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Teaching Assistants

The primary way in which the department helps to fund its graduate students is through employment as a Teaching Assistant (TA). Teaching Assistantships are awarded quarterly. A TA-ship carries a monthly stipend of between $867 and $1734, and involves a workload of between 10 and 20 hours per week. TAs are also eligible for fee remissions – see below for full details.


New TAs

All new TAs are required to attend the Orientation for New Teaching Assistants organized by the Teaching Resources Center. Details of how to register can be found at the TRC website. New international TAs must also pass the SPEAK Test of spoken English. This takes approximately half an hour and is held on selected dates throughout the year. More details about the SPEAK Test can be found on the TRC website, along with the full schedule of SPEAK Tests.


Requirements

To be eligible to be a TA you need to meet certain requirements. The first of these, the Orientation and SPEAK Test, are listed above. All TAs must be registered in at least 12 units; if you are not registered in 12 units, you may not be a TA. You must be in good academic standing and maintain a GPA of 3.0 or above. If you are on either PELP or Filing Fee status, please remember that you may only hold a TA position for one quarter during your academic career. Furthermore, students may only work as a TA for fifteen quarters in total. All TAs are required to complete a Graduate Student Eligibility Checklist and return it to the graduate program coordinator before their appointment can be entered.


Once you have been assigned a TA position, the graduate coordinator will provide you with a written contract that includes notification about the course you’ll be working on and the instructor you’ll be working with. As soon as you find out your instructor, it is up to you to contact them to arrange your first meeting. You and your instructor will then be required to agree upon your workload and return the following form to the graduate coordinator: Teaching Assistant Workload Worksheet.


Salary and Fee Remissions

Teaching Assistants are offered at either 25% or 50%, and are currently paid as follows:

Position

Workload

Monthly Salary

Quarterly Salary

TA, 25%

10 hours per week

$867.25

$2601.75

TA, 50%

20 hours per week

$1734.50

$5203.50

Occasionally, students are given the opportunity to work as an Associate Instructor. This means they are in charge of instruction for the course, and for supervision of Teaching Assistants. An AI works at 50% and is paid more, but has a larger responsibility. They are paid as follows:


AI, 50%

20 hours per week

$1817.35

$5452.05

TAs and AIs who work 10 hours per week or more are also eligible for remissions on their in-state fees. For 2007-08, quarterly in-state fees stand at $3217.16 for California residents and $3315.16 for non-residents. After fee remissions, students employed as Teaching Assistants are only required to pay $213.16 per quarter. TA fee remissions do not cover out-of state Non-Resident Tuition, however. For full details of fees and remissions, please see Fees and Financial Support.


Resources for Teaching Assistants

Note: To read pdfs, you may need to download Acrobat Reader.


Current Teaching Assistants

TAs hold regular office hours at the TA Office, MSB 1117. Office hours are posted outside the office, or on the individual course websites. Please check the course websites to find out the TA for that course.


We do welcome TA Applications from graduate students in other programs. If you would like to apply for a TA position within the department, please complete the TA Application Form and return it to the graduate coordinator Pete Scully (MSB 4118E). Please note that all new TAs must have completed the TA Orientation offered by the Teaching Resources Center (see http://trc.ucdavis.edu/trc/tao/index.html), and must be registered in 12 units as full-time students.

TA Supervisor: Prof. Jessica Utts
Graduate Coordinator: Pete Scully