Procedures for Hiring a Graduate Assistant

Graduate assistants are hired directly by departments or units. The student may be selected through an application process, or the assistantship may be awarded when the student is admitted to the program. If there is an application process, the department may use their own customized application form, or this generic form: Application for Graduate Assistantship.

All offers must adhere to the Council of Graduate Schools Resolution Regarding Graduate Scholars, Fellows, Trainees and Assistants.

Acceptance of an offer of financial support (such as a graduate scholarship, fellowship, traineeship, or assistantship) for the next academic year by a prospective or enrolled graduate student completes an agreement that both student and graduate school expect to honor. In that context, the conditions affecting such offers and their acceptance must be defined carefully and understood by all parties.

Students are under no obligation to respond to offers of financial support prior to April 15. The full resolution may be found on the CGS website along with a list of CGS member institutions that have expressed support for the agreement.

Any written or verbal offer must be made contingent upon the successful completion of a background check. When the student has accepted the GA position, complete Background check form to notify HR to initiate the background check.

New hire paperwork must be provided to HRS for all graduate assistants.

After the department chooses the students receiving graduate assistantships, procedures outlined by the Human Resource Services (HRS) website which include submission of an I-9, appropriate background check, and out-of-state rules, etc. must be followed. New hires must complete an I-9 Form on or before the employee’s first day of employment.  Please have your employee go to Human Resource Services (HRS) between the hours of 8:00 a.m. and 5:00 p.m. Monday – Friday to complete the I-9 Form. Remember the employee must take their acceptable documents to verify identity and employment authorization.

Graduate Assistants are hired through Bronco Hub. Please see the job aid for detailed instructions on how to Hire or Rehire a Graduate Assistant. In some instances, you may need to complete the hiring transaction as an Add Assignment for a GA. Carefully read the instructions in the job aid to ensure that you are submitting the Add Assignment under the right circumstances and have completed the necessary prior approvals.

When submitted, the hiring transaction will be routed to Human Resources and the Graduate College for approval. When approved, this hiring process provides the details for paying salary and automatically enrolls the student in the GA health insurance plan.

Use one of three approved titles for GA positions: Graduate Teaching Assistant (GTA), Graduate Research Assistant (GRA), or Graduate Service Assistant (GSA). Please note that GTAs and GRAs are exempt employees and are paid a salary, and GSAs are typically non-exempt (paid hourly) and the Internal Revenue Code places different taxation rules on their tuition benefit.

• The working dates must be at least one semester and not more than one year. There are no set/required start and end dates, though generally, a 9-month appointment will start a week to two weeks before classes and end on the last day of the semester. Please note that the start date and end date will impact health insurance coverage. See additional notes under the health insurance rates webpage.
• Hours per week — Select “Part-Time” with no more than 20 hours (10 for a Partial GA)
• Budgeted From – If using appropriated GA funds use: Student (412000)
• Eligible for benefits – NO
• Temporary Employee – YES

After the 10^th day of the semester, the Graduate College sends a final database spreadsheet to Third Party Receivables with the department accounts to charge tuition and fees. These are processed as an internal payment and will be posted within one month of 10th day.

If tuition or fee amounts change, or if the funding source changes, please submit a revised Tuition/Fee Payment Request. Please note that revisions to funding will only be accepted by the Graduate College prior to the tenth day of classes. Changes made after the tenth day will require the funding to be updated at the department level (via the Correcting Entry process).

After the tuition and fees have been posted as an internal payment, the submission/posting can be tracked by the department on the Campus Transaction Dashboard, the AAR, and the UFS Request Tracker.

• GA Tuition & Fee Payment Request Form. Submit this form on a semesterly basis.
• GA Tuition & Fee Payment Request – Spreadsheet Version. You may still choose to submit your requests by downloading and using the Excel document. If you’d like to submit for the full academic year, you may do so only by using the spreadsheet version. Submit your spreadsheets directly to gradassistant@boisestate.edu.

A database with all fee waiver information is created by the Graduate College and sent to Student Financials for crediting student accounts. Requests are sent to departments in May for the following fall semester and November for the following spring semester in order to be processed and credited ahead of other forms of financial aid.

GA Training Module. The Graduate College will require all New GAs to complete a short training module. Incomplete training may result in registration holds on student accounts. The training module includes videos from the current insurance provider, Human Resources, and University Health Services. The module can be accessed at any time using Boise State credentials.

Fellowships are administered by the departments that receive them and do not fall under Policy 7170.

The Graduate College may process fee waivers for students receiving graduate fellowships if requested by the department.

A graduate fellowship is an award given to a graduate student that provides financial support for study leading to a graduate degree. This financial support consists of three components: (1) regular participatory support payments (sometimes called a stipend) distributed over the duration of the fellowship, (2) payment of resident tuition and fees (usually called a tuition and fee waiver by the university), and (3) payment or waiver of non-resident tuition. Since these three components mirror the financial support provided under a graduate assistantship, there is often confusion, but graduate assistants are employees of the university, whereas graduate fellows are not employees. It is this employment relationship with the university that is the distinguishing feature between a graduate fellowship and a graduate assistantship. The graduate college must receive a copy of the fellowship agreement.

The graduate college will administer the tuition waiver in the same manner as for graduate assistantships, via the tuition waiver request form.