Dear Colleagues,

In April, HR and the Graduate School provided guidance on issuing summer GA appointments. In the April 22nd guidance, HR required that departments provide confirmation of critical research, telecommuting, or available funding in case the work could not be performed by the GA.

Effective immediately, HR is no longer requiring such confirmation and will approve all pending requests in its queue over the next few days. Departments, however, remain responsible for funding summer GA appointments after the offer is accepted and in the case that the GA is unable to perform the work on campus or remotely. Departments should remain cognizant of this before issuing offers.

Additionally, if departments are not confident that funding for fall or 2020/2021 academic year appointments will be available for the appointment term, please know that the June 15th deadline may be relaxed this year due to the current health situation.

Please direct questions to hr-communications@uconn.edu.

Thank you,

Christopher Delello, Chief Human Resources Officer
Kent Holsinger, Vice Provost and Dean of the Graduate School

__________________________________________________

From: HR – Communications
Sent: Tuesday, April 7, 2020
Subject: Guidance on Issuing GA Appointments

Dear Colleagues,

We write with guidance on the issuing of fall and summer Graduate Assistant appointments.

Fall

As you are aware, the GEU-UAW Contract requires the University to notify incoming students by April 1^st and continuing students by June 15^th of their fall or academic year Graduate Assistant appointments. Once accepted, the University is obligated to fulfill the terms of the appointment, regardless of whether the current pandemic will still be affecting University operations and the ability of Graduate Assistants to perform their duties.

Although the April 1^st deadline has passed, the June 15^th deadline has not. Therefore, we recommend that departments use caution in making GA offers that would become effective next fall. This recommendation is especially applicable for appointments where the duties of a Graduate Assistant prevents them from working remotely, such as some Research Assistants. In most instances, Teaching Assistants would be able to teach remotely in the fall. If the June 15^th deadline is approaching and you are uncertain whether a returning GA will be able to work remotely, please contact Labor Relations. As always, we recommend that departments communicate with potential GAs to help them understand the status of a potential reappointment.

Summer

Additionally, the GEU-UAW Contract requires the University to notify students of appointments at least 14 days prior to the beginning of the work assignment for summer appointments, and likewise, the University is also obligated to fulfill the terms of these appointments. Therefore, the University recommends that departments refrain from notifying students of graduate assistant appointment letters related to research for the summer, unless departments and faculty are certain that work can be performed via telecommuting. Human Resources will not process approvals for Summer GA Research appointments in PageUp, unless departments contact us confirming that telecommuting will be possible.

We will share more information as the situation develops. Please direct any questions or concerns to hr-communications@uconn.edu.

Sincerely,

Christopher Delello, Chief Human Resources Officer

Kent Holsinger, Vice Provost and Dean of the Graduate School