Creating the Offer Letter

Please find guidance around creating and extending a Graduate Assistant (GA) offer letter and adding the GA to grad payroll below.

Guidance

Appointments ordinarily are made for the nine-month period, August 23 through May 22, but may be of shorter duration for a variety of reasons. Specific dates can be found on the Stipend Listing posted by Payroll for each academic year.

Graduate assistantship appointments with either a retroactive date of hire or a retroactive increase in percentage of employment, are prohibited. Appointment start dates should accurately reflect the employee's work. A non-standard start date may have implications for the GA tuition waiver, insurance eligibility, and result in a less than one semester appointment. Should the need for an appointment with a retroactive or non-standard start date arise, the department must contact The Graduate School prior to making an offer. While the contract allows for less than one semester appointments, all appointments of less than one semester duration require advance approval from the Graduate Employee and Postdoc Union (GEU), and departments must contact The Graduate School and Employee Relations for assistance before issuing an offer letter.

The appointment start date for GAs is typically prior to the start of the semester. GAs may be expected to begin work as of the start date of their appointment and should plan to arrive ahead of their start date. All graduate students enrolled in on-campus programs are required to arrive on campus on or before the first day of each new term, as stated in The Graduate Catalog Admissions Deadlines. GAs are not authorized to begin their GA duties until they have arrived in the U.S. Arrival after the first day of the semester is considered a Late Arrival and requires advance approval from The Graduate School. If a newly admitted student is not able to arrive on campus on or before the first day of the semester, they should plan to defer their admission to a later semester.

Graduate Assistant offer letters define the terms and conditions of employment for graduate students who are invited to accept a new position or a continuation of their appointment as a Graduate Assistant at the University of Connecticut. There are two templates available: one to be used to appoint or reappoint a GA for the fall/spring semester or the academic year; and a second template for mid-appointment (fall/spring or academic year), Full Time Employment (FTE), or stipend level changes.

GA Offer Letters:

• The GA offer letter templates contain boilerplate language that must be included, and the templates should be accessed from the Human Resources website, as each new letter is created as content is subject to change. These template letters are not intended to be form letters, but the language has been vetted for compliance with relevant contractual and legal provisions. The hiring department is responsible for the personalization of names, titles, salary and other specific data. Should you need to substantially revise the standard letters, it is imperative that you contact The Graduate School before doing so.
• Please remember that the GEU contract requires the University to make offers by April 1 for incoming GAs and by June 1 for continuing GAs, except in exceptional situations as outlined in the contract. If you have any questions about this deadline and whether a scenario would qualify as exceptional, please reach out to The Graduate School.

Supplemental Description of Duties Forms:

• Hiring departments must also provide the GA with a Supplemental Description of Duties (SDD) form. The provided templates of the Supplemental Description of Duties form for Teaching GAs and Research GAs can be modified by departments to more accurately reflect the GA’s duties, but must include all items listed in Article 5, section 6 of the GEU-UAW contract as well as the language regarding international students holding a F-1 or J-1 visa not working more than 20 hours per week when classes are in session.
• The Graduate School maintains an online workflow for the SDD form that is available for use by all departments. Either the faculty member supervising the GA or the department admin can initiate the SDD form. If initiated by the admin, it will route to the GA supervisor for approval before being sent to the GA. Departments may preview the form to see if it will meet their needs and reach out to Jack Corcoran (jack.corcoran@uconn.edu) to request administrator access. GA supervisors do not need administrator access in order to initiate, review, or approve SDDs.

Optional GA Recruitment/Cover Letter: 

• The Graduate School provides an "Optional GA Recruitment/Cover Letter Template" to accompany GA offer letters for incoming and continuing graduate students. This optional template highlights some of the benefits of joining UConn for incoming students and provides space for departments to list additional opportunities or support, such as a departmental fellowship.

Additional Information for Incoming GAs' Offer Letters - The April 15 Resolution:

• GA offer letters for incoming graduate students must include language regarding the Council of Graduate Schools' (CGS) "Resolution Regarding Graduate Scholars, Fellows, Trainees, and Assistants," also known as the "April 15 Resolution." Because UConn is a party to the April 15 Resolution, we are obliged to allow admitted graduate students to consider all offers of financial support through April 15. In turn, the resolution binds students to their decisions made or held in place after April 15. Over 325 U.S. institutions offering graduate degrees have agreed to abide by this resolution.
• Here are some important aspects of the Resolution:
  • The April 15 deadline applies only to acceptance of an offer of financial support such as a graduate scholarship, fellowship, traineeship, or assistantship. Departments are free to ask or require potential students to respond before April 15 if the student did not receive an offer of financial support.
  • It applies only to offers of financial support for the following academic year.
  • Although departments are encouraged to make offers well before the deadline, prospective students are under no obligation to respond to offers including financial support prior to April 15.
  • All offers of financial support must include a copy of or link to the “April 15 Resolution.”
• The GA offer letter templates for "New" appointments include explanatory language regarding the April 15 Resolution and a link to the full text of the resolution. Please remember that the GEU contract requires the University to make offers to incoming GAs no later than April 1. If you have any questions about this deadline or about implementing the April 15 Resolution, please reach out to The Graduate School.

International GAs Admitted for a Spring Term: 

• International students who are admitted for a spring term may need to be show one year's proof of funding to receive their I-20. In collaboration with the Center for International Students & Scholars (CISS) and Labor Relations, The Graduate School developed a letter template for departments to use to confirm a calendar year of GA support and which the student may show when applying for their I-20. The department will also need to provide a spring GA offer letter using one of the standard templates for GA offers available on HR's website along with this letter. Then, closer to the fall semester, departments should issue a fall GA offer letter using the standard templates. Please reach out to megan.petsa@uconn.edu with any questions about this template or GA offer letters.

Stipend rates for GAs, which can be found at payroll.uconn.edu, are graduated in terms of progress toward the advanced degree and experience, defined as follows:

• Level 1: For graduate assistants with at least the baccalaureate degree (as noted in the Graduate Employee and Postdoc Union contract as “Beginners [Pre-Masters]”).
• Level 2: For graduate assistants in a doctoral program with at least a master’s degree or its equivalent in the field of graduate study (as noted in the Graduate Employee and Postdoc Union Contract as “Masters or Equivalent”). Equivalency consists of 30 credits of appropriate graduate-level coursework beyond the baccalaureate degree, together with admission to a doctoral program. If the master’s degree was used to satisfy the equivalency of a bachelor’s degree for purposes of admission, the degree does not count toward Level 2 eligibility.
• Level 3: For graduate assistants enrolled in a doctoral program who have passed the doctoral general examination and have the milestone reflected on their record (as noted in the Graduate Employee and Postdoc Union Contract as “PhD Candidate”).

The most straightforward way to determine a student's level eligibility is to refer to the Report on GA Hire Eligibility and Stipend Level. This report is sent out weekly by The Graduate School to the Graduate Admins listserv. If you would like to be added to this listserv or if you have questions about this report or a student's level eligibility, please contact Megan Petsa.