Eligibility

Regular graduate students (i.e., those that are fully admitted into a graduate degree program at CSM) are eligible for Graduate Assistant and Graduate Hourly Appointments. To receive and maintain an appointment, candidates must meet the following additional criteria.

1. Appointees must be making satisfactory progress toward degree completion as defined in the Graduate Bulletin. Briefly, progress toward degree completion is deemed unsatisfactory if any of the following conditions is true:
   
   
1. Failure to maintain a cumulative grade point average of 3.0 or greater;
2. Receipt of an “In-Progress-Unsatisfactory” grade for research; or
3. Receipt of an “Unsatisfactory Progress” recommendation from: 1) the head or director of the student's home department or division, 2) the student's thesis committee, or 3) a departmental committee charged with the responsibility of monitoring a student's progress.
   
   
2. During the regular academic year, appointees must be enrolled as full-time students. Normally, full-time enrollment is defined as 9 credit hours per semester. Students in thesis-based programs who have been Admitted to Candidacy may be eligible for full-time enrollment at a reduced credit hour rate. Full-time enrollment at the reduced credit hour rate is 4 credits. See the Graduate Bulletin for conditions that must be met for qualification of reduced enrollment.

   Enrollment requirements for summer appointments are defined below.

3. Appointees must meet all eligibility requirements for employment in the United States. See State and Federal Compliance section below.

4. Lastly, we expect students to devote an appropriate amount of time and energy to completing their work assignments. As Graduate Appointments require full-time enrollment in their graduate program in addition to the work assigned through the Appointment, it is unlikely that Appointees can successfully meet the expectations of each of these commitments while maintaining additional, outside employment. So that supervisors and advisors may adaquately advise a potential appointee and so that they may be aware of any potential conflicts of interest in assigning a specific appointment, Appointees who are, or will be, seeking employment outside of Mines during the term of their Graduate Appointment must make their advisor and supervisor aware of the outside employment and receive permission from both to concurrently hold a Graduate Assistant or Graduate Hourly Appointment while working for an outside employer.
   

Workload

Graduate Assistant Appointments may be made at any workload up to 100%. Examples of four common assistantship appointments are given below.

• quarter-time (25% or 0.25 FTE)
• half-time (50% or 0.5 FTE)
• three-quarter time (75% or 0.75 FTE)
• full-time (100% or 1 FTE)

A Graduate Assistantship Appointment of 1 FTE (100% or full-time) normally requires a minimum service expectation of about 40 hours per week. Assignments at fractions of an FTE (i.e., 0.25, 0.5 and 0.75) have service expectations that are the equivalent fraction of the full-time expectation (i.e., 0.5 FTE implies a minimum service expectation of 20 hours per week).

Graduate Hourly Appointments are awarded with an explicit indication of the number of hours per week expected. Students on Graduate Hourly Appointments must submit time sheets indicating the actual hours worked and are compensated on an hourly basis for these.

During the academic year, Graduate Hourly Appointments are limited to no more than 20 hours per week. During the summer, Graduate Hourly appointments may be made up to 40 hours per week.

Students may concurrently hold multiple Graduate Assistant and Graduate Hourly appointments. In the case that a student holds multiple appointments, the student must make all departments, divisions or PIs overseeing the work assignments of each appointment aware of his/her multiple commitments. The sum of the total work commitments may not exceed the institutional limits defined above for a single appointment (i.e., 0.5 FTE or 20 hours during the academic year and 1.0 FTE or 40 hours during the summer).

As defined below in the Term of Appointment section, CSM imposes maximum service expectations on Graduate Assistant and Graduate Hourly Appointments so that employment obligations do not conflict with progress toward degree.

Term of Appointment

Individual Graduate Assistantship and Graduate Hourly Appointments may be made for the current semester (i.e., Fall, Spring, Field or Summer), for the current academic year (i.e., Fall and Spring semesters) or for the current calendar year. Conditions, limitations and expectations associated with each of these appointment periods are defined below.

Fall and Spring Appointments constitute appointments made for any time period during the regular academic year. During the academic year, appointees may not hold Graduate Assistant or Graduate Hourly appointments with a total service expectation in excess of 0.5 FTE or 20 hours per week. Students on Assistantship and Hourly appointments must be full-time registered during the regular academic semester in which they are employed by the Assistantship or Hourly Appointment.

The Fall appointment period runs from September 1 through December 31. Students on Fall appointments are paid eight times during the appointment period as defined below.

Fall Pay Period Pay Dates

Spring appointments run from January 1 through April 30. Students on Spring appointments are paid eight times during the appointment period as defined below.

Spring Pay Period Pay Dates

Field and Summer Appointments constitute appointments made outside of the regular academic year during the summer (i.e., May through August). These appointments may run the entire four months of the summer session, or during the Field (i.e., May and June) or Summer (i.e., July and August) sessions only. Appointees may hold Graduate Assistant or Graduate Hourly Appointments during the summer with service expectations of up to 1.0 FTE. To hold an Appointment above 0.5 FTE, students may not be concurrently registered for classes during the Field or Summer terms. If registration includes coursework, the maximum appointment workload during the summer is equivalent to that imposed during the regular academic year.

Summer appointments run from May 1 through August 31. Students on appointments providing support for the entire summer are paid eight times during the appointment period as defined below.

Summer Pay Period Pay Dates

Depending on the type of appointment, appointees may, or may not, have to register during the Summer. See the Registration Requirements for Summer and Field Appointments below for details.

Calendar Year Appointments constitute commitments made to appointees that provide employment support over an entire calendar year, usually Fall through Summer. Most often, Calendar Year Appointments are made as Graduate Assistantship Appointments. These Assistantship Appointments could be in the form of Calendar Year Research or Teaching Assistantship Appointments, or could be a combination of the two types of Assistantships that vary over the course of the calendar year.

As described above, during the regular academic year, Graduate Assistantship Appointments may not exceed a service expectation of 0.5 FTE. During the summer (i.e., field and summer sessions) Appointments may be made up to 1.0 FTE. For the purposes of establishing the appropriate minimum institutional stipend rate for Calendar Year Appointments, an appointment with a 0.5 FTE workload during the academic year and a 1.0 FTE load during the summer, the most common type of Calendar Year Appointment, and is referred to in the table below as a 0.67 FTE Calendar Year Appointment. Calendar Year Appointments made at less than 0.67 FTE have fractionally less workload expectations during the academic and summer semesters. So, for example, a 0.33 FTE Calendar Year Appointment would have an academic semester workload expectation of 0.25 FTE and a summer semester workload expectation of 0.5 FTE.

Departments award Calendar Year Appointments with the expectation of this varying level of service commitment, but they do so by providing appointees with a uniform monthly stipend over the entire calendar year. Thus, if one were to compute a per-hour pay rate, Calendar Year appointees receive higher per-hour salary during the academic year than they do during the summer. As long as the pay averaged over the entire calendar year meets the institutional minimum pay requirements as defined below, however, these appointments are in compliance with CSM guidelines.

Minimum Stipends

Graduate Assistant Appointments are required to meet the following minimum stipends. Stipends may, at the discretion of the Department/Division or faculty member, be in excess of these minimum requirements. Stipend amounts given are those received each pay period. As shown above, the pay period is nominally two weeks.

Minimum stipend rates made for Fall, Spring, Field and Summer Appointments are shown below.

Minimum stipend rates for Calendar Year Appointments are shown in the table below.

In addition to the stipend rates, the FTE assignments that should be indicated on the Implementation Commitment for each semester during which a student is supported on a Calendar Year Appointment are also indicated.

Graduate Hourly Appointments are compensated on an hourly basis determined by the number of hours actually worked. CSM mandates no minimum hourly pay rate for Graduate Hourly appointments, but strongly encourages pay rates commensurate with those required for Assistantship Appointments.

Tuition Remission

Graduate Assistant Appointments made at the 0.25 FTE level or above are eligible for tuition remission. CSM does not, however, require tuition remission as part of any Assistantship award. Departments, in the case of Teaching Assistantships, and principal investigators, in the case of Research Assistantships, may choose to pay a student's tuition as part of the award when such payments are allowable.

The Colorado School of Mines considers tuition remission granted as part of an Assistantship award financial aid. It is awarded for the sole purpose of aiding the student in the pursuit of his or her studies and is paid independent of the stipend. As such, tuition remission is not conditioned upon the student's provision of any services to CSM and will, therefore, not be deemed taxable compensation. In the event of appointment termination, any payments made in the form of tuition remission prior to the termination date constitute irrevocable financial aid. The student can not be compelled to repay such awards.

Graduate Hourly Appointments are not eligible for tuition remission as part of the Graduate Hourly Appointment.

Full or partial tuition remission in the form of a Fellowship Award may be made to any student not eligible for tuition remission as part of their Graduate Assistant or Graduate Hourly Appointment. To do so, however, the award must be an allowable expense given the source of the funds used.

If the source of funds is sponsored research please contact the Office of Research Administration for further guidance.

Fee and Health Insurance Remission

Graduate Assistant Appointments are eligible for remission of both Mandatory and Optional fees. Mandatory fees include those associated with the Health Center, Associated Students, Athletics, Student Services and Assistance, Technology and Recreation Center. Optional fees include things like Blaster Card activation, graduation, late registration, etc. While remission of a Mandatory fee payment would automatically include payment of fees associated with all of the items listed above, remission of Optional fee payments must be explicitly listed as part of the appointment, as these are not normally included as part of the Mandatory fee payment. Students incurring fees associated with their enrollment at CSM and who are on Graduate Assistant Appointments that do not, as part of the appointment remiss these fees, are responsible for payment of the required fees.

Additionally, Health Insurance is required of all students as a Mandatory Health Insurance fee; unless a student can prove coverage through another plan. Graduate Assistant Appointments are eligible for remission of the required Health Insurance fee. Students who incur a Health Insurance fee while on a Graduate Assistant Appointment that does not remit, as part of the appointment, the Health Insurance fee are responsible for payment of this Mandatory fee.

Graduate Hourly Appointments are not eligible for Mandatory Fee or Health Insurance remission as part of the Graduate Hourly Appointment.

Registration Requirements for Summer and Field Appointments

ALL Graduate Assistant and Graduate Hourly Appointees WORKING TOWARD DEGREE during the Summer or Field sessions (i.e., May through August) ARE REQUIRED TO REGISTER.

Research Assistant Appointments: By definition Research Assistants are presumed to be working toward degree and, therefore, MUST REGISTER during the summer semester. The required minimum registration requirement for a Research Assistant appointed during the summer term is three (3) credits of research. To insure research appointees have access to the appropriate campus services (i.e., building access, Health Center, Recreation Center, etc.), Research Appointees MUST REGISTER for the required research credits BY THE LAST DAY OF REGISTRATION FOR THE FIELD TERM. All Research Appointees are assessed tuition at the normal summer tuition rates and Mandatory Fees at the "Thesis Research" rate.

If a student on a Research Assistant Appointment is also completing coursework during the Summer or Field terms, the Appointee MUST REGISTER FOR THESE COURSES IN ADDITION to the required three credits of research. The registration deadline for coursework registration is the normal deadline for the Field or Summer session course. Tuition is assessed for both the required research and coursework credit hours at the normal Summer and Field rates. Mandatory Fees incurred by students completing both research and coursework during the summer are assessed at the "Thesis Research" rate.

Teaching Assistant and Hourly Appointments: If a Graduate Teaching Assistant or Graduate Hourly Appointee is not working toward degree requirements at any time during the Summer or Field sessions (i.e., May through August), REGISTRATION during the Summer or Field terms IS NOT REQUIRED. Such appointees will, however, be subject to the TIAA-CREF payroll deductions as defined below.

Summer fees are not automatically assessed for students who do not register. So, unless students proactively indicate they want fees assessed, students working on Teaching Assistant or Hourly Appointments during the summer will not have access to university-provided services (e.g., Health Center, Recreation Center, etc.).

If a Teaching Assistant or Hourly Appointee is also working toward degree requirements during the Summer or Field terms (i.e., May through August), these appointees must register as appropriate.

• Appointees completing research during the summer must register for at least one (1) credit hour of research. The registration deadline for this required research registration is the last day of registration for the FIELD TERM.


• Students completing coursework must register for the appropriate courses by the appropriate Field or Summer registration deadline. Tuition is assessed for all credits in which a student is registered at the normal Summer and Field tuition rates. Mandatory fees incurred by students completing coursework are assessed at the appropriate Field or Summer rates. Mandatory fees incurred by students completing research are assessed at the "Thesis Research" rate.


• Teaching Assistant or Hourly Appointees working toward degree during the summer by completing both research and coursework during the summer (i.e., May through August) are required to register for both research credit hours and course credit hours as defined above by the deadlines defined above. Tuition is assessed for both the required research and coursework credit hours at the normal Summer and/or Field rates. Mandatory fees incurred by students completing both research and coursework during the summer (i.e., May through August) are assessed at the "Thesis Research" rate.

Students required to register during the Summer semester are responsible for all Mandatory fees incurred during the Summer semester. These fees may, or may not be remitted as part of a Graduate Assistant Appointment. Students for whom registration is not required during the Summer semester but who are working on campus may chose to pay Mandatory Fees at the "Thesis Research" rate. Payment of these fees provides students access to campus facilities including, but not limited to the Library, Health Center, Recreation Center, etc. during the entire summer (i.e., May through August). Requests for prorating of this voluntary fee payment will not be considered.

Contracting Process

Graduate Assistant and Graduate Hourly contracts are initiated by the department or division awarding the contract. While all awardees must meet the Institution's minimum eligibility requirements, as defined above, and within a process that is consistent with the Institution's values, departments and divisions define their own process for identifying and notifying awardees.

To initiate a Graduate Assistantship or Graduate Hourly contract, departments, divisions or PIs must complete a Student Agreement form. These forms may be downloaded from the Graduate School website. This completed form represents the formal agreement entered into by CSM through the department, division or PI with the student. It should explicitly spell out the duration of the agreement, the level of compensation, the amount of tuition/fee remission and specifics regarding the services to be rendered by the appointee. This form must be signed by the student and appropriate departmental representatives.

Upon completion, originals of the Student Agreement should reside in the department or division issuing the agreement with a copy sent by campus mail to the Office of Human Resources.

Student Agreement forms must be completed for each appointee no less than once per calendar year.

To implement the financial specifics of a contract, departments, divisions or PIs must complete an Institutional Implementation Commitment and submit this to the Office of Human Resources. The Implementation Commitment is in the form of a spreadsheet that may be downloaded from the Graduate School website. The completed spreadsheet specifies how CSM is to financially implement the specific Student Agreement. This spreadsheet must be electronically signed by the appropriate departmental representatives. It does not require a student signature.

Upon completion, the spreadsheet should be emailed to the Office of Human Resources at student.contracts@is.mines.edu.

Unlike Student Agreements, Institutional Implementation Commitments must be submitted by the appointing department, division or PI each semester for each appointee.

Institutional Financial Aid

In an effort to,

• encourage Departments and Divisions to admit, and support, more academically qualified students into their graduate programs,


• stimulate the research enterprise at CSM by increasing the cost-competitiveness of research grants submitted, and


• increase the quality and diversity of the graduate student body by providing research-active faculty the ability to provide long-term support for top-quality international students,

Academic Year, Differential Tuition Fellowship Program: The Colorado School of Mines will provide Fellowship support in the amount of the difference between non-resident tuition and resident tuition for some Graduate Assistants. To be eligible for this program, awardees and assistantship contracts must meet one of the following conditions.

• All international students who are in good academic standing and are employed by the Institution through an Assistantship (TA or RA) contract at the 0.5 FTE level and whose contract pays the resident portion of the tuition.


• All first-year US resident students who are in good academic standing and are employed by the Institution through an Assistantship (TA or RA) contract at the 0.5 FTE level and whose contract pays the resident portion of the tuition. US resident students are not eligible for the Differential Tuition Fellowship Program after their first year.

Summer Term, Research Tuition Fellowship Program: The Colorado School of Mines will provide Fellowship support in the amount of three (3) credits of resident or non-resident tuition for Graduate Research Assistants employed during the summer. To be eligible for this program, awardees and assistantship contracts must meet either of the following conditions;

• graduate students appointed during the summer as Research Assistants at the 1.0 FTE level with stipend funding derived from an external source that pays overhead to the institution, or


• graduate students appointed to 0.67 FTE Calendar Year Graduate Assistant appointments, with research responsibilities during the summer semester and summer stipend funding derived from an external source that pays overhead to the institution.

State and Federal Compliance

Assistantship and hourly appointments are conditioned upon the appointee's compliance with any pertinent State and Federal, immigration, visa, lawful presence and identification rules and regulations including, but not limited to the Immigration Reform and Control Act of 1986, which requires the appointee to complete and submit an I-9 Form and provide evidence of citizenship or appropriate documentation of eligibility and permission to receive the stipend associated with graduate assistant appointments. Additionally, the appointee is required to complete and provide to CSM's HR Office a W-4 Form, indicating the number of tax withholding exemptions to which he or she is entitled, and provide all other forms and information required by CSM's HR Office prior to the commencement of his or her appointment.

These required forms MUST be submitted to the HR Office within three days of start date to ensure Federal and State compliance laws.

Federal regulations require automatic payroll deduction for retirement from all university employees. Normally, this deduction is in the form of a Social Security deduction. At CSM, however, the retirement payroll deduction is in the form of a personal TIAA-CREF retirement account contribution. The only exception to this payroll deduction requirement allowed by federal regulations is for student employees who are registered at half-time or more during the semester in which they are contracted.

During the academic year, as all Graduate Assistant and Graduate Hourly Appointees must be registered full time, TIAA-CREF payroll deductions are not withheld from student appointees. During the summer, however, TIAA-CREF payroll deductions may be withheld for some student appointees. To remain in compliance with federal regulations, CSM deducts TIAA-CREF contributions from student pay for students on TA, RA and Hourly contracts during the summer semester who are registered for less than 1.5 credit hours. Therefore, any student who qualifies for the summer registration exception defined above will have TIAA-CREF contributions deducted from their pay during the summer semester.

The TIAA-CREF deduction amount is 7.5% of your pre-tax pay. Deductions are placed in your personal TIAA-CREF account. You may request a withdrawal of your fund balance from TIAA-CREF subject to taxes and withdrawal penalties at the conclusion of the summer contracting period. For questions regarding TIAA-CREF go to the TIAA-CREF website or call 800-842-2252.

Intellectual Property

While not exclusive to students employed by CSM as Research Assistants, students working closely on sponsored research projects often are involved in the development of innovative technologies, processes and procedures for which CSM has an interest in establishing clear intellectual property rights. In this regard, all students employed by CSM, either as Graduate Assistants or Graduate Hourly Appointees, are subject to the terms and conditions of the CSM Intellectual Property Policy (Section 10.1, CSM Faculty Handbook).

Termination

Graduate Assistantship and Graduate Hourly Appointments may be terminated by either party at any time for any reason. In the event of such termination and effective on the termination date, CSM will cease all stipend payments for services not yet rendered. Any payments made hereunder prior to termination that constitute irrevocable financial aid awards (e.g., tuition, fees, and health insurance subsidies) will not be revoked, nor will the appointee be required to repay such awards.

Glossary of Terms Related to Graduate Appointments

The following is a briefly glossary of terms used on student appointment paperwork.

Stipend: Total salary received by a student appointee as compensation for services rendered to the institution. Graduate stipends are paid every two weeks during the term of the appointee's contract.

Tuition Remission: Departments, Divisions or PI's may chose to pay, as part of the appointment, the full-time tuition of the appointee. This payment is referred to as tuition remission.

Insurance Remission: Departments, Divisions or PI's may chose to pay, as part of the appointment, the mandatory health insurance of the appointee. This payment is referred to as insurance remission.

Mandatory Fee Remission: Departments, Divisions or PI's may chose to pay, as part of the appointment, the mandatory fees of the appointee. This payment is referred to as mandatory fee remission.

FTE or Full-Time-Equivalent: A measure of the work effort expected for the specific appointment. One full-time-equivalent, or 1.0 FTE, is a workload approximately equivalent to 40 hours per week. Fractions of an FTE have workload expectations in hours that are approximately fractional to this 1.0 FTE level. For example, an appointment at the level of 0.5 FTE would have an expected workload of approximately 20 hours per week.

Reduced Registration: Normally, to maintain full-time status, appointees must register for 9 credit hours per semester. Upon completion of certain requirements and submission of the appropriate paperwork, appointees may be eligible for full-time registration at a reduced number of credit hours. This is referred to as reduced registration. Please see the Graduate Bulletin for specifics on the requirements of eligibility for reduced registration.

Differential Tuition Award: Differential tuition is the difference in dollars between non-resident and resident tuition. The differential tuition award is an institutional fellowship program that provides this tuition difference as part of the graduate appointment. If a student is eligible for a differential tuition award, the difference between non-resident and resident tuition is provided by CSM and, therefore, does not have to be provided by the Department, Division or Faculty member. The differential tuition award is intended to remove any financial disincentive for researchers to provide support to non-resident graduate students.

Student Agreements: These are part of the Graduate Assistant and Graduate Hourly contracting process. These forms must be submitted to the Office of Human Resources by the appointing department, division or PI at least once per calendar year per student. This completed form represents the formal agreement entered into by CSM through the department, division or PI with the student. It includes all information related to the specifics of the appointment including duration, compensation, and services to be rendered by the students for which compensation is being received.

Institutional Implementation Commitments: These are part of the Graduate Assistant, Graduate Hourly and Fellowship awarding process. These forms must be submitted to the Office of Human Resources by the appointing department, division or PI each semester an appointment is active. These spreadsheets specify how CSM is to financially implement the student appointee agreement defined by the Student Agreement completed above.