Graduate Assistantship Agreement Procedures

The graduate assistantship agreement process is as follows:

1. Students submit applications to the units supervising the assistantships. Students may apply for more than one assistantship, but they may ultimately be awarded only one assistantship at a time.
2. The supervising unit determines whether applicants are eligible for an assistantship and meet the requirements detailed in Policy 5120.5, then offers assistantships to chosen applicants, specifying appropriate deadlines for acceptance. Wright State University is committed to abiding by the Council on Graduate Schools' (CGS') guideline that prospective students be given until April 15 to accept any assistantship offer.
3. Supervising units complete a Graduate Assistantship Agreement (via the established DocuSign process) for each student they wish to engage, then forward the document for subsequent approval via the established DocuSign approval queue. Deadlines for initiating agreements are six weeks before the start of the semester in question so all processing may be completed in time for assistants to be paid during the first regularly scheduled pay period.
4. Because the Immigration Reform and Control Act of 1986 requires all employers to verify the employment eligibility of anyone employed after November 6, 1986, all newly hired graduate assistants must visit Wright State's division of Human Resources to complete and sign an Employment Eligibility Verification Form I-9 before the first day of employment, preferably earlier; in no case may the completion date be later than the beginning date of employment. The Graduate School will not finalize assistantship agreements for any students who have not successfully filed an I-9. Once students have completed an I-9 with Human Resources, the Graduate School's Assistantship Coordinator, Gwana Snell, will contact them for an appointment to complete the assistantship agreement.
5. International students who hold F-1/J-1 visas and are seeking on-campus assistantship duties must apply for a Social Security card following these steps: 
   1. The student works with the University Center for International Education (UCIE) to complete an employment verification form. 
   2. The student submits the completed employment verification form to the Social Security Administration along with an application for a Social Security card.
   3. Students may work while the Social Security application is being processed, provided that, before beginning any assistantship duties, they have presented to the Graduate School the receipt that shows they have applied for a Social Security card. Students must present an official Social Security card to the Graduate School before the second pay period.
6. International students employed as graduate teaching assistants must also satisfy English proficiency requirements per Policy 5120.8.
7. Students will be notified via email when a) the DocuSign agreement form is ready for their signature, and b) they need to complete a required election form regarding their participation/non-participation in the Ohio Public Employees Retirement System (OPERS). Once the form is completed and the agreement is signed, tuition will be applied electronically for the designated semester.
8. The Graduate School is responsible for the following elements required to complete the agreements:
   1. Completing Internal Revenue Service (IRS) forms
   2. Forwarding a link to Ohio Public Employees Retirement System (OPERS) forms for the applicant to complete
   3. Verifying that the applicant is orally proficient in English.
   4. Applying tuition remission
   5. Recording the appropriate information into the Banner HR/Payroll system
9. The Graduate School reviews the assistantship agreements and corrects minor typographical, grammatical, or other non-substantive errors. All alterations will be referred to each previous signatory in the DocuSign queue for approval (by initials). 

Minimum Stipends for Graduate Assistants: 

• For the State of Ohio Minimum Wage, please visit https://www.wright.edu/human-resources/student-employment/hiring-process....
• For a graduate research assistant supported via cost-sharing with external grants, please contact Research and Sponsored Programs for details.
• Higher stipends are subject to the terms of Policy 5120.3.