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Academic Administration

Department Guidelines for Graduate Students


Hire a New Graduate Assistant 

Rehire a Graduate Assistant

Department Guidelines to Hire a New Graduate Assistant

 Step 1:  Identify your Graduate Assistant

  1. Graduate Assistant candidates are identified during the admission process through SLATE. The GA must be an admitted student to continue to Step 2.
  2. If you need to post an advertisement for a Graduate Assistantship, please use your department’s Handshake account to post the position.

Step 2:  Offer Letter

  1. Offer letters can be completed through the PDF offer letter template. If you need access to the template, please contact gradassist@utoledo.edu to request access.

  2. Two offer letter templates are available for either a Tuition Scholarship or a Graduate Assistantship which may be further identified as a Teaching Assistant or Research Assistant as options in the letter template.

  3. Offer letters should be saved with the academic year, type of letter, the student’s full name, and rocket number in the document title.

Example:    24-25_GA Offer Letter_John_Smith_R01234567

  1. Once the department completes the offer letter it should be placed in the college’s offer letter folder on the share drive, and it will go through the signing process.
    • 1st signer: The college/departments signing authority will sign the letter and place it in the college folder on the Share drive
    • 2nd signer: The Acting Vice Provost for Graduate Affairs will then sign the letter and return it to the college’s Academic Year subfolderr on the Share drive for the final signature.
    • 3rd signer: The department will send the offer letter to the student for the final signature. Students must return a fully signed offer letter to the college. These fully signed offer letters must be uploaded to the college’s Student Signed offer letter subfolder  in the Share drive.

Please note: Failure to capture all three signatures will result in delays to the process in Step 6 when the ePAF is reviewed.

Step 3:  Welcome Email and Links to New Hire Forms – New for Fall 2024

  1. Now that your student(s) has signed their offer letter and accepted their assistantship you will want to share next steps! The Welcome Email template will help guide new graduate assistants through the hiring process.

STEP 4:  Background Checks – NEW Process for Fall 2024

  1. Departments will initiate background checks for domestic and international students. Please refer to ‘Department Guidelines for Completing GA Background Checks’ for detailed instructions to complete the background check process and initiate an invite to send to your new GA.

Step 5:  New Hire Paperwork

  1. Completing the I-9
    1. An I-9 is required for all new hires.

Domestic Students

      1. Send the students name and email address to your departments designated I-9 originator.
      2. The originator will send the student an invitation linkthroughIntellicorppp to complete Section 1 of the I-9.
      3. After the student completes and submits section 1, the originator will contact the GA to schedule an in-person appointment where the student will bring in their original forms of identification to complete section 2. Once section 2 is completed and the documents are uploaded, the I-9 will be submitted, and this process is complete.

International Students

      1. International students will need to complete an I-9 Application e-form on the iRockettt Portal and let the Office of International Student Support Services (OISSS) know that they will need to apply for a Social Security Number within the application. Students will be prompted to schedule an I-9 appointment after completing the e-form in which OISSS will review the documents and provide further instructions.  Students should go to iRocket Portal to complete these steps.
      2. The I-9 application will require students to upload an employment verification letter.  Here is a link to the Employment Verification Letter Template. Your international students may request a letter from you.
      3. Students may schedule an appointment to complete Section 2 of the I-9 by contacting the Office of International Student & Scholar Services at 419-530-4229.

Please note: Per Federal regulations an I-9 must be completed no more than 3 days after an employee’s hire date. ePAFs will not be approved if an I-9 has not been completed and will be returned for correction if the start date is incorrect or non-compliant.

  1. Completing the new hire forms

The following new hire forms are required to be completed:

    1. All Graduate Assistants:
      1. GA Ethical Conduct Statement
      2. GA Fraud Form

b. Graduate Assistants on the Health Science Campus (only)

      1. GA Impaired Licensed Independent Practitioners
      2. GA Invention Reporting and Assignment Agreement

Please note: If the student has not completed all of these required documents before the ePAF is submitted for approval a note will be added by the Graduate Employment Office to the comments section in the ePAF noting the forms that are missing.

Step 6:  Completing the ePAF

  1. The final step is to create your ePAF and submit it for approval. 
    1. If the Graduate Employment Office receives an ePAF with any of the previous steps not completed a note will be placed in the comments section of the ePAF. ePAF originators should check for comments if their ePAF is not approved.

If after 14 days, the issue is not resolved the ePAF will be returned to the originator for correction.

b.ePAFs are approved if the new hire GA has the following:

      1. A fully signed Offer Letter uploaded to the share drive folder
      2. Dates, semesters, credit hours, and stipend amounts in ePAF match the signed offer letter
      3. Submitted a background check
      4. Completed the I-9
      5. Completed all new hire forms required by campus hiring location
      6. GA is currently registered for classes. College should monitor student enrollment for future semesters.

2. As the ePAF creator you are also able to look in your ePAF Originator Summary and see where the GA is at in the process. 

  1. Once the ePAF is approved the originator will receive a system generated message the GA has been cleared to begin working.
    1. The student will see their employee tab is available and they will have access to complete their payroll forms.

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Department Guidelines to Rehire a Graduate Assistant

Step 1: Complete offer letter process and confirm student stipend and credit hours per the department.

Step 2:Complete ePAF

  1. ePAFs are approved for returning GAs if the following is completed:
    1. Fully signed offer letter in the college’s share drive folder
      *Please refer to new hire section, step two to complete process of offer letter
    2. Dates, semesters, credit hours, and stipend amountsin ePAF match the signed offer letter
    3. Student is currently registered for classes.
      *Colleges should monitor and ensure student enrollment for future semesters noted in offer letter
    4. Student is maintaining a 3.0 GPA or higher
    5. Student is working no more than .5FTE

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Last Updated: 1/29/25