Student Academic Appointments

Scope

All graduate students who hold academic appointments. This policy does not apply to part-time employees who happen to be in graduate or undergraduate programs.

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Policy Statement

1. Student appointments must be appropriate to the student’s qualifications and duties assigned. Eligibility requires continuing progress towards a degree. All student appointments are necessarily part-time and temporary.
2. Associate Instructors
   Associate instructors are graduate students who are part-time appointees and who engage in activities typical of a teacher. An Associate Instructor is responsible for assigning grades for at least a portion of a course and has direct contact with students. Typical activities include, but are not necessarily limited to, lecturing, tutoring, and laboratory instruction.
3. Other Student Academic Appointments
   Students may hold positions as Research Assistants, as Graduate Assistants, and as Faculty Assistants.
4. Instructional responsibilities
   1. Student academic appointees with instructional responsibilities shall:
      1. Protect students’ freedom to openly discuss ideas and opinions germane to the class topic and consistent with the class format.
      2. Treat students with respect and fairness, adhere to university non-discrimination policies, and strive to develop among students respect for each other.
      3. Maintain a clear connection between the advance description and the conduct and content of each course presented to ensure efficient subject selection by students.
      4. Clearly state the course goals and inform students of testing and grading procedures, which must be intellectually justifiable and consistent with the policies of the academic unit.
      5. Clearly state the extent to which study aids or assistance from other students or tutors is allowed in class preparation and assignments.
      6. Assure that the evaluation of students’ performance reflects their true achievement, is done without bias, and uses criteria appropriate to the field of study and consistent with university, campus and unit grading policies.
      7. Meet class regularly as scheduled, notify students of class cancellations reasonably in advance, and make up cancelled classes in ways that accommodate students who cannot attend a make-up class scheduled for a time other than the regular time for the class.
      8. Plan and regulate class time to cover the material assigned and minimize discussion of irrelevant matters.
      9. Be available to students prior to the first day of class to discuss the course and for a reasonable amount of time after the end of a course to review a student’s grades and performance.
      10. Announce and keep adequate office hours at times convenient to students, and have a procedure for students to contact the instructor outside of office hours.
      11. Refrain from making irrelevant adverse personal comments about colleagues, other courses, or other units.
      12. SAAs offering remote or online classes shall clearly state class participation expectations and how office hours will be available.
   2. SAAs have a responsibility to foster the intellectual honesty of students, especially in connection with examinations and other graded exercises. Should a SAA determine that cheating, fabrication of data or information, or intentional plagiarism has occurred, the SAA should take appropriate action with respect to grades, and report significant dishonesty to the unit and the student affairs officer of the campus.
5. Consensual relations between student academic appointees and students.
   1. Because student academic appointees (SAAs) exercise power over students when giving them praise or criticism, evaluating them, making recommendations for their further studies or employment, or conferring any other benefits on them, all amorous or sexual relationships between SAAs and students are unacceptable when the SAA has any professional responsibility for the student unless properly disclosed and managed. Such situations increase the chances that the SAA could abuse their power and exploit the student. As a result of the power imbalance, the SAA may explicitly or implicitly make receiving benefits contingent on amorous or sexual favors. See, UA-03, Sexual Misconduct, Discrimination and Harassment.
   2. Moreover, other individuals may be affected by such relationships because they place the SAA in a position to favor or advance one student’s interest at the expense of others. At a minimum, SAA-student relationships can raise questions about potential favoritism.
   3. Therefore, unless properly disclosed and managed, it is a violation of this policy if a SAA engages in an amorous or sexual relationship with a student for whom they have a professional responsibility, including but not limited to instructional, supervisory, evaluative, advisory, counseling or coaching relationships, even when both parties have consented or appear to have consented to the relationship. The violation applies in both instructional and non-instructional contexts.
   4. All SAA-student relationships of an amorous or sexual nature where the SAA has or foreseeably could have a professional responsibility regarding the student must be disclosed according to the procedures outlined below. Failure to disclose an amorous or sexual relationship and/or to comply with the management plan shall be considered a violation of this policy.
   5. The presumption of this policy is that all relationships covered by this policy require disclosure to the respective designee by the SAA. If there is doubt about the potential need for disclosure, the SAA should assume that there is an obligation to disclose.
   6. If a SAA becomes aware that an individual with whom they had an amorous or sexual relationship is or has become a student for whom they have professional responsibility, the SAA should disclose that information even if the relationship is no longer on-going.
   7. Required disclosure procedures
      1. SAA-student amorous or sexual relationships must be disclosed to the individual with responsibility for supervising graduate students in the SAA’s unit. The responsibility to disclose rests with the SAA. The SAA must make this disclosure in written form and it will be placed in their personnel file.
      2. The person to whom the disclosure is made is responsible for developing a specific plan that resolves the conflict and potential for abuse of power and must maintain confidentiality to the fullest extent possible.
      3. At a minimum, the plan must remove the SAA from all future professional responsibility toward the student.

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Definitions

Associate Instructor: A graduate student who is employed as a teacher and engages in activity as a teacher, providing the employee has responsibility for assigning grades for at least a portion of a course and has direct contact with students.

Research Assistant: A graduate student who is engaged in or assists with original, professional-level research.

Graduate Assistant: A graduate student who, in an academic department or in an administrative office, assists in work associated with the duties of faculty members or administrators, such as library searches, curricular development, or paper grading, and who is not an Associate Instructor, Research Assistant, or Faculty Assistant.

Faculty Assistant: A graduate student who holds an academic appointment and performs non-teaching services in an instructional program, where the services are equivalent in importance to those performed by Associate Instructors.

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History

1. Enacted by the UFC, April 11, 1978
2. Minor stylistic changes approved by UFC Exec. Comm., Nov. 11, 2021.
3. Amended to add sections on instructional responsibilities and consensual relationships with students, UFC, December 13, 2022. Thess revisions were reviewed and approved by the University President on March 1, 2023.

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