When to appoint Student Assistant?

When to appoint
Student Assistant, Graduate Assistant, or OPS?

(A PHHP Informational Guide)
(Contact dilena@phhp.ufl.edu with any questions)

We must appoint anyone who is a student (undergraduate or graduate) Student Assistant or Graduate Assistant. Undergraduates must be registered for 6 credit hours; graduate level must be registered 5 credit hours in order to be appointed through Student Employment as a Student Assistant. A student (except Internationals) can petition to exceed the 20 (.50FTE) hours maximum hours usually permitted. He/she may be permitted to work up to 32 hour weekly (or .79 FTE, combined all UF jobs), but their advisor must authorize by signature. The waiver petition can be included in the student assistant appointment packet to the Dean's Office (for forwarding to Student Employment).

When appointing as a Graduate Assistant, if the student's FTE is greater than, or equal to, .25, your department must enter an electronic Letter of Appointment. Students may have 2 concurrent Graduate Assistantships. An electronic Letter of Appointment is entered for each department. Whichever department is not funding the waiver, chooses NO WAIVER in the electronic LOA (MYUFL navigation). It is important to know the funding source of the waiver, please contact the Dean's Office if you have questions/concerns about concurrent assistantships. The combined FTE for both GA appointments may not exceed .74 or the tuition waiver will be negatively impacted. See registration requirements .

When appointing an International students:

may only work up to .50 FTE, combined all UF jobs
may work up to 1.0 FTE during summer and other semester breaks
must be appointed as Student Assistant, EVEN if not registreing for classes
are not required to petition to exceed .50 FTE during semester breaks

Guide to student registration and eligible FTE

Undergraduates - Fall Spring Summer
12+ hours = may work up to 20 hours/weekly
9-11 hours= may work up to 30 hours
6-8 hours = may work up to 31 hours
<6 hours = appoint OPS (unless student is an international)
Students wishng to work more than .20 hours weekly must petition for a waiver through Student Employment

Graduate level - Fall Spring
9 hours = full time
5 or more hours = appoint through Student Employment
4 or less hours = appoint OPS (unless student is an international)
9+ = 20 hours, must petition for a waiver to exceed through Student Employment
7-8 = 30 hours
6 or less = 31 hours

Graduate level- Summer
7-8 hours = may work up to 20 hours
6-7 hours = may work up to 30 hours
4-5 hours = may work up to 31 hours
<4 = appoint OPS (unless student is an international)

Do not appoint any registered student OPS to circumnavigate grant funding restrictions. Use the correct job codes. Most grants pay for Student Assistants or OPS if the job code selected from the EPAF hire form is 001483 (Student Assistant, non clerical) or 001479 (OPS, Non Secretarial). Discuss further with your grant's specialist.

NOTE: CAS errors are created due to incorrect job coding. A department will have to pay back (out of their own pocket) any salary paid to a Student Assistant or OPS incorrectly coded. CAS errors are located during routine audits.

The FICA Alternative requires that we correctly appoint students. Undergraduates and graduates are exempt from FICA. If we appoint someone Student Assistant or Graduate Assistant, FICA will default to "EXEMPT". If we incorrectly appoint students OPS, we cannot choose EXEMPT. OPS defaults to the FICA alternative coding. See FICA Alternative for more information. The OPS FICA coding triggers FICA alternative informational mailing to all OPS appointees. In the case of students, this would be incorrect, confusing, and create retro payroll corrections.

A Pay Rate Justification form is required if compensating student assistants hourly rates exceeding the maximum $14.42/hour rate.