GA PAF Preparer’s Meeting – JuNE 19, 2014

1. Welcome GA PAF Preparer’s Meeting – JuNE 19, 2014

2. Introductions Introductions • Your Name • Department you are with • How long have you been at UNI • HRS & Payroll • Carol Brodie • Amy Stanbrough • Beth Kuehl Graduate College Staff • April Chatham-Carpenter • Shoshanna Coon • Susie Schwieger • Janet Witt • Cheryl Nedrow • Lisa Steimel

3. Award Notification Issue The Graduate College has had numerous inquiries from students in the last couple of months telling us they were informed, verbally or in writing, they were going to receive an assistantship and/or Graduate College tuition scholarship and they wanted to know when we would be sending them their offer letter(s). • Under no circumstances should it be conveyed by the department to an applicant that he/she has received an assistantship and/or Graduate College tuition scholarship. • All official offers must come from the Graduate College. This is sent out via email after offer forms are received in the GC and verification is done. • Double check to make sure this is not in your letter to the student letting them know they have been accepted into your program.

4. Enrollment Eligibility Requirements Enrollment Eligibility Requirement for Grad Assistantship and/or Graduate College Scholarship is for the student to be enrolled in 9 graduate-level credit hours. • PAF Preparer and/or secretary needs to review each Grad Assistant’s Academic Advisement Report BEFORE submitting PAF (can start looking at these as soon as enrollment is open for the semester). • Department needs to contact student immediately if this requirement is not being met. • Student and department need to work together to register for appropriate classes. This is ultimately the student’s responsibility. • DO NOT submit PAF until YOU have reviewed the student’s current Academic Advisement Report and YOU see enrollment of 9 graduate-level credit hours.

5. Bachelor’s Degree and GPA Eligibility Requirement Graduate Assistants must possess a bachelor’s degree from an accredited institution prior to the start of the assistantship appointment. • Verify that a student’s final transcript has been received by Admissions. (If not received this would be listed in the student’s “To Do List” In Student Services Center). The GPA Eligibility Requirement for Grad Assistantship and/or Graduate College Scholarship is for the student to have 3.0 or higher GPA. (make sure summer grades have posted, if applicable) • Verify student’s “Plan GPA, Total” located on Student’s Academic Advisement Report • If 1st semester as graduate student use final undergrad cumulative GPA • If 1st semester as a doctoral student use Master’s Plan GPA • If student does not have a Plan GPA and is not a 1st semester graduate student then use the cumulative GPA of at least 8 credit hours of graduate-level courses taken. (this usually happens when student takes graduate-level courses but was not enrolled in a program of study)

6. Timing of Graduate Assistant PAFs The semester start date is August 25th. (This is really late in the month). • PAF has to be approved through the Graduate College by August 15th and new hire paperwork must be completed in HRS by August 20th in order for student to be guaranteed an August paycheck. (August 15th is the HRS cutoff date for August PAF’s .) • If student decides they don’t want assistantship after you process their PAF, or they don’t show up for work, you need to notify me immediately. August payroll production run will most likely be on August 25thwhich gives us a very small window of time to pull a student’s August paycheck before it is disbursed.

7. How to Prepare a Grad Assistant PAF You can create the student’s Personnel Action Form (PAF) for the fall semester after July 1st. Do not create until after July 1st so that the PAF workflow brings in Interim Dean April Chatham-Carpenter instead of Interim Provost Michael Licari. Important: Do not submit the PAF until you have verified the student meets the requirements. My Universe > Work @ UNI > My Administrative Access > Personnel Action Form (MW04) • Personnel Action Type: • New Appointment (additional information will be requested by PAF system) • Reappointment/Change Appointment • Effective Date: • Use first day of semester (unless a late start) • UID • Proceed GA PAF examples are available at HRS website http://www.vpaf.uni.edu/hrs/hris/paf/help/index.shtml Very Helpful website

8. Preparation of GA PAF (continued) Labor Distribution Start Date: “New” PAF-Actual date student begins work (25-AUG-2014) or “Reappointment” PAF-Use 1st day of month student begins work. (01-AUG-2014) End Date: 31-Dec-14 or 31-MAY-15 Effective date: The date student starts their GA position. Typically the 1st day of classes Appointment Status Date: The date student starts their GA position. Typically the 1st day of classes Attention Appointment Expiration Date should be last day of the semester (19-DEC-2014, 08-MAY-2015) Use Additional Information section to provide information if student starts working after first day of classes. Indicate: “Reduce Salary by $xx.xx due to late start date of mm/dd/yy” Appointment Salary should always be full amount (do not reduce if student does not begin work on 1st day of classes) Based on primary duty select appropriate Position Title (e.g., teaching, research, other) Attention

9. Completed PAF 654321 Student, Susie 234567

10. Common Errors on PAF Common errors that result in rejected PAF’s • Dates. There are several dates required on PAF’s so make sure you are providing correct date in correct fields. (use HRS examples for help with this) • Submitted GA PAF but the student has not been sent an offer • “New” Appointment PAF submitted when a “Reappointment/Change Appointment” PAF should have been done. Do not use “New” PAF if student was a GA in prior semester. (doesn’t matter if same department or not) • The GA’s supervisor listed incorrectly. Need to provide name of individual supervising the student, not the department head or program coordinator, unless they truly are the supervisor • Assignment Category. For this next semester select “T-Fall” • Salary amount is not changed from prior semester • Wrong funding account code combination provided • PAF’s are submitted before grades are posted and Plan GPA can’t be verified. Do NOT submit PAF until summer semester grades are posted (if student took summer class) • PAF’s do not get rejected if the student is not enrolled in 9 graduate-level credit hours but they do not get approved either. If this requirement is not met the student is not able to start working the first week of classes, which will result in a reduction in pay

11. Helpful tools to avoid rejected PAF’s Numerous PAF’s are rejected each semester. Below is helpful information and tools to avoid rejected PAF’s in the future. • Use the HRS website samples to help you prepare your PAF’s. http://www.vpaf.uni.edu/hrs/hris/paf/help/index.shtml • Use the prior Power Point presentations located on the Graduate College website for help in preparing your PAF’s. • Call or email me if you are not sure or if you want me to look at a PAF before you submit PAF (or before you prepare severalPAFs). • Review PAF in full before submitting. Click on “Print Preview” which will bring up the full PAF. • If PAF is rejected look under “History” tab to find comments on errors that need to be corrected. (Only make corrections that are listed in comments.) • Be aware of where your PAF’s are at in the process. Make sure to check your notifications for any rejected PAF’s.

12. When can a Grad Assistant begin work? Grad Assistants are eligible to begin work after: • Grad College approval of PAF by Lisa Steimel and April Chatham-Carpenter • All paperwork is turned into HRS for new hires. The PAF system will send emails to the preparer, supervisor and Grad Assistant indicating status • Cannot start prior to the first day of classes

13. Graduate Assistant Supervisors If the student’s supervisor changes send me an email with student name, UID and the name of the new supervisor and effective date. Make sure you are completing the PAF with the correct supervisor’s name. An email from Graduate College will be sent to GA supervisors approximately 2 weeks before the start of the semester providing the name of their Grad Assistant and the number of hours the student will be workingfor the semester. This email will also provide a list of the supervisor’s responsibilities, which include review of job description/duties with student on their first day, tracking/be aware of student’s hours and required performance appraisals.

14. Miscellaneous • Don’t forget that there is a Graduate Assistantship handbook for student and departmental use. Refer to it often. http://www.grad.uni.edu/assistantships • Offer forms should be received by the Grad College by July 1st. Any forms received after that date will be done as time allows since priority will be given to processing of PAF’s. • Graduate Scholarship Hold is a hold on the student’s scholarship until GPA and enrollment can be verified for the semester. This hold does NOT affect the student in registering for classes. • Students receiving a scholarship, no matter what the funding, should not be working for the University for the scholarship funding. Any work being provided should be processed through payroll, not as a scholarship. • If a student decides against their Grad Assistantship and/or Graduate College Scholarship the Graduate College will need something in writing from student declining their offer(s).

15. Questions or Concerns