Graduate Faculty Membership Privileges

1. Graduate Faculty Membership Privileges • 1. Any member of the Graduate Faculty may serve as a member of a master’s thesis or doctoral dissertation committee. • 2. Only a Regular or Emeritus Member of the Graduate Faculty: • a. shall be entitled to one vote on all matters presented to the graduate faculty; • b. shall serve as the Chair of a master's thesis or doctoral dissertation defense committee; • c. shall be the primary advisor for a master’s thesis or a doctoral dissertation. • 3. An Adjunct Member of the Graduate Faculty may serve as the primary Co-Advisor for a doctoral dissertation or master’s thesis in conjunction with a Co-Advisor who is a Regular Member of the Graduate Faculty.

2. Actions of the Graduate Executive Committee • Curriculum • Considered 54 requests for new or substantially changed courses, 53 requests for prefix changes, 68 requests for course deletions • Food Systems Accelerated Masters Program • MS in Leadership for Sustainability • Certificate of Graduate Study in Environmental Public Health • Minor changes to requirements in several programs • Faculty – reviewed 12 applications to the Graduate Faculty • Policy • Additional Pay Form - Extra work requests • Extramural support of tuition and health insurance for supported graduate students

3. Graduate Assistantships • Graduate Assistantships(Teaching or Research ) is a specific category of University employee. •  A full time GA is a 0.5 FTE (20hrs/week) position. • A GA must also be a graduate student taking at least 6 credit hours (or credit equivalents if in the continuous registration phase of their education). • The student status of GA places these employees in a specific class for tax purposes in which their salaries are not assessed FICA taxes. • The Assistantship position includes three benefits: 1) payment of 75% of the UVM single Student Health Insurance premium, 2) workman’s compensation insurance and 3) payment of at least a 6 credit tuition scholarship.   • Currently, the University pays the Health Insurance and Workman’s compensation benefit; the tuition scholarship is paid through a variety of mechanisms including sponsored project funds and university funds.

4. Graduate Teaching Assistantships Compensation and Benefits (Financial Aid) • Graduate Teaching Assistant fully paid by the Graduate College (from general fund allocation); the work effort associated with these positions is not always teaching – can be research or other work effort such as staffing UVM offices by HESA program • Stipend for compensated effort at 20 hrs/week • Accompanying health insurance premium assistance and tuition scholarship is not associated with the compensated effort – it is a benefit to support the student’s education, and as such is Financial Aid: • 75% of individual UVM student health insurance premium (if elected) • 12 credits/semester unrestricted tuition scholarship at full in state or out of state rate • Note that the Aid is currently paid by the Graduate College but aid (and stipends) will become the responsibility if the units under IBB

5. Graduate Research Assistantships Compensation and Benefits (Financial Aid) • Graduate Assistant paid by sponsored grants and contracts that include indirect cost recovery • Stipend for compensated effort at 20 hrs/week – paid by the grant; must meet minimum Graduate College Standard for salary and cannot exceed 20 hours/week • Accompanying health insurance premium assistance and tuition scholarship is not associated with the compensated effort – it is a benefit to support the student’s education, and as such is Financial Aid: • 75% of individual UVM student health insurance premium (if elected) • Restricted tuition scholarship: • Up to 10 research credits /semester to a maximum of 40 for doctoral students and 15 for masters students at full in state or out of state rate, or • Tuition differential to cover out of state portion of tuition for course credit up to 10 credits/semester • Combination of 1 and 2 for a total of 10 credits/semester • No scholarship for instate portion of course credits • Note that the Aid is currently paid by the Graduate College but aid (and stipends) will become the responsibility if the units under IBB

6. GOAL: Equalize benefits for extramurally funded and Graduate College funded Graduate Assistantships • provide standard competitive recruitment packages for research supported students • align with standard practices of research universities

7. Adding a fringe rate for extramurally funded Graduate Assistants to pay for benefits associated with their position What has been the discussion? Fringe rate of ~7-8% on graduate assistantship salaries to pay for 75% of health insurance premium Fringe rate of ~18% on graduate assistantship salaries to pay for 20% of tuition (an alternative is to set up a flat rate paid into the pool). This will allow us the flexibility to provide Graduate Assistants supported on extramural grants and contracts and unrestricted tuition scholarship, as we do for the teaching Assistantships. We cannot treat research credits differently than course credits in this process so the current practice of 100% subsidy of research credits would be replaced with 80% subsidy of all credits. (Most institutions subsidize 40—50% so we will still not be at the norm).

8. Health Insurance Benefit Graduate Assistants are the only class of UVM employee for whom no fringe rate is assessed on their salary to cover benefits. Applying a fringe rate to graduate assistant salaries (or charging directly) is standard university practice at research institutions. Exploration of other university policies by UVM staff and by a faculty committee at Arizona State University in 2010 showed that of 39 universities examined, 27 applied a fringe rate to graduate assistant salaries on sponsored projects and grants to pay for health insurance, another 5 charged these costs directly to the sponsored project. For 7 institutions, the available information was unclear.

9. Graduate Executive Committee Motions • Motion to accept 7% fringe, reduce credits from 12 to 9 and allow doctoral students on sponsored grants and contracts to use credits for courses and or research for one year was seconded and passed unanimously. • Also recommend that UVM set a policy for the percentage of tuition it will subsidize vs that which would be paid by sponsored grants and contracts for extramurally funded GAs (doctoral and masters) by the end of Fall 2014. Additionally, a recommendation for common benefit level for GTAs and GAs is required. • A committee chaired by a member of the Graduate Executive and including graduate faculty from the faculty senate and graduate faculty at large will be charged to do this work.