1. Graduate Student Support and Appointments (Part 1) College of Letters and Science January 31, 2013 Welcome to the presentation “Graduate Student Support and Appointments.” After you review a slide, click anywhere to advance the presentation. To exit the presentation at any time, press the Escape Key. To go back to a previous slide, press the Backspace Key. Click to begin the presentation. This presentation was given live on January 31, 2013 by Brian Bubenzer, Assistant Dean for Graduate Education, L&S, and has modified into a self-paced presentation. It is part of a series coordinated by L&S Administration, intended to connect L&S faculty and staff with topics and information that may be helpful in their positions. More presentations and information about this series of trainings can be found at https://kb.wisc.edu/ls/page.php?id=25131 https://kb.wisc.edu/ls/page.php?id=25131

2. Agenda  Part 1: Long-term support guarantees, fellowships, appointment types  Part 2: TA/PA appointments, challenging personnel issues

3. Early winter is the season for TA budget requests and long-term guarantee offers  Guarantee offers can be requested at any time (send budget request too, if possible)  TA budget requests are due by March 1, 2013 Budgets and support guarantees are connected to each other, so they should be developed and considered with the other in mind.

4. Long-term support guarantees  College policy generally requires that support guarantees be for multiple years (4-5 with no prior graduate work, 3 for those with at least one year of prior grad work).  For Master’s students, length of guarantee varies according to departmental criteria for satisfactory progress, but will be for at least two years With very few exceptions, guarantees must be for multiple years.

5.  TA appointments  PA appointments  RA appointments  Fellowships  Traineeships  Lecturer (SA) appointments Support comes in many forms… Guarantees must include a minimum of 33.34% appointment, but that doesn’t mean your department may only offer that. Many of your teaching appointments may be at 40% or 50%. It’s also helpful to be very clear about this to students when you are giving them information about your departments support package. The clearer a department can be about their support packages, the fewer chances for misunderstandings. If your department uses the L&S template offer letter, the language is already included in the letter. If you’re not using the template, please ensure that this information is included in your department’s offer letter. A final reminder: If you have given the minimum 33.34% appointment, that student must be on the payroll from day one of the faculty year through the end of the semester, so they qualify for tuition remission. All of these appointment types may count towards a long term support guarantee. It’s important that your department communicates this concept to students as well; the type of their appointment could vary from year to year. This particularly affects students awarded a fellowships. If they don’t know their fellowship may not continue (for example, they may have a TA appointment the next year), it can be an unpleasant surprise when it occurs.

6. New title: Grad Lecturer (SA)  Should be used whenever a grad student gets a lecturer appointment  The position earns a tuition remission  Lecturers have full responsibility for the course  Your department will need to think about how this position relates to your hiring criteria If you have a lecturer position that you know will be given to a graduate student, you do not need to create a PVL. If you’re not sure, create a PVL. If it’s given to a graduate student, the PVL can be cancelled. Grad student lecturers are considered short term staffing in every way, except that it’s a graduate assistant title, and the person receives a full tuition remission. Similarly to a TA, the department is not charged the tuition remission. Grad lecturer (SA) is a relatively new title, and is now used any time a graduate student is appointed as a lecturer. It was created to reduce financial penalties that could occur when appointing graduate students as lecturers. Grad lecturers have same autonomy and responsibility for the course as another faculty or lecturer would have, and are the instructor of record. On the other hand, TAs teach under the supervision of a faculty member.

7. Long-term support guarantees  Important recruiting tool that comes at a cost.  Your department is “on the hook” for any guarantees you issue.  Guarantees can be tied to many different funding sources, including TA 101 budgets, which were recently established in BSR exercise

8. Concerning the BSR…  TA baselines in the BSR serve as a starting point and are based on stable enrollments  We anticipate that total College TA funding will increase given last year’s very large first-year class and the projected increases in the first–year class for the next few years.  Increases related to this will be allocated on a one-time basis to meet enrollment demands—it is not a part of the base department budget.  Consistently low enrollments or a new round of budget cuts/constraints may require reallocation of TA resources; such reallocation would not be considered as a department savings for innovations purposes. BSR stands for Budget Status Report. It will include your department’s baseline TA budget. The university will likely to have this larger first-year class over the next few years, and we anticipate that L&S will receive additional TA money to accommodate the additional enrollment needs.

9. Support guarantees require graduate students to:  Continue as a student in your program  Maintain satisfactory progress as a student  Perform satisfactorily in ANY assigned duties  Students must take the support offered Satisfactory progress is something that the department defines as a policy for students in their programs. If any of these areas break down, the guarantee of support may be voided. If a student declines an appointment offer, the department is not obligated to find another position of support. Of course, accommodating preferences is encouraged where possible. But if a student declines to take a position, the department no longer has to provide support. If this situation happens, it’s good practice to ask the student to also decline in writing (email or letter) for sake of documentation.

10. Guarantees for non-native English speakers  Screening mechanisms are essential, if you plan to offer TA positions  Use SPEAK or something else, but the “something else” must receive College approval  26/30 or higher on the iBt TOEFL speaking test exempts students from SPEAK Especially in regards to TA positions, your department should be considering speaking proficiency when making offers. It’s important to ensure the person to which you are offering the position is meeting the standard for spoken English proficiency in an instructional setting. Students with a score of 40 or below in SPEAK cannot not assigned any course responsibilities where spoken English proficiency is required. Students with a score of 45-50 or may teach, but only if they are concurrently enrolled in an ESL course. The more you can screen ahead of time and learn about students spoken English proficiency, the better. (For example some departments conduct interviews with alumni or faculty). Once students are here, they can take the SPEAK test to determine proficiency.

11. What is the right number of grads for our program?  More and more departments (nationwide) are asking this question  The answer: ?  Consider departmental and student needs, as well as placement record  Think about what professional development means for your grad students

12. Fellowships Fellowship and Funding Resources Office 231 Bascom Hall grad.wisc.edu/offr grad.wisc.edu/offr (608) 262-9597 Mary Butler Ravneberg, ravneberg@grad.wisc.eduravneberg@grad.wisc.edu Linda Scholl, lmscholl@grad.wisc.edu,lmscholl@grad.wisc.edu

13. Background on Fellowships at UW- Madison 1. Fellowships are generally understood to be monetary awards for pursuing graduate studies – no work obligations, so not considered employment. 2. There is no single standard fellowship model, but rather many different fellowship models (i.e., terms and conditions, stipend levels, payment models, and ancillary benefits such as tuition coverage, research/conference expenses, etc.). 3. Many fellowships are administered by the Graduate School, but many are not. Fellowships are very different from TA, PA and RA positions in this regard. Fellowships are awards just to pursue graduate studies, and does not require work obligations that come with other types of support. Graduate School fellowships do follow a model, but they are only some of the many fellowships that students might be awarded. (And, the Graduate School may not know about all of the campus fellowships, because many come directly from department funds.)

14. 1. Grad School Fellowships a) University Fellowships b) Chancellor’s Fellowships c) Mellon-Wisconsin Summer Fellowships d) Advanced Opportunity Fellowships e) Dickie Fellowship 2. Wisconsin Distinguished Grad fellowships (WDGFs) 3. Grad-School-Supported External Fellowships 4. Departmental Fellowships 5. External Fellowships (direct to student or admin by UW) 6. NIH/NRSA Fellows/Trainees These are external fellowships where the Graduate School covers any shortfall (the Graduate School will ensure the students receive a tuition remission, are on payroll, have their segregated fees paid, etc.). Many of these are dissertation fellowships. Types of fellowships on campus These are graduate recruiting funds. The Arts & Humanities and Social Studies use these funds for fellowships, while the Physical and Biological Sciences use the funds for recruitment activities and events. For STEM field students that live in Sauk County. Graduate School strongly encourages departments to guarantee support of students receiving fellowships. Strategically funds graduate support in the Arts & Humanities. These are end-of-writing fellowships to help students complete their dissertation. Students are expected to not work during the summer, and to complete their dissertation within a year. The policies related to nominations and awarded of AOF’s are up to individual colleges (although the Graduate School sets the eligibility criteria). These are through department accounts with the UW Foundation. The department pays for half of these fellowships, and the Graduate School matches. The Graduate School has determined which fellowships it can support. If a student receives any other external fellowship, the student is responsible for any shortfall. External fellowships that pay directly to the student do not necessarily work out well for students at UW-Madison. These fellowships don’t have the benefit of in- state tuition or health insurance coverage. Advise students to work with the Graduate School when they are applying to an external fellowship; they can help students understand the terms and conditions of the fellowship, and UW implications.

15. Any questions? Please let us know! Brian Bubenzer bubenzer@ls.wisc.edu 5-0603