Guidelines for Reasonable Compensation

All assistantships must be associated with fair and reasonable compensation. This precludes a graduate student from "volunteering" for any extensive service commitments to the academic programs and/or hiring department without an appropriate stipend.  Academic programs and hiring departments may differentiate graduate assistantship stipends by graduate student status (master's-level, doctoral-level, first-year or experienced) or by number of hours of work required by the assistantship. Within academic programs and within each level of differentiation, stipends should generally be equivalent.  Stipends should not include the student's tuition scholarship or any other benefits provided to the student through the assistantship (such as housing). 

• The Graduate School maintains documentation demonstrating that the stipends paid to graduate assistants are reasonable compensation via the GSAS form and SAP/HR records. Therefore, if the graduate assistant is eligible for a tuition scholarship, the scholarship is not counted as taxable income. The stipend amount for an assistantship should be based only on the services performed and should not include a tuition scholarship or a fellowship.
• All graduate assistants should be paid equal to or greater than the amount of reasonable compensation.
• The Graduate School will not provide tuition scholarships to a program or unit if a stipend is not reasonable, and reserves the right to request additional information and documentation.

Note: As of fall 2008, the Graduate School no longer requires hiring departments to complete the Reasonable Compensation form.

Updated July, 2008