PBSci Personnel/Payroll
5th Floor Physical Sciences Building
Mail Stop: PB Sci. Pers/Pay Res. Acctg.
Fax: 831-459-5599

Hiring Course Assistants, Teaching Assistants, Readers, Tutors And Graduate Student Researchers

Please contact your Payroll/Personnel Representative if you are considering hiring a student who is on a Leave of Absence or not currently enrolled in classes.

New employees (those who are working at UCSC for the first time, or who were not employed the previous academic year) need to sign employment forms. If you are uncertain if the employee needs to sign-up, contact your Personnel/Payroll Representative.

For more information (process, classifications, etc.) on hiring Teaching Assistants, Course Assistants, Readers and Tutors see Physical and Biological Sciences' ReaderTutor Application form (PDF), which is updated each Fall.

Current pay rates for TA, GSR and Course Assistant positions and the GSR levels for each Academic Department are shown on the Physical and Biological Sciences Student Pay Rates (PDF 7/09).

Course Assistant
Hiring an undergraduate student or a non-student to perform the duties normally assigned to a Teaching Assistant is an exception to normal practice. The Academic Department must first ensure that no qualified graduate student is available. Then they must obtain approval from the Committee on Educational Policy (CEP) to hire an undergraduate or obtain approval from the Graduate Division to hire a non-student as a Course Assistant. Once received, the Department forwards a copy of CEP approval to the Personnel/Payroll Representative and includes the name of the Course Assistant on the Department Quarterly Teaching Assistant List (Excel) with the notation "CA" in the notes column.

Classification and pay rates for Course Assistants differ from those of a Teaching Assistant.

Reader/Tutor
Academic Departments determine the hiring of Readers and Tutors and communicate this information to the Payroll/Personnel Representative via the Department Quarterly Reader Tutor list (Excel).
For their initial hire each year, all readers and tutors must complete an Reader/Tutor Application form (PDF) or (MSWord).
Extensions may be requested on a list (Excel) from the department to the Personnel/Payroll Representative. (Note: If a list is provided by the Department, the Business Office does not, but the department may, require another application at the time of extension. If there is no Departmental List prepared, another application must be provided to the Business Office).

Graduate Student Researchers (GSR)
Graduate Student Researchers are hired at the request of a grant's Principal Investigator who contacts their accountant giving the:

1. Name of the student
2. Beginning and ending employment dates
3. FOAPAL to charge
4. Percent time.
   

• When appointed at 25% or greater, 100% of fees, plus tuition if a non-resident**, are covered by the fund source paying the salary.
• When appointed at less than 25%, no fees or tuition are covered (appointments, or combination of appointments, at less than 25% are discouraged, unless there is only funding for a small, fractional GSR, i.e., 10-20%).
  
  **After one year, non-residents may apply to become residents. Foreign students are not eligible to become a California resident.

Teaching Assistants (TA)

By delegation of the Dean's authority, Department Chairs/Program Directors hold authority for approving and providing "written notice of appointment" to Teaching Assistants.

A "written notice of appointment" is a letter from the Dean, Department Chair, or Program Director with an attached acceptance form for the appointee to sign and return.

Once a "written notice of appointment" is accepted by the Teaching Assistant, Associate In, or Teaching Fellow (e.g., the acceptance sheet is signed and returned to the designated office by the time stated in the letter), the appointment becomes official and is entered into the payroll system.

Under no circumstances should an appointee assume that any offer of employment, whether written or oral, as Teaching Assistant, Associate In, or Teaching Fellow, by any faculty member or staff other than the Dean, Department Chair, or Program Director, constitutes a "written notice of appointment".

• When appointed at 25% or greater, partial fees* are covered, including health insurance.
• When appointed at less than 25%, no fees are covered.
• Tuition is not covered for TA appointments regardless of appointment percentage.
  
  *Fees - per the UC/UAW contract, the Educational Fee and Registration Fee will be covered at increasingly greater amounts through July 2002, at which time 100% of the Educational Fee and Registration Fee plus all the GSHIP (health) should be covered for TAs appointed at 25% or greater. This still leaves the local campus fees for the student to pay. These fees in 2002 are roughly $156/quarter and can be changed by vote of the campus student body.

TA/GSR Split Appointments
When a student is appointed to both a TA and GSR appointment in the same quarter, the following applies:

• A request is needed from both the grant's Principal Investigator (see GSR section above) and the Department.
• Principal Investigators considering hiring a GSR who is currently a TA should contact their Academic Department or Personnel/Payroll Representative to discuss and coordinate the appointment.