L&S Student Assistant Appointment Letters

This KB provides important information about appointment letters for Student Assistants (also called Graduate Assistants) at the College of Letters and Science, with links to frequently used documents and policies. For questions, please reach out to your L&S HR contact. For campus policies related to graduate assistants, please visit Graduate Assistant Policies and Procedures (GAPP) at https://policy.wisc.edu/library/UW-5082

Instructions for Appointment Letters

Student Assistant appointment letters do not need to be reviewed or approved by L&S HR 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.

Additionally, per GAPP, these are guidelines for notifying TAs of their tentative course assignment.

  • Departments must notify TAs of their tentative course assignment, if known, no later than August 1 for fall semester courses; and December 1 for spring semester courses. This is an additional requirement, above and beyond the requirement to provide a formal appointment letter as notified in the previous section.

Appointment Letter Templates (collapsible panel)

Fellows SA002/Trainees SA013

Project Assistant Grader/Reader

Lecturer(LSA) SA004

Project Assistant (PA) SA006

Project Assistants may be exempt or nonexempt from the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA).  

  • Most Project Assistants are non-exempt. During the academic year they are non-exempt unless there is a concurrent exempt appointment, (i.e. TA or LSA). The exempt status dictates what rate to use in JEMS HIRE or JEMS Change, and in the appointment letter. Non-exempt PA appointments must complete and submit time sheets to the supervisor for payment.
    • If the appointment is non-exempt, use the converted hourly rate.
    • If the appointment is exempt, use the salaried rate.
    • See rates:  https://kb.wisc.edu/ls/28638

Research Assistant (RA) SA009

Teaching Assistant (TA)

  • Graduate Teaching Assistant (TA) SA011 
    • Teaching Assistant Appointment Letter Template revised 4/2025
    • Elimination of Teaching Assistant Senior distinction:
      • L&S eliminated the Senior/Standard distinction for Teaching Assistants. 
      • JEMS still requires selecting senior or standard, enter hires as “standard”.

Information for Appointment Letters

Semester Instructional Dates 

2025-26

  • Fall 2025
    • Payroll Start Date: August 18, 2025
    • Payroll End Date: December 31, 2025
  • Spring 2025
    • Payroll Start Date: January 1, 2026
    • Payroll End Date: May 17, 2026

2024-25

  • Fall 2024
    • Payroll Start Date: August 19, 2024
    • Payroll End Date: January 1, 2025
  • Spring 2025
    • Payroll Start Date: January 2, 2025
    • Payroll End Date: May 18, 2025

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

Additional Documentation

The different student assistant appointments require additional documentation be sent to the departments L&S HR contact.

Student Assistant (PA, TA, RA, PA-G/R)

To request a student assistant hire (PA, TA, RA, PA-G/R), departments must provide the following documentation to their L&S HR contact:

  • Hire request in JEMS-HIRE (only needed for decentralized and centralized+ departments)
  • Hire request form (only needed for centralized departments)

Fellow/Trainee

To request a fellow/trainee hire, departments must provide the following documentation to their L&S HR contact:

  • Draft appointment letter
  • Completed Non-Service Job Aid Form
    • Note: For AOF, there is a special pre-filled form
  • Hire request in JEMS-HIRE (only needed for decentralized and centralized+ departments)
  • Hire request form (only needed for centralized departments)
  • Beginning Fall 2022, some Fellow/Trainee appointments may result in an over payment that needs to be adjusted. If an over payment needs to be made, please send a completed Fellow/Trainee Adjustments Calculator to your L&S HR contact.

Please include with all L&S Student Assistant Appointment Letters the Offer Letter Attachment. 

Relevant UW Madison Policies

See Also


Keywords:
TA, PA, appointment letter, graduate student employment, graduate student employment ls, Project Assistant, Program Assistant, Teaching Assistant, template letters, template, letters, student assistant, SA, SA letter, SA letter template, RA, Research Assistant, grader/reader, grader, reader, undergrad, undergraduate, grad student, templates, max, max level, max level appointment, semester dates and
Doc ID:
22288
Owned by:
Nicholas F. in L&S KB
Created:
2012-01-18
Updated:
2025-05-05
Sites:
L&S KB
Clean URL:
https://kb.wisc.edu/ls-teaching-assistant-and-project-assistant-appointment-letter-templates