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Medical College of Georgia Administrative Policies
and Procedures
Office of Primary Responsibility: Human Resources Division
No. 1.4.18
Graduate Assistants, Work Study and Student Assistants
1.0 Purpose:
To provide policy guidelines for the appointment of Graduate
Assistants, Federal Work-Study Students and Student Assistants and to
specify their form of remuneration. Only Medical College of Georgia
students qualify for employment under this policy. Other individuals must
be hired as temporary employees, and are subject to Board of Regents and
Medical College of Georgia guidelines regarding temporary employment.
2.0 Policy:
Students enrolled at the Medical College of Georgia may be employed by
MCG as a student employee subject to institutional need and availability
of funding. A student employee is a part-time employee who is currently
enrolled at MCG with the primary goal of achieving a degree. In
accordance with Board of Regents policy, a student employee is considered
a temporary employee and is not eligible for benefits. Student employees
are at will employees and may be terminated at any time. Student
employees are not eligible for any of the procedural protections
associated with regular employment.
The Program Director, Department Chair, Dean, or Administrative Manager
will be responsible for determining qualifications, identifying the
funding required for positions, advertising vacancies, selecting
individuals to fill vacancies and submitting the required employment
paperwork to Human Resources by the published payroll processing
deadlines. The Human Resources Division will be responsible for payroll
processing.
The term of employment for student employees is on a semester basis,
which can be continued. Departments should notify the students if their
employment is not to be continued beyond a semester. The Office of
Student Financial Aid should be notified if the student is funded through
work-study and employment is to be discontinued.
2.1 Fringe Benefits--Graduate
Assistants and Work Study Students/Student Assistants are temporary
employees and are not eligible for institutional fringe benefits. A
student employee who drops below a half-time credit load is required by
state statute to participate in the Georgia Defined Contribution Plan.
Note: Graduate Research Trainees and
Postdoctoral Trainees who are at MCG for specialized programs,
typically of a short duration, will not be placed on the MCG payroll, as
an employer/employee relationship does not exist for individuals in
these categories. They must be paid by check request (see
Policy 1.2.05). These types of individuals should not be confused
with MCG graduate assistants, graduate research assistants, or graduate
teaching assistants.
2.2 Educational Records--Educational
Records pertaining to graduate research assistants, graduate teaching
assistants, and graduate assistants are coordinated by the School of
Graduate Studies and are maintained in the Registrar’s Office for
certification, as needed.
3.0 Definitions
There are three types of student employment. They are as follows:
3.1 Federal Work Study Student Assistants
This is a federally funded program and students must apply for federal
financial aid and be awarded work-study aid. Students eligible for this
type of employment receive their award and a work-study authorization form
through the Office of Student Financial Aid. To qualify as a student
employee, the student must be enrolled at least half-time (6 semester
hours or more for undergraduates and 5 semester hours or more for graduate
students). The student must present the work-study authorization form to
the hiring department. The Office of Student Financial Aid is responsible
for determining student eligibility and award. Under Federal regulations,
students who drop below half-time enrollment are not eligible for
participation in the Federal Work-Study Program and must be terminated as
employees or converted to an Institutional Student position.
Undergraduate work-study students should be paid at a rate equal to the
federal minimum wage. The wage rate should compare to entry-level wage
rates for comparable positions. Graduate work-study students may be hired
as salaried employees. Pay increases should only be made at the beginning
of a new academic term. The Office of Student Financial Aid should be
consulted before increasing the pay rate of a work-study student. The
actual award amount per year awarded the student determines the student’s
length of eligibility for employment.
Note: Other federal
work-study students are student employees who qualify for financial
assistance at a neighboring institution under the federal, or any other,
student work-study program. These work study students are hired by the
institution granting the work study aid and may be assigned to MCG
through an arrangement with their home institution, but are not MCG
student employees, and are not paid through MCG’s payroll system.
3.2 Institutional Student Assistants
An Institutional Student Assistant is a general student assistant position
which is subject to need and availability of departmental funding. To
qualify as a student employee, the student must be enrolled in a minimum
of six (6) semester hours.
All institutional student assistants are hourly, non-exempt employees
and must be paid not less than the federal minimum wage.
3.3 Graduate Assistants
Graduate student employees can be categorized as follows:
- Graduate Research Assistants (GRAs) are graduate students who
perform or assist with assigned research tasks.
- Graduate Teaching Assistants (GTAs) are graduate students who are
assigned a class or laboratory section or who have as a primary duty a
teaching activity such as demonstrating laboratory experiments.
- Graduate Assistants (GAs) are other graduate students who are hired
by a department for general departmental needs.
GRAs, GTAs and GAs must apply for and be awarded a graduate
assistantship through the School of Graduate Studies. To be eligible for
this type of employment, the graduate student must be admitted to a
graduate degree program. A graduate student on assistantship must
register for and earn at least nine hours of graduate credit per semester.
Graduate assistants are paid a set stipend according to the terms of
their graduate assistantship.
Date: 1 July 1976 | Rev. No: 04-1| Rev. Date: 1
May 2004 | No. 1.4.18 |