Amherst are currently offered through University+, which the tuition waiver does not apply to, and will therefore results in tuition charges. In addition, international students should check whether they are eligible to take an online class, and if so how many, given the requirements of their visa.

Appointment and Reappointment Procedures

Graduate students in the Department of Communication who seek funding in the form of teaching assistantships and teaching associateships should so inform the Graduate Program Director in one of two ways: For new students this is done by checking the appropriate box on the application form; for returning students the TA/TO appointment policy is circulated every semester and a form is distributed where students can communicate their preferences in terms of assignments.

Initial appointments to these positions are based upon a student’s application to the graduate program. Specific considerations in these appointments are based upon a holistic assessment of the following: letters of recommendation; personal statement of student; student’s prior teaching experiences, course work, other written materials, professional experience, and areas of interest. For international students, TOEFL scores are also examined as an additional consideration for an appointment. TA/TO appointment decisions are made each semester by the Graduate Program Director in in consultation with others (e.g., Course Directors, UPD, and Chair).

Deferment of Funding Policy

In some circumstances (e.g., conducting field research, receiving an external fellowship), students may request a deferral of funding for a semester or more. In the case of a prestigious external fellowship (the equivalent of at least a half-time assistantship), students should apply to the Graduate School for a tuition waiver.

The Department asks that students notify the Graduate Program Director in writing that they will not be using their funding in the subsequent semester by April 1^st (for Fall) or November 1^st (for Spring). Should students change their minds after these dates and decide not to take the deferral, the Department cannot guarantee the restoration of funding for the semester for which the deferral had been requested.

All funding that has been deferred must be used within seven years of starting the program. Students may apply for assistantships beyond this point, but even if they have not used all ten semesters of funding, it is not guaranteed.

Note also that teaching in the RAP program, teaching First-Year Seminar, and Department of Communication Research Assistantships are not considered deferrals of the five years of funding, because the Department assigns these assistantships and considers them as part of the funding we have available to support students.

Extra-Departmental Appointments

The relationship of extra-departmental appointments (e.g., teaching in other departments, for the University Writing Program) to departmental funding will be determined on a case-by-case basis. Decisions in this regard will be made by the Graduate Program Director in consultation with the student, the student’s advisor, and other relevant parties. In the case of taking an extra-departmental appointment, students must consult with the Graduate Program Director to check whether they can be released from departmental employment (as occasionally short-staffing makes this impossible, while at other times it is a net benefit to the department).

When students are requesting extra-departmental appointments in addition to a 20-hour assistantship (an opportunity only available to domestic students), the GPD will consult closely with the student’s advisor, and typically will only consider requests up to 30 hours per week during the Fall and Spring semesters when students are meant to be pursuing their studies at least half-time. However, in many circumstances advisors and GPDs prefer that students stick with half-time employment in order to preserve time for timely degree progress.

The Graduate Program Director must sign off on on-campus summer employment but students do not need to seek GPD approval for this employment, unless it is being combined with a departmental non-working fellowship.

UWW Appointment Policy (now re-branded as University+)

Note: the following policy governs the instructor appointment process for online Communication courses offered through University Without Walls (UWW) during the summer. It does not refer to online or blended Communication courses that are offered during the fall and spring semesters as a part of the Department’s ordinary schedule of courses.

1. All courses offered through UWW that carry a Communication designation (e.g., Comm 118, Comm 121) and are intended to fulfill Communication academic requirements on either the undergraduate or graduate level must be approved by the Department Chair.

2. Every fall, the Chair will circulate a list of proposed Communication courses to be offered the following summer through UWW and will solicit applications from faculty and graduate students to teach them. The Chair will base this course list on a number of factors, including the Department’s programmatic needs, the courses that were offered in previous years and their enrollments, and the courses that were proposed in previous summers but did not “make” or were canceled for other reasons. The Chair will also consider requests to teach courses not included on this list. As a general rule, lower-level courses (i.e., courses numbered at the 100 or 200 level) are preferable, though higher-level ones will certainly be considered. N.B.: according to the University’s IE (Integrative Experience) course guidelines, graduate students may not teach classes with IE designations.

3. Each summer teaching appointment will be made by the Chair in consultation with the Director of Undergraduate Studies (if the course is to be offered at the undergraduate level), and the Director of Graduate Studies (if the potential appointee is a graduate student, or if the course is to be offered at the graduate level). The Chair will follow the following priorities when making UWW course assignments:
   • Communication faculty (tenure-stream, full-time contract, and adjunct)
   • Communication graduate students
   • All others
   • In other words, Communication faculty will have first choice. If no faculty member comes forward for a given class, the Chair will then proceed to the pool of Communication graduate students who have applied to teach it. The Chair will also consider the number of times, if any, that each applicant has taught the course.

4. Applicants from pools B and C (i.e., Communication graduate students and all others) must submit the following items when they apply:
   • A one-page letter of interest and ability
   • An up-to-date c.v.
   • A one-page letter of support from the person’s advisor or immediate supervisor, as appropriate
   • A statement of support from the faculty member (if different from the advisor or supervisor noted in c., above) who has typically taught the course during the fall or spring
   • N.B.: Communication graduate students must have received an “In Good Standing” rating at the Spring graduate review in order to be eligible to teach in UWW in the summer.

5. The Chair will make the appointments as expeditiously as possible.

6. Appointees are expected to abide by all UWW policies and procedures.

7. The Department believes that online summer courses should approximate the in- person versions of these courses as much as possible. Appointees are strongly encouraged to consult with the faculty who ordinarily teach the courses during the academic year about course content, requirements, readings, etc.

8. Appointees are also strongly encouraged to schedule their own training sessions in online teaching through UWW (which is free of cost) and use the basic templates for the courses already set up by the previous online instructors.