Teaching Assistants.

Teaching assistants (TAs) play an essential role in our educational mission. The administrative details related to the administration of TAs at SPH are summarized below.

Allocation

  • The School supports a 0.5 FTE TA for every 10 students enrolled (e.g., 10-19 students enrolled = 0.5 FTE TA; 20-29 students enrolled = 1.0 FTE TA, 30-39 students enrolled = 1.5 FTE TA, etc.)
  • For courses with 70 or more students enrolled, 4 TAs will be supported. For courses with 90 or more students enrolled, 5 TAs will be supported.

Timeline

  • School-supported TAs are automatically allocated for fall semester courses based on enrollments as of August 1, for spring semester courses based on enrollments as of December 1, and for summer semester courses based on enrollments as of April 1.
  • If enrollments change, TA allocations are adjusted accordingly, with final allocations set no later than 10 days before the start of classes for that semester to allow adequate time for processing.

Processing

  • TA hires are processed departmentally. The faculty instructor’s primary appointment determines which department will process their TA hire; for courses taught by ETPs, the department engaging the ETP shall process the corresponding TA hire.
  • All TAs must be screened for eligibility prior to hire. The TA Payment Request Form must be completed for each TA. In some departments, forms are completed by Academic Program Administrators (APAs), and in others, faculty complete the forms. The online form captures information about the course, the instructor, whether the TA will be supported by discretionary funds, if the TA is a current student or an alum, and if the TA is an international student.
  • Once the TA Payment Request Form has been submitted, requests will be reviewed by Education, Graduate Student Life, and the Registrar. TA approval will be indicated on the shared TA request tracking spreadsheet. Academic departments are responsible for monitoring the tracking spreadsheet for approval updates; Education will not notify departments of individual approvals.
  • Once a TA request is approved, the department shall proceed with hiring the TA. Current BU students are hired as TAs through Student Employment, alumni and unaffiliated individuals are hired as temporary employees, and BU staff are paid via overbase.
  • Directors of Administration work closely with respective APAs, faculty and the Education office and subsequently, create Teaching Assistant (TA) positions in JobX. Once the student TA job has been created, DAs then may proceed with hiring students into this position. Detailed instructions on transactional aspects of hiring students as TAs in the system are available to all Directors of Administration on the SPH Directors Group Teams Channel.

Student Restrictions per University Policy

  • All graduate students, either by registration or by certification, may not work more than 20 hours per week at Boston University (including research assistantships) during any academic period.
  • Further, international students on a student visa are limited by federal regulations to no more than 20 hours of on-campus service per week, which includes graduate teaching fellow and research assistant appointments and any additional on-campus employment. This means that international students on a full teaching fellowship or full research appointment (20 hours/week during any semester) are not eligible for additional on-campus work, even if the University employment policy would otherwise allow it.
  • International students who are working as Resident Assistants may not work as a TA. Additionally, international students must comply with all policies and visa requirements as outlined on the ISSO website.

Staff Restrictions

In cases where staff are considered for TA positions, approvals by both the Associate Dean for Education and the Associate Dean for Administration and Finance are required. Certain staff members of the BU community may qualify to serve as TAs, provided that serving in this role will not conflict with their core duties as a staff member. The following conditions apply:

  • Full-time staff who are also part-time students are not eligible to serve as TAs.
  • The maximum service that any staff member can serve as TA for is one course (4 credits) per calendar year. Overbase payment applies to any staff engagement as TA. (Note that only exempt level staff are eligible to be engaged as TAs.)
  • For centrally funded staff positions, time allocated toward TA duties cannot occur within an employee’s regularly scheduled work hours for their staff position. De-minimis use of email during regular work hours toward TA duties is at the discretion of the staff member’s manager as long as it remains just that – minimal in nature – and does not conflict with the duties and responsibilities of the staff member’s full-time position.
  • Research staff funded from sponsored programs must comply with the University’s effort reporting requirements, and PIs must ensure that effort is reported accurately. It is the PI who determines whether serving in a TA role would interfere with an employee’s core duties as a staff member. Therefore, the staff member may serve as a TA if they receive written PI permission to engage in such duties, whereby the PI attests that they will ensure that research staff devote the reported effort to sponsored projects. There should not be a need for staff grant effort reduction unless the PI provides alternative guidance.
  • Unless there is documented Provost approval, no full-time staff may serve as instructor or co-instructor for any course.

In instances involving requests to engage a staff employee as a TA, applications must be submitted at least one month prior to the timelines outlined above to allow time to secure necessary approvals.