Notes from April 29, 2004 Assistants Meeting
- Thursday, April 22, 2004 10:30 - noon
- UMC 247
People were reminded that Post Tenure Review reports are due now and that Merit Evaluations are due April 30. When asked for a preference, people said they'd like to receive their list of Instructors up for reappointment now rather than waiting for Fall.
Jenny Peterson from the Graduate School spoke about student appointments. Undergraduate students may not hold graduate student-type appointments (those in the 1500 range of PeopleSoft coding). She explained the difference between GPTI and TA appointments: The Graduate-Part-Time-Instructor (GPTI) is responsible for course content, is in charge of a class, leads the lectures, and is listed as the "instructor of record" on SIS. The GPTI has more experience than the TA, and must at least be working on a master's degree. The Teaching Assistant (TA) assists the "instructor of record," whether it be a regular faculty member or a GPTI, but is allowed to lead recitation sections. A Graduate Assistant (GA) does not help in front of the class. A Research Assistant (RA) is paid off a faculty member's grant. The TA, GA, and RA are all paid from the same pay scale. Graders, hired to grade class work, are paid a standard of $10 per student at census. This is paid out over the period of the term. Departments with no graduate students may hire graduate students, but they must have money in their budget for tuition waivers in addition to paying the student a stipend. There are charts on the Graduate School's web site with the various stipends: http://www.colorado.edu/GraduateSchool/facstaff/index.html.
The United Government of Graduate Students (UGGS) requested that students be given letters of offer for their appointments. Therefore, the College and the Graduate School together authored a template. It's available on both the A&S and Grad School web sites: A&S: http://www.colorado.edu/ArtsSciences/facultystaff/administration/budget/index.html. Grad School: http://www.colorado.edu/GraduateSchool/facstaff/index.html.
Elizabeth Guertin, Assistant Dean and Director of the Academic Advising Center, spoke about the workings of the advising system. There currently are approximately 42 advisors (but only 37 "full-time" equivalents) in 38 departments across the College. There are 2.5 people who process the transfer credit evaluations for the entire campus. Faculty within the department determine whether or not a particular course meets the degree requirements. Eight people handle the 3,000-4,000 open option students. There also are three faculty members who handle the pre-professional students - those interested in law, medicine, vet medicine, and nursing. Advisors certify students for graduation. When students have questions regarding graduation they should be directed to the students' particular advisors.
The Advising website at: http://www.colorado.edu/ArtsSciences/aacforstudents/advising.html hosts an on-line appointment system. Students also may access forms for various activities such as late add, late drop, transfer credit evaluation, etc. Most often students call offices on campus because they are dissatisfied with the answer their advisor gave them. Some pertinent questions we may want to ask are:
- Who do you talk to? (Was it an advisor?)
- What did the advisor say?
- Why did he/she say that?
Notes by Susan Sires
