Research Assistantships
Scholar Assistant Assignment
Worklog
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Research Assistantships are competitive awards, requiring 20 hours of work per week. These differ from Teaching Assistantships because RAs do not yet have 18 hours of graduate work in their field, which means that they cannot teach classes on their own as instructors of record. (This is a rule of our accrediting agency and of the state.) However, like TAs, RAs are not grants or fellowships: students who receive RAs are assigned various sorts of work, described below, and must fulfill their assigned duties in order to retain their RA award.
RA assignments are intended to give students useful experience in several types of professional work, while supporting faculty and staff as part of the department's infrastructure.
Instructional Assistant
This type of assignment is parallel to a Teaching Internship, in which a student assists a professor in a lower-division (100 or 200 level) class, working under the supervision and mentorship of that professor. The purposes of these assignments are to give students an opportunity to gain some teaching experience under close supervision, while providing professors with support, usually in large course sections.
In a very few cases, at the discretion of the Graduate Director in consultation with the MFA Program Director, an IA may be assigned to a 300-level course. Under no circumstances may an IA be assigned to a 400-level or above course.
There are three differences between Instructional Assistants and Teaching Interns:
> IAs perform their work as part of their employment under a Research Assistantship, while Teaching Interns receive credit, but no pay, for their work.
> IAs may receive their assignment during their first semester of coursework, while Teaching Interns ordinarily must have at least 12 hours of graduate coursework.
> Anytime that an IA actually teaches a class, a faculty member must be present to directly supervise the teaching process. A Teaching Intern may teach one class unsupervised if the mentoring professor is ill, absent, etc.
The number of IA assignments is different each semester. Ordinarily an IA accounts for 10 hours per week of the student's Research Assistantship obligation.
IAs are responsible for class preparation and attendance, and, as directed by their mentoring professor, for grading, student conferences, teaching, and other instructional duties. Where possible IAs should consult with the faculty member in the planning stages of the course and syllabus. It is normally expected that the IA will teach one “unit” of a course (e.g. a text, an author, a section of a topic); in a literature course, for example, this might amount to about two or three weeks, while in a writing course it might amount to the preparation and revision of one paper or story.
The IA and the mentoring professor are collectively responsible for planning and tracking the IA's work to be sure it does not exceed an average of 10 hours per week. Since workloads tend to fluctuate over the duration of a course, the mentoring professor should be in contact with the IA's other supervisor(s) so that work loads can be adjusted to maintain this average.
Technical Assistant
This assignment is designed to help the student acquire and/or improve webpage design and other technical skills, while supporting departmental webpages and assisting faculty in various technical areas. While experience in these areas is desirable, it is not necessary: students with interest but little or no experience may be assigned to these positions.
While the number of positions may differ from year to year, we currently expect one 20 hour per week assignment, plus a second assignment that would begin at 10 hours per week and might be expanded to 20, depending on demand. These hours would include attendance at university training workshops, as decided by the various program directors.
The first, full-time (20 hour) Technical Assistant will provide web support for the Composition, Graduate Studies, MFA, and English Education programs, and will work under the supervision of those program directors (who should consult with each other before one of them signs the student's worklog). This position may also provide faculty support, if there is time remaining in the 20 hours.
The second Technical Assistant's primary responsibility will be to assist faculty with web page design and maintenance, and with other specialized web-based tasks. This type of faculty support does not include more routine tasks, such as web-based research, printing, etc., though it might include instruction in these routine tasks for faculty who need such instruction. This assignment might also include support for the first Technical Assistant if needed. The second Technical Assistant works under the direction of the Administrative Support Associate (ASA) in Reception, who will coordinate faculty requests for assistance, and is supervised by the MFA Program Director.
Scholar Assistant
Some students are assigned to assist professors in their scholarly research. Their duties may include bibliographical research, preparing briefs of articles and books, proofreading, collecting materials from the library, and various clerical tasks.
These assignments may vary in size, though we try not to break up a student's assignment into too many small pieces. The MFA Program Director receives faculty requests and, in consultation with the department head, sets individual student assignments.
At the beginning of each semester, the professor and the Scholar Assistant should draw up a formal statement of mutual expectations, including a brief description of the professor's research project and the student's anticipated responsibilities. The professor serves as supervisor for that portion of the student's workload and will sign off on the student's worklog.
Office Assistant
One or two students per semester may be assigned to provide support for the Administrative Support Associate (ASA) in Reception, averaging 10 hours per week. Their duties may include xeroxing, office coverage during the ASAs lunch or other absences, stocking supplies, filing papers, and other clerical and reception duties.. The MFA Program Director is the students' supervisor, but the students normally work under the direction of the ASA, and their worklogs will be signed by the ASA as well as the MFA Director.
Worklogs
Keeping accurate worklogs and submitting them on time is an essential feature of the RA assignments. The logs protect students from being overworked, and also testify to students' fulfillment of their duties.
All students who have been awarded an RA must keep worklogs that record hours spent in each of their assignments during each month of their employment, signing each worklog to verify that they have prepared it themselves (click here for log template). Since there are ordinarily at least two supervisors, a separate worklog should be kept for each assignment, with each supervisor signing off on the appropriate worklog.
Worklogs are due at the end of the month, and should be turned in to the ASA in reception no later than the 5th of the following month. The ASA will give the logs to the MFA Director no later than the next business day (allowing for weekends etc.).
Your Future
For some students, the Research Assistantship is their first professional position; for others, it may be the first position held in connection with their MFA degree. Besides providing opportunities to learn professional skills (and earn a salary), the RA provides the opportunity to build a professional work record. The professors and staffers who work with you will be in a position to provide recommendations as you apply for positions later on—and whether you ask them to recommend you or not, they will be obvious sources of information for employers who want to know about your abilities. We hope to support you with fair, professional treatment, and we expect responsible, professional performance from you.