Your supervising faculty member will determine the nature of your instruction and instruction-related duties as a TA/GRA. Your responsibilities might include grading, leading discussion sections or equipment labs, holding review sessions, being available for student questions during office hours, and/or teaching during class or lab times. If you are teaching a lab, lab office hours must be held in the lab.

The hours you work per week should average, over the course of the semester, the number of hours for which you have been appointed per week.

Faculty are encouraged to allow experienced TA/GRA's to give lectures or make instructional presentations during organized class time; however, University rules prohibit TA/GRA's from giving more than 20% of the total course lectures. Nor should they be assigned a "bloc" of teaching concentrated in one period of the semester.

Your primary duties will be for the designated undergraduate class(es), but additional duties in relation to other classes taught by your supervising faculty member may be requested of you, up to but not exceeding the percent time appointment noted above.

Should your supervising faculty member request that you perform duties outside these guidelines, you should discuss the matter with the Graduate Adviser or the Graduate Coordinator.

This position is a job and should be treated as such. You are expected to demonstrate standard workplace professionalism during your employment. This includes, for example, arriving promptly for class or lab time, notifying your faculty supervisor of anticipated absences, arranging for substitutes when appropriate, and fulfilling the duties assigned by your supervisor.

Unsatisfactory performance may result in no employment during a coming semester or discontinuation of your appointment during the current semester. If your appointment is terminated mid-way through the semester, you would no longer receive the benefits of in-state tuition, the tuition fellowship, and insurance (discussed below) for the entire semester.

PAY RATES

Please see subheadings for Ph.D. & MA Students or MFA Students for specifics about pay rates.

PAYCHECKS

TA/GRAs  receive payment for a total of four and one-half months for each semester.  

Fall: September 1 - January 15

Spring: January 16 - May 31.
 
University employees are paid on the first workday of each month for work completed during the preceding month. The first payday of the Fall 2010 semester is Wednesday, October 1.

HIGH ASSURANCE EID (electronic Identifier)

TA/GRAs need to convert their EID to the "high-assurance" level in order to perform many of the functions of the job. If your ID is not already "high assurance", please go to the ID Center at the Flawn Academic Center (open Mon - Fri 830 - 5) to set up your high assurance EID. Take a picture ID with you.

MANDATORY TRAINING

All graduate student employees are required to take on-line training in equal employment opportunity and sexual harassment. These training modules take less than 30 minutes to complete. You should complete them between Sept 1 and Oct. 1. Once you have been appointed as a TA, you will be able to link to the training modules at https://utdirect.utexas.edu/cts/profile.WBX .

In addition, every TA is required to complete on-line training about the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA) to ensure that you understand the laws regarding student privacy issues. You will receive an electronic notification about this training early in the semester, with the URL for accessing the training module.