GSA Process

1. Graduate Assistantships are provided to top-tier graduate students looking to advance their graduate education and experience at Eastern Washington University.
2. The Graduate Programs Office (GPO) provides offer letter templates that serve as the starting point for departments and colleges to offer graduate assistantships. Offer letter templates provide EWU-approved language for the assistantship offers and should be formatted to fit specific department and academic needs. Offer contingency and eligibility language shall be included on letters provided. This includes training, attestation, and satisfactory academic progress requirements. Letter templates include standard language to provide. 
3. Departments should provide any offer letters to prospective students no later than April 1st, 2023, to ensure students are considering EWU graduate assistantship offers.
4. All formal offer letters shall include the appropriate GSA information sheet (link below) and sent to the Graduate Programs Office upon acceptance.

GRADUATE PROGRAMS OFFICE - APPROVED OFFER LETTER TEMPLATES

• GSA Resident Offer Letter: This is a fillable form. Students do not need to sign it. Just have them type their name in the signature field.
  • Attached: GSA Information sheet for 2023-24

• WICHE Offer Letter
  • WICHE Information

Graduate assistantships are limited to those pursuing programs of study leading to advanced degrees at Eastern Washington University. Eligibility for admission to a graduate program, as well as eligibility for graduate assistantships, are determined by the Graduate Programs Office. 

For Initial Graduate Assistantship Appointments: 

• Admission by the Graduate Programs Office to a specific graduate program, with graduate (GR) status, is required. Banner form “SAAADMS” can be used to verify admissions status.
  • Non-matriculated, undergraduate, and post-baccalaureate students are not eligible for assistantships. 
• Students admitted with support of an assistantship are required to successfully clear two different background checks.
  • Sexual misconduct as required by RCW Chapter 28B.112 
  • Criminal misconduct
• Candidates must have received a bachelor’s degree before the beginning of the graduate service assistantship.
• Training for Title IX, Hazing, and DEI is required. 

All Graduate Assistantship Appointments:

• Must meet satisfactory academic progress and adhere to the requirements of the EWU Graduate Student Policy 303-22.
• GSAs may not be employed by the university in any other position per the Temporary Employment Policy 407-01, section 5-3. 
• Must register for and complete 2 to 8 graduate-level credits per academic term.
• Students with Research Assistantships must complete the Responsible Conduct of Research training with the Office of Grant and Research Development (OGRD) within their first academic term.

1. Refer to the following graduate assistantship classifications and compensation effective January 1, 2023. 

2. Assistantship General Description Overview of Roles

a. Graduate Teaching Assistant (TA) is an assistantship appointment in which a graduate student’s primary duty is teaching or serving as a teaching assistant. The TA may assist faculty in teaching undergraduate courses and labs, grading examinations, problem sets, or lab assignments, setting up displays for lectures and labs, or preparing or maintaining laboratory equipment. TAs are available to qualified graduate students in academic departments. Students should contact their department/program to inquire about TA opportunities. All TA appointments must note the course(s) assignments on the Payroll Action Form.

b. Graduate Research Assistant (RA) research assistantship (RA) is an appointment in which a graduate student is engaged in research under a faculty member’s supervision. The faculty member is generally a principal investigator on a grant or contract. 

c. Graduate Staff Assistant (SA) is an assistantship appointment in which a graduate student engages in service that enhances the educational pursuits at EWU. The SA provides academic and administrative program support for units such as student services offices. These appointments are requested by the site supervisor.

3. Graduate Assistantship appointments are typically half-time positions (requiring an average of 20 hours of work per week) during the term of the appointment. Graduate Assistantship appointments that are quarter-time service (requiring an average of 10 hours of work per week) during the term of appointment receive a pro-rated operating fee waiver or qualified tuition waiver.

4. Once the Department Chair has determined that a position is available and that a prospective graduate student is eligible for admission with regular graduate student status, the Chair or Graduate Program Director may make an unofficial offer of a graduate appointment to the student, subject ultimately to administrative approval by the College. 

5. Department Chairs are responsible for monitoring their graduate appointments, assistantships and availability of funds. Exercise care to stipulate accurately the salary and terms of the appointment when making unofficial offers. When making an assistantship offer, the template letters provided by the Graduate Programs Office should be used. Copies of the offer letters should be sent to the Graduate Programs Office or made available in Google Drive and retained in accordance with the EWU Records and Retention schedule. 

6. Background check information must be submitted to the GPO no later June 1. If not submitted by this date, the background check may be delayed, and the student will not be able to start work until the background check has cleared. Background checks may take up to 4 weeks to clear.

It is especially important that GSAs who are instructors assigned to courses be cleared in June. Instructors who are not cleared before the start of classes WILL NOT be able to teach until cleared.

• Provide student name, ID number and email address to the GPO.
• Inform the student to watch for an email from HireRight and to respond immediately upon receipt of the email.
• The link in the email will expire within 72 hours of when the email was sent.
• Background checks may take up to 4 weeks to clear.
• The June 1 submission date is a strict Human Resources deadline.
• Background checks are required for new GSAs and those GSAs who have changed duties. Otherwise, second year GSAs do not require a new background check.

7. The Graduate Programs Office and Grants Office must receive all accepted offer letters no later than August 15th. 

The Graduate Programs Office submits all employee documents to Human Resources on or before August 20th. Employee documents and processes include the following (new hire paperwork packet link coming soon).

1. Accepted Offer Letter
2. Criminal Background Check
3. Sexual Misconduct Form and Background Check
4. Payroll Action Form
5. W-4 Federal Withholding Form
6. I-9 Employment Eligibility Form
7. Employee Demographics Form
8. Proof of Vaccination or Immunity to Measles, Mumps, or Rubella or Approved Exemption
9. Social Security Declaration Form
10. Statement of Personal Ineligibility (retirement).
    

8. Graduate Teaching Assistants are not authorized to teach a course that carries graduate-level credit. They may assist with a graduate course, but they cannot bear the major responsibility for the course delivery or participate in evaluating other graduate students or assigning grades. 

1. Assistantship waivers are based on the department’s ability to fund the hourly paid position for the term. Graduate tuition waivers are not available for summer terms or self-support programs. To qualify for the tuition operating fee waiver(s) for the Fall, Winter, and Spring terms, the assistantship appointment must be: 

• Appointed for the full academic term (quarter/semester) or the full academic year (Fall - Spring)
• A minimum of quarter-time (10 hours/week) or 25% FTE. Typical assistantships are half-time (20 hours/week) or 50% FTE.

Per RCW 28B.15.014 to qualify for tuition waiver(s), the student must reside within the State of Washington. 

Waivers do not cover mandatory student fees. Graduate students on an assistantship must pay mandatory student fees each term AND a portion of the tuition, which by State of Washington law, cannot be waived. Refer to the following Tuition & Waiver Table. 

Waiver Amounts - Academic Year 2023 - 2024

2. OPERATING FEE WAIVER (OFW): Graduate assistants may receive OFW as a scholarship based on need or merit. To qualify for an OFW, wages for the assistantship appointment must be paid on Banner Index 1 or Index 2 funding. Wages paid to a graduate assistant should bear no relationship to whether or not a scholarship is given. EWU self-support academic programs are not eligible for assistantship OFWs without advance Provost approval.

• Assistantship appointments for >50% may receive a full OFW. 
• Assistantship appointments of >25% (but less than 50%) may receive a half OFW.

ASSISTANTSHIPS FOR NON-ACADEMIC UNITS: The waiver policies for non-academic areas require advance approval from the Provost Office, Senior Budget Officer, or have a written institutional commitment from OGRD or Provost Office. A non-academic area may have a grant or contract that provides Operating Fee Waivers as cost-share which will be on file with OGRD/Provost Office. 

3. QUALIFIED TUITION REDUCTION (QTR): When an Assistantship is funded externally, (ex. grant/contract), the tuition may be budgeted in the proposal/award. When tuition is budgeted in the grant/contract, the Assistantship QTR is paid by the external source. QTRs cannot be charged to state resources - Index 1 or Index 2 funds.

QTRs are equal to the value of a tuition waiver (OFW) and do not cover mandatory student fees.  If a grant has been funded and provide tuition support, the Assistantship position budget/index will be charged for the value of the QTR. Please indicate the QTR index in the comments field of the Payroll Action Form. If the QTR needs to be charged to a different source mid-term, contact OGRD immediately.

• If the student terminates the assistantship mid-term or if the FTE percentage is changed, the QTR will be immediately prorated. The student will be responsible for paying any residual tuition owed. 

4. Non-Resident graduate students on a >25% FTE graduate appointment may be awarded a waiver for the non-resident portion of the tuition. Domestic graduate students who have residency outside of Washington State are required to apply for Washington residency to avoid paying out-of-state tuition after their first year of their academic program. 

• Assistantship appointments for >50% may receive a full non-resident “NR” waiver. 
• Assistantship appointments of >25% (but less than 50%) may receive a half “NR” waiver. 
• Non-resident waivers are not guaranteed beyond one year. Refer to EWU’s website for information regarding the establishment of WA residency: https://staging-inside.ewu.edu/records-and-registration/residency/. Domestic students failing to establish residency will have non-resident rate obligations. Opportunity to discuss hardship with the Graduate Programs Office may be requested after the application is denied. 

5. Any decrease in the duration of the appointment to less than one full term, or decrease in the percentage of appointment, may result in immediate termination of the Qualified Tuition Reduction (QTR), Operating Fee Waiver (OFW), and/or non-resident waiver (NR). The Office of Grant and Research Development in addition to the Graduate Studies Office should be informed if such changes in appointment occur. 

• If a student terminates employment mid-term or reduces the appointment’s FTE, the waivers may be removed. In this case, the student will be responsible for paying the full tuition charges.  
• If a student’s employment is terminated because of academic performance and/or enrollment is canceled, the student retains the OFW and non-resident tuition waivers, but a QTR ends upon termination of employment. 

Graduate students on >50% assistantships (enrolled for a minimum of 8 credits) are entitled to the Graduate Student Health Insurance Medical Plan. Go to this webpage or contact the Graduate Programs Office for further details.  

1. During the term of their appointments, all graduate student appointees are expected to be at work during their scheduled workdays, with the exception of official university holidays.
2. Students appointed to Assistantships earn sick leave at a rate of 1.0 hour for every 40 hours worked.
3. Graduate students on appointment do not earn annual leave (vacation leave). 
4. All University holidays are designated by the Board of Trustees and are posted on the Human Resource website at https://staging-inside.ewu.edu/hr/leave-and-time-off/. 

Fall 2023 - Spring 2024 Fees

*Only applies to international students.