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Policies and Procedures

Revised 05/01/2023

TAs or LTLs with disabilities

If you have a disability and require accommodations to perform your duties as a TA or LTL--for example, adjustments to your teaching schedule or assistive technology while teaching--please contact D. Naughton (dnaughto@purdue.edu) as early as possible.

Students with disabilities

Here are procedures TA or LTL instructors must follow to ensure students with disabilities receive academic adjustments. Procedures are not the same for all courses and may change from semester to semester.  It is your responsibility to read each semester the procedures applicable to the course you teach.

Health insurance and immunizations

All 0.5-time TAs and all students on fellowship or research assistantships are each year automatically offered health insurance through Purdue and are required to go online to either enroll or opt out of the program—see the appropriate insurance link at Purdue Student Health Center. Enrollment is mandatory for international students. The deadline is in early September.  The insurance premiums for TAs who enroll are deducted from their paychecks. Changes to enrollment can only be made within 30 days of a qualifying event. Qualifying events are marriage, divorce, birth, death, dependent entry into US, or involuntary loss of insurance coverage. Please contact the Student Insurance Office if you have questions.

Indiana state law requires that all new, regularly enrolled students attending residential campuses of Indiana public universities be immunized against Rubeola (10 day measles), Rubella (German measles), Mumps, Diphtheria, and Tetanus. Purdue will block the enrollment of any student who does not comply with immunization requirements. If your record is held for immunization noncompliance, registration for future courses cannot be fully processed until the hold is cleared. In addition, international students must be tested for tuberculosis after arriving in the United States. See Purdue's State Immunization Requirements for Enrolled Students.

Purdue ID number (PUID), career account, and ID card

Purdue students receive a Purdue University ID number (PUID) in their admittance packet along with instructions on how to set up a Purdue University career computer account (which gives access to services such as email, computer labs, and cloud storage). Purdue identification cards (Purdue ID Cards) are required for all Purdue students. Graduate students entering Purdue in Fall can apply for a card after August 1 and once they are enrolled for classes by going to the Purdue ID Card Office in Hovde Hall, Room 5. The application requires a PUID and a photo identification. International students must have a completed SEVIS form before applying for a Purdue ID Card.

Office and mailbox policy

TAs and LTL use shared office space—there are usually 3-6 people in each office. Mailboxes are in MATH 835 or floor 4. Your name will appear above your mailbox—several people will normally share a mailbox. Please remove any mail addressed to you from your mailbox every time you check it and put the mail not addressed to you back in the box. If you find several copies of the same document in your mailbox assume one copy is for you—take one and leave the rest. You can access your mailbox from the hallway even when offices are closed.  The combination to the mailbox is available in your mailbox at the start of each semester. (Please note that the location of your mailbox might change from one semester to the next.)

Photocopying and transparencies

TAs should only need to photocopy materials for their classes if they write their own midterm exams or if they have students requiring copies of class materials because of academic adjustments under the ADA. Quiz problems or review problems should be written on the board or on a transparency (which are available in MATH 835 from the drawers near the Main Desk). There are two kinds of transparencies: one to write on and one to use in a photocopier. Do not use the transparencies intended for writing on in a photocopier because they will melt. 

Employment periods, vacations and holidays, and paid parental leave

  1. Except for university holidays (e.g., New Year’s Day, Martin Luther King Jr.) the employment period for graduate student staff in each Fall and Spring semester begins on the Monday before classes start and ends on the Tuesday after Final Exam Week. https://www.purdue.edu/hr/Benefits/holidays.html has a list of holidays. The seven calendar day periods prior to the first day of classes each semester and the periods between the end of classes and the final date for submitting grades (Tuesday after Final Exam Week) are not considered vacation. Graduate student staff members are expected to be in residence during those periods. Other periods when classes are not in session are vacation periods.
  2. Except for university holidays the employment period for Summer semester begins on the Wednesday before the start of classes in the 8-week module and ends on the Tuesday after the 8-week module ends. The Purdue Registrar Calendars webpage has details.
  3. During any semester, including the Summer semester, a graduate staff member must be enrolled as a graduate student in a degree or teacher license program and be registered for at least 3 credit hours of course and/or research work during the entire appointment period. In addition, the Department of Mathematics requires that their PhD students always maintain full-time enrollment. In Fall and Spring full-time enrollment is at least 8 credit hours and in Summer at least 6 credit hours.
  4. Graduate student staff members who are employed half-time or more for a semester or longer are eligible for the single, member-only coverage in the Purdue-subsidized health insurance plan. The spouse of a graduate student staff member is eligible for remission of the non-resident tuition fee.
  5. Graduate student staff members are eligible for several types of leaves of absence with full pay. See https://www.purdue.edu/GRADSCHOOL/documents/funding/publications/graduate-student-employment-manual.pdf for details.
  6. Purdue University has a parental paid leave policy that applies to TAs (both female and male) who become parents through birth or adoption. To know whether you are eligible to such paid leave, please contact D. Naughton at least a month before the start of the semester during which you expect to become a parent.

Grief Attendance Policy for Students (GAPS)

Purdue University has a Grief Attendance Policy for Students (GAPS) which states how many days of excused work students are entitled to for the death of a family member.  Refer to https://www.purdue.edu/studentregulations/regulations_procedures/classes.html for details about your responsibilities as an instructor with regard to the GAPS policy.

Pay scales and tuition remission

TA rank is a number from 0 to 5 that determines TA salary. As you advance in TA rank your semester salary increases. Here are the TA rank criteria effective Fall 2023. A special assignment is an assignment that is not teaching and is not grading. The special assignment must account for more than 10 hours of the 20 hours of TA work. Examples are moderating a homework problem forum for a course or LON-CAPA coding. TA ranks are updated twice a year on July 1 and November 1, approximately. The July 1 update will take effect in Fall semester and the November 1 update will take effect in Spring semester. The course that someone is currently teaching when the TA rank is being updated does not count. One must have completed teaching a course at the time of the TA rank update.

Payments are made biweekly. There are 19 total biweekly payments in Fall (9.5 payments) and Spring (9.5 payments). Dates of biweekly payments in Fall / Spring.

In September after the results of the PhD Qualification Exams and Fall TA screening TA ranks are updated for those students who participated in the screening or exams using the updated data related to PhD Qualification Exams or Fall TA Screening. In February after the results of the PhD Qualification Exams TA ranks are updated for those students who participated in the exams using the updated data related to PhD Qualification Exams.

Pay

 

Rank

Criteria

Academic salary rate (Fall and Spring combined)

0

Did not pass the screening.

$22,500

1

Passed the screening.

$22,900

2

Taught recitation for 2 semesters or had special assignment (non-teaching and non-grading) for 3 semesters.  Made satisfactory academic progress.

$23,300

3

Passed PhD Qualification Exams; ready to teach their own class or had special assignment for five semesters.

$23,700

4

Passed PhD Advanced Topics; taught their own class or had a special assignment for six semesters.

$24,100

5

Currently has TA rank 4 and has either (i) taught own class three times or (ii) won Excellence in Teaching Award or (iii) won Excellence in Service Award.

$24,500

Here are the TA rank criteria and salary steps for non-mathematics graduate students:

Rank

Criteria

Academic salary rate (Fall and Spring combined)

0

Taught for 0 or 1 semesters.

$21,400

1

Taught for 2 or 3 semesters.

$21,600

2

Taught for 4 or 5 semesters.

$21,800

3

Taught for 6 or 7 semesters.

$22,000

4

Taught for 8 or 9 semesters.

$22,200

5

Currently has TA rank 4 and has been nominated automatically for the Excellence in Teaching TA Award.

$22,400

 

TAs are entitled to a fee and tuition remission—this means a portion of your tuition and fee charges are waived by the university. Some Schools charge additional fees that are not waived. The Bursar Office has details. The Department of Mathematics sends remit requests on behalf of all graduate assistants employed by us to the Bursar Office. The Bursar Office normally processes remit requests within 10 business day.

Summer TA support

Summer TA support is not guaranteed for graduate students. Summer TA hiring decisions are made according to the guidelines below.  

The department gives priority to the following groups in the order listed for summer TA offers:

  1. Year 1 not passed Qualifying Exams
  2. Year 1 passed Qualifying Exams
  3. Year 2 not passed Qualifying Exams
  4. Year 2 passed Qualifying Exams
  5. Year 3 and higher

The department makes TA offers to all members of group (1). When that group is exhausted and if it is feasible, the department makes offers to all members of group (2) and so on. Within each group offers are made according to teaching experience and teaching evaluations. Sometimes a job requires specific skills (for example, advanced grading or teaching science and engineering calculus). Hiring decisions in those cases are based on teaching ability and the related specific skills. This means that offers can be made to members of group 5, say, even though not all members of group 4 are hired.

Summer TA pay schedule

Summer 2023 TA employment is from Wednesday, June 7 to Tuesday, August 8 which is 9 weeks. TAs will work for 4.5 biweekly periods: BW13 (partial 80%), BW14, BW15, BW16, BW17 (partial 70%). Note that there are 2 partial payments (BW13 and BW17). The reason for this is that TAs will work 8 of the 10 days of BW13 and 7 of the 10 days of BW17. The first payment for Summer will be on June 28 which is the payment day for BW13. Here is the schedule for Summer TA payments.

Canceling classes you are teaching because of illness or emergency

You do not have the authority to cancel a class meeting even in case of an illness or an emergency. Recitation instructors are always required to try to contact the lecturer first since he or she might want to teach the class. If this is not the case or you teach your own class, the department will try to find someone to substitute for you—some TAs have emergency teaching as part of their regular TA assignment. It is crucial that you inform Shaun Ponder, ponders@purdue.edu (765) 494 3049, Shannon Cassady scassady@purdue.edu or Dominic Naughton dnaughto@purdue.edu as early as possible that you will not be able to teach your class due to an illness or emergency. Be prepared to provide the following information: course number, meeting time and place, and lessons to be covered. Email is preferred—if you do not get an email response try calling until you reach a person.

Under no circumstance are you allowed to require students to attend a class meeting at times different from the regular class time.  Missing a class meeting for which nobody substituted for you or falling behind the course schedule cannot be dealt with in this way. If you do miss a class or are late for one, you must inform D. Naughton immediately. You also need to contact the lecturer or course coordinator. It is fine to schedule a help session for your students in addition to your regular class.

You are required to keep non-emergency absences to a minimum. Try to avoid scheduling non-emergency medical appointments at the same time as your teaching or office hours. If creating such a conflict is unavoidable, you are responsible for finding someone to substitute for you and you must fill out a Switch / Substitution form (available in the Main Office – MATH 835) at least 3 business days in advance.

Handling old midterm and final exams

Many course coordinators or lecturers will collect old exams from instructors at the end of the semester. If you still have midterm or final exams after the semester is over, then you should keep them until the end of the fifth week of classes in the following semester (this is the deadline for a student to submit a grade appeal). After that time you should use the blue disposal bins in the department to dispose of the exams.

Tutoring

It is against departmental regulations to tutor for pay students enrolled in any section of the course you teach or grade. Undergraduate students needing a tutor can obtain a list. International students holding an F or J visa should check with ISS before accepting to tutor for pay.

Discrimination, harassment, and amorous relationships

University policies on discrimination, harassment, and amorous relationships can be found here:
https://www.purdue.edu/faculty_staff_handbook/general_employment/eq_opp.html

You can also find out how to proceed if you believe you have been the victim of discrimination or harassment. It is important to be aware that Purdue University will take incidents of harassment of students by a TA very seriously. Such incidents can lead to dismissal of the TA.

It is against departmental policy for a TA to

  1. date or attempt to date a student enrolled in his or her class;
  2. invite a student (or a group of students) enrolled in his or her class to a party, movie, or social engagement;
  3. accept an invitation to a social engagement from a student (or students) enrolled in his or her class.

These policies apply to a TA and the students enrolled in his or her class and are in place to avoid a conflict of interest or the appearance of a conflict of interest. You are required to inform D. Naughton immediately if you find yourself in a situation with a student which might lead to a conflict of interest or might be perceived as a conflict of interest (e.g., having family members, friends, or acquaintances enrolled as students in your courses).

Department of Mathematics, Purdue University, 150 N. University Street, West Lafayette, IN 47907-2067

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