L&S Student Assistant Appointment Letters

**Letters were revised 4/1/2022 to remove the COVID-19 language and attachment; if you’ve already sent out your letters with the old language, there’s no need to revise and resend them**

Instructions for Appointment Letters

Student Assistant appointment letters do not need to be reviewed or approved by your STS/SA HR Business Partner unless they differ in a material way from the template. Small modifications in tone and small additions to the language do not require review/approval unless they contradict the terms of the appointment letter. 

Best practice is to download and use a new template appointment letter from the links below with each hire or group of hires, since appointment letters are revised periodically throughout the year.  At a minimum, departments should download new template appointment letters just prior to each new semester’s hiring.   

Per GAPP, these are guidelines for appointment letters for all student assistants:

• The employing department is required to send a copy of the appointment letter to the student’s department of graduate study, if different from the employing unit. 
• The department is required to provide the appointment letter to the student before the start of employment.
  • If some appointment information is not yet available by then, the department must still provide a formal appointment letter with the most accurate tentative information available. The department should note which information is tentative. When information can be confirmed, the department should provide a follow-up email to the student as soon as possible, but the department is not required to send a revised or updated appointment letter.
  • Note- TAs only:  Per GAPP, departments must notify TAs of their tentative course assignment, if known, no later than the following:
    • August 1 for fall semester courses; and 
    • December 1 for spring semester courses
  • Notification to TAs can be via email and does not require a formal appointment letter.  

Appointment Letter Templates

Fellow/Trainee

• L&S Student Assistant Fellow/Trainee Appointments

Grader/Reader

• Project Assistant Grader/Reader
  • Use for graduate students
  • Project Assistant Grader/Reader Appointment Letter Template, revised 4/1/2022
• Undergraduate Assistant – Grader/Reader
  • Use for undergraduate students
  • Use of this position and title requires special approval; see L&S Student Assistants - Grader/Readers KB for more information. 
  • Undergraduate Assistant Grader/Reader Appointment Letter Template, revised 4/1/2022

Lecturer(SA)

• L&S Short-Term Staff Appointment Letters

Project Assistant (PA)

Project Assistants may be exempt or nonexempt from the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA).  Most PA’s are nonexempt from FLSA.

• Letter Templates:
  • PA Non-Exempt Appointment Letter Template, revised 4/1/2022
  • PA Exempt Appointment Letter Template, revised 4/1/2022
    • Before appointing an exempt PA, send the appointment details (UDDS, title, dates, FTE, etc.), along with a draft of the exempt PA letter, to your STS/SA HR Business Partner.
  • PA Hourly (H-Basis), revised 4/1/2022  
    • Use of this title requires special approval by HR Associate Director Laura Fisk. Contact Laura Fisk to request approval.

Research Assistant (RA)

• Use template found on the OHR Recruitment Toolkit

Teaching Assistant (TA)

• Graduate Assistant as a TA 
  • Summer 2022 Teaching Assistant Appointment Letter Template, revised 4/1/2022
  • Teaching Assistant Appointment Letter Template, revised 4/1/2022
  • Phasing out Teaching Assistant Senior distinction:
    • L&S eliminated the Senior/Standard distinction for Teaching Assistants. 
    • TA appointment letters should continue to identify the title as “Teaching Assistant – Standard or Teaching Assistant - Senior” as appropriate  
    • For non-payroll purposes, feel free to use  other terms to identify a hierarchy (e.g., eligibility for awards or other recognition, or to become a head TA, etc.)
    • For payroll purposes, JEMS still requires selecting senior or standard, so continue to identify as “senior” any TAs who were payrolled as senior as of Spring 2018. Enter any others as “standard”.
• Undergraduate Assistant as a TA 
  • Undergraduate Assistant Teaching Assistant Appointment Letter Template, revised 4/1/2022
    • Use of this position and title requires special approval; see L&S Student Assistants - Undergraduate Assistants KB for more information.

Undergraduate Assistant

• These positions require special approval.
  • Undergraduate Assistant–TA – see “Teaching Assistant” above
  • Undergraduate Assistant-Grader/Reader – see “Grader/Reader” above  

Information for Appointment Letters 

Semester Instructional Dates 

2022-23

• Fall 2022:
  • Payroll Start Date: August 22, 2022
  • Payroll End Date: January 4, 2023
• Spring 2023:
  • Payroll Start Date: January 5, 2023 
  • Payroll End Date: May 21, 2023
• Summer 2023: Coming soon to Summer Course Guidance in L&S

Calculating Gross Salary & Biweekly Salary 

Use the “Funding Layout Assistance Tool” (FLOAT), available on OHR Payroll Toolkit, to calculate the semester gross and biweekly salaries.

Alternatively, calculate the biweekly salary manually using the following formula:

• Comp rate divided by the number of biweekly pay periods in an academic or calendar year (19.5 for C-basis, 26 for A-basis) multiplied by the appointment FTE.
• Example #1:  33.4% Lecturer (SA) with a C-basis comp rate of $45,000:
  • ($ 45,000 / 19.5)  * 0.334  =   $ 770.77
• Example #2:  50% Research Assistant with an A-basis comp rate of $60,000:
  • ($ 60,000 / 26) * 0.500 = $1,153.85

Maximum Level Appointment Information: 

When are students limited in when they can work? Students are limited in the number of hours per week that they can work during any week in which classes are in session. Domestic Students are limited to 75%-time (30 hours per week) and foreign national students are limited to 50%-time (20 hours per week) during the following periods: 

2020-21:

• Sunday, August 30, 2020 through Saturday, December 12, 2020
• Sunday, January 24, 2021 through Saturday, May 1, 2021 

Additional information regarding limitations to appointments is found in these Graduate School policies: 

• University of Wisconsin–Madison Maximum Levels of Graduate Assistantship Appointments Policy 
• University of Wisconsin–Madison Policy for Supplementation and Concurrent Appointments for Graduate Students Holding Predoctoral Fellowships or Traineeships

See Also:

• L&S Student Assistant - Grader/Reader
• L&S Student Assistants - Undergraduate Assistant
• L&S Performance Evaluations for TAs, PAs, and UAs
• Lecturer (SA) appointments in L&S: Selection, Hiring & Supervision
• L&S Standard Rates for Short-term Staff and Student Assistants
• L&S Student Assistant Leave