April 8, 2005
TO: Deans, Directors, and Chairpersons
Graduate Secretaries/Administrators
FROM: Robert Banks, Associate Provost and Associate Vice President for Academic Human Resources
Karen Klomparens, Dean of the Graduate School
SUBJECT: Early Approval of Graduate Assistantship Appointments and Announcement of Process Training
Over the course of the past year, campus units representing academic departments and Colleges, the Office of Planning and Budgets, Payroll, the Office of the Registrar, Academic Human Resources (AHR), the Graduate School, and Administrative Information Services worked together to improve the graduate assistantship (GA) appointment process and systems. Between now and the end of May we intend to roll out a number of initiatives we believe you will find helpful. This memo highlights the improvements. Additionally, attached is a schedule of training/information sessions that will present the improvements in detail.
· Approval Process – Effective Immediately
o AHR is now able to enter an “Early Approval” status (status code “E”) in the graduate appointment system for future appointments (Fall 2005 and beyond) that are approved.
The graduate assistant (GA) appointment with Early Approval will not appear in the Budget system until after the budget year roll-over in E02, (usually mid-July). But otherwise, the “E” status will work exactly like the “M” status. The unit can amend the “E” status in exactly the same way as amending the “M” status, etc.
o Units are now also able to link a teaching assistant (TA) to a course in CLIFMS, as soon as the GA form is initiated. This triggers the appearance of the TA in the Registrar’s Office Schedule of Courses.
o Approved TA’s (including “Early Approval” TA’s) are able to obtain access to class lists and course material in ANGEL (provided the unit has also linked a faculty member to the course in CLIFMS).
o The policy for required approval signatures has been relaxed. ONLY the Appointing Unit’s signature is required (Department Chair or School/Unit Director) unless a college signature is required by the Dean. Deans’ offices have the responsibility of informing departments/schools of the requirement for College signoff. If multiple units are involved (e.g., multiple accounts), one signature for each is required.
· Enhancements to the GA Appointment Form System (E03) – Coming in May
o At the time of initiating the appointment form in the GA system, data entry staff will now be presented with various pieces of data from the Student Information System. In this way, forms may be correctly completed prior to their printing. This will decrease the number of forms that are sent back to units for error correction. This should save days of critical processing time.
· New Web Page – Coming in April
o A new web page is being established as a central navigational tool for all materials concerning GA issues. On this page you will find news relevant to GA processing, important links to policy, procedural and GEU/MSU collective bargaining agreement documents, and date driven reminders for critical deadlines. The URL for this page will be announced in upcoming weeks.
· Training – Beginning the week of May 16, 2005
o To further acquaint you and your unit with these changes we would strongly encourage you attend one of the “process overview and training” sessions currently being planned. These sessions will be held May 16 -20 according to the schedule in the attached document. You may attend the session specifically designed for your college, or any other session that works into your schedule. Each session is designed to last no more than an hour. The first part of the session will provide a fairly high level overview of the process, and the second part will provide detailed “data entry” information. The process overview is designed for anyone involved in the GA process at any level; the detailed part of the session is more suited to those actually processing appointment forms.
If you have any questions regarding the process improvements, system changes or training sessions please contact Ms. Angela Hunt, Academic Human Resources at 353-8978. We look forward to seeing you at the training sessions in May.