FAQs for Graduate Assistants

Tuition waivers only process after you have an active employment record, you are correctly registered and the drop/add period is over. The balance remaining after your waiver has processed will be the student fees you are responsible for paying.

If you receive financial aid and it disburses before the waivers run, the financial aid disbursement will be reduced by the tuition costs. Once the waivers run, you should get a refund from financial aid for the amount of the tuition costs. Only you can track your financial aid and refunds.

Please consult your letter of appointment or the required minimum registration requirements and how many credits your waiver will cover.

Within the first 30 days of your employment, you will be contacted by the GatorGradCare team to enroll. You are not able to enroll before your job record is active. For instructions on how to start the insurance waiver to remove the insurance hold, please see https://healthcompliance.shcc.ufl.edu/health-insurance-requirement/gatorgradcare/how-to-waive-with-gatorgradcare/. Information on the GatorGradCare coverage is available at https://benefits.hr.ufl.edu/health/gatorgradcare/.

Please see the graduate assistant office list for your assigned office room. The office list can be found outside of Kim Holloway’s office (2018 Weimer) and in the second floor mailroom (next to the Dean’s Suite) and will be emailed before the semester starts. Except for G035, there should be one person per desk and desks are assigned first come first serve. If your office has a swipe card reader, your GatorOne ID card will be your key. If your office is a keyed lock, please see the Dean’s Suite receptionist to check out a key. Most desks do lock. If there is not a key left in the top drawer, please let Kim Holloway know the lock number (lock number is by the left knee when sitting at the desk) and we will get a key for you. Unfortunately we do not have a general area or offices for all graduate students. When you are working in the offices, please do not save anything to the hard drive. IT reserves the right to reformat or exchange computers and drives at any time.

Each graduate assistant has a 500-page printing allowance renewed each semester they are on assistantship. For offices in the basement, the printer is in Room G035 (your ID card will get you in but there is a 30-second delay on the door). Your authorization code to print is your UFID number (eight-digit number), not the Gatorlink ID. Please ask Kim Holloway for the instructions on how to set up your MAC to print. If your office is on the second floor, please email Kim Holloway (klhollow@ufl.edu) to arrange an appointment to have the printing set up.

If you are assisting with a class, please print one copy of the material using your print allowance then use the departmental copy codes (ADV, JOU, TEL, PUR) to make the copies to hand out to students.

After you have rebooted the computer, please email klhollow@ufl.edu or jhedge@jou.ufl.edu, explaining the problem and list three times you will be in your office so a TAG staff member will know when to stop by. (TAG is the Technology Advancement Group in our college and they handle IT support.)

Please submit an accommodation letter from the Disability Resource Center indicating eligibility for a reduced course load and we will submit a petition to the Graduate School.

Your GatorOne ID card will give resident graduate students access to the building after hours. To swipe the card, please hold it in your right hand with the thumb covering the picture. Swipe is slowly and firmly all the way through the slot. If you are a new student, the card may not be active the first two weeks of school. If you are having problems with access, please see Sarah Johnson or Kim Holloway.

Yes. On the second floor mailroom (next to the Dean’s Suite), each resident graduate student has a mailbox. This is where any postal mail, instructor text book copies, letters of appointment, etc. will be sent to you. Please check it frequently. Ph.D. boxes are at the far left set and MA boxes are on the right as you walk into the room.

Yes, you must use your UFL.EDU email for all UF business. As a student, all official announcements, including funding opportunities, deadlines, graduation information, etc. will be sent to your UFL.EDU email address. As a graduate assistant, communications with faculty and students should be routed thorough the UFL.EDU email. Please note the University of Florida does fall under the Florida Sunshine Law regarding public access to records.

Contact the Division of Graduate Studies before doing anything. You will be financially responsible for any registration changes made after the drop/add period ends. If your registration goes below the required minimum registration for your assistantship, you will be responsible for the full tuition and fees for all credits that semester and will lose your assistantship.

If the drop request is due to an extraordinary medical situation, please ask about the medical petition process. We don’t need to know the circumstances but we do need to know you are dropping credits, and we will work to help you find the best solution.

Graduate assistants who are U.S. citizens or permanent residents and are not Florida residents are requested to file for a change to Florida residency as soon as they are eligible. After living in Florida for 12 months, you can apply for the Residency Reclassification for tuition purposes. The petition requires proof of when you moved to Florida (e.g. lease start date, utilities turn on, close date of home purchase) to start the 12-month clock. Proof that you cut ties with other states is also required (e.g., Florida driver license, car registration, voter registration). More information can be found at https://registrar.ufl.edu/services/residencychange. Students on a visa are not eligible to apply for Florida residency.

Congratulations on the acceptance and, yes, limited travel funds are available through CJC and other areas of campus. Please see www.jou.ufl.edu/graduate/research-and-theory/graduate-travel-grants/ for information on CJC travel funds. Other funding sources may be found at http://graduateschool.ufl.edu/prospective-students/funding/travel/. In all cases, applications must be submitted before the travel and UF travel policies must be followed.

FTE stands for Full Time Equivalent. 1.0 FTE is full time or 40 hours per week; .50 FTE is half time or 20 hours per week.

CJC policy is that graduate students are not allowed to work more than a combined 20 hours per week (.50 FTE) for all jobs on campus. Any work beyond the 20 hours would have to be petitioned and approved by the Graduate Committee and/or Associate Dean for Graduate Studies in advance. This includes positions inside CJC. For those students on a Graduate School Preeminence Award, any additional work would need to be approved in advance by the Graduate School.

Please see the CJC teaching resource page at www.jou.ufl.edu/home/about/governance/faculty-staff-resources/teaching-resources/. Other useful sites include the UF Center for Teaching Excellence site for teaching assistants (http://teach.ufl.edu/teaching-assistants/) and the UF academic affairs policy site (http://aa.ufl.edu/policies/).

e Dean of Students Office is a great place to start (https://dso.ufl.edu/, especially U Matter We Care (https://umatter.ufl.edu). They have the knowledge and network of resources to help the student. The Counseling and Wellness Center (https://counseling.ufl.edu/) also is available to help with crisis and long-term needs.

You can see your paystubs at my.ufl.edu – log in with your Gatorlink ID, then Main Menu – My Self Service – Payroll and Compensation – View Paycheck.

911 is the U.S. emergency number that will connect you with police, fire and ambulance. UF does have its own police department available at 392-1111 or https://police.ufl.edu/. There is also an emergency alert system in place https://ufalert.ufl.edu/about/ and the GatorSafe app (https://police.ufl.edu/services/community-services/gatorsafe-app/) to keep you informed.

The UF Transportation and Parking website (https://parking.ufl.edu/transit-commuting/snap/) has information regarding all forms of transportation on campus from the SNAP nighttime safety ride to the RTS bus system or Zipcar. You can also sign up for the parking listserv to be notified of lot closures, etc.

The UF International Center provides a short summary regarding taxes at https://internationalcenter.ufl.edu/f-1-student/f-1-processes/taxes.

There are two basic ways the cost to offer a class is covered, either through funding from the state legislature or through the tuition the class generates. State-funded or on-book (on the state’s accounting books) courses are covered by tuition waivers and count toward your required minimum registration. Self-funded or off-book (not on the state’s accounting books) courses cover the cost of the instructor, etc. with the tuition payments generated by the class. Your tuition waiver will not cover self-funded classes nor will they count towards the required registration.

Most courses, including required and core courses, are state-funded. Examples of self-funded courses include certain online courses and courses associated with study-abroad programs. There is no state/self-funded indication on the schedule of courses. If you are unsure, the only way to confirm is to contact the department offering the course.